Brief presentation to the DC Metro Open Source Community Summit on May 10, 2013.

1. The Evolution Starts Now
Deb Bryant
Board Director
Open Source Initiative
Presented to the
Open Source
Community Summit
May 10, 2013

2. OSI’s Starting Point
•OSI founded 1998 by key figures in free and
open source software
•Steward of the Open Source Definition
•Making open source licenses simpler for
developers and businesses
www.opensource.org

3. Context
• Ten Board Members
• Infrastructure = 4 board + 3 volunteers
• No staff
• funding approx. $25k per annum
through 2012

4. Day to Day
Kindly manage...
• global help desk for disenfranchised
software downloaders (answering all
email even if misdirected)
• requests to participate in surveys/
studies/class papers exceed capacity

5. Day to Day
Responsive to OSI Public Facing List:
• Requests for resources, contacts, project
info, speakers
• Public input for content amendments
• Trademark and Legal alerts
• General List Moderation

6. Month to Month
• Board legal & fiscal
• Represent OSI community interests
• Membership outreach

7. Missed Opportunities
• Documentation & other valuable
educational content are in short supply
on site
Over 10 million unique visits to opensource.org
less than 15% return

8. The OSI Mission: More than Licenses
"to educate about and advocate for the
benefits of open source and to build
bridges among different constituencies
in the open source community.”
Best achieved through broader participation
and membership engagement

9. • OSI to date has been a Board-only entity
• Moving to a member-led governance
• Members will:
– decide how OSI should operate
– build education initiatives
• – use OSI as a policy venue
– co-ordinate locally and globally over initiatives
• Board will:
– Facilitate these actions with the lightest touch –
Represent Members and be elected by them – Prevent
regulatory capture and strategy drift
Evolution

10. OSI Membership Programs
Give Voice to a World of Stakeholders
• Affiliate Members
Non Profit Organizations with a shared
interest and support for free software
• Individual Members
Free Software enthusiasts who want to
show their support Free Software
• Corporate Members
A future program to allow commercial
interest a balanced opportunity to support
free software (winter 2012)
New

11. OSI Membership Programs
Give Voice to a World of Stakeholders
• Affiliate Members
Non Profit Organizations with a shared
interest and support for free software
• Individual Members
Free Software enthusiasts who want to
show their support Free Software
• Corporate Donors
2013: Companies Step Up & Contribute
>
Corporate
feedback;
support
without
governance
role

12. Individual Membership







opensource.org/join
licensed to drive & resource priorities

13. Board of Directors
Individual
Member
Election
July 2013
OSI board of directors
May 8, 2013
Google Offices, Washington,
D.C.

14. OSI Affiliates

15. More Education
May 9
Open Source
License Clinic
Library of
Congress
Executive Panel
IDA, CENDI,
OSI, Red Hat,
Eclipse
Foundation

16. Education Gap
• Study
scanned 28%
of github
repository
• Only 14.9%
identified
license in top
level
directory
• 28% buried
license data
in “readme”
file
• “GPL - but
for non-
commercial
use only"
Source:
Aaron Williamson,
comments 4.18.3013

17. Why Not?

18. Send Reinforcements
• Will hire first employee by July of 2013
• General manager with a first priority to our
membership needs

19. Demystifying Licensing
Everything
should be
made as
simple as
possible, but
not simpler.
Albert Einstein
potential project parters

20. Brazil
Germany
!Italy
!India
!Japan
!Malaysia
!Spain
!Sweden
!Venezuela
Government-Funded Centers
also known as
“Competency Centers” Why not US?

21. Thanks!
Deb Bryant
Open Source Initiative
Open Source
Community Summit
May 10, 2013

22. More
information?
Deborah Bryant
debbryant@opensource.org
opensource.org
Mark Prutsalis of
Sahana Foundation at
First International Crisis Congress
Washington, D.C. USA

23. • Additional Resources & references
• OSI web site http://opensource.org
• GitHub License Study:
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/
github_licensing_study/
• License choosers:
• http://www.tldrlegal.com/
• http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/apps/licdiff/

24. Unconference!
session pitches
Open Source
Community Summit
May 10, 2013