It’s time to vote

It’s that time of year when the board confirms and renews its members. If you’re a full member of OSI you’ll receive a ballot at the end of this week. 

Members of the OSI have an incredible opportunity to oversee and steer the organization, supporting me and the staff in achieving our mission. The Open Source Initiative is quite unique in the open source communities: We are among the very few organizations that elects in an open process 80% of the board choosing from its members base (the board usually appoints two directors, to add expertise and diversity as necessary.) 

After navigating the transition to the new structure in the past two years, the chair of the board Catharina Maracke and the secretary Aeva Black have renewed their interest in serving again. They’ll have to be confirmed by voters among the other candidates Chris Aniszczyk, Duane O’Brien and Jim Jagielski.

Go read their individual pages and ask them questions ASAP: You’ll soon have to decide who to vote for and your choice will shape the next board. It’s important that candidates and voters seriously consider the role of a board member and the time commitment required. Leadership roles and meaningful committee engagement may demand additional time.

 Discuss OSI elections and other topics during OSI’s informal office hours on Fridays. 

Stefano Maffulli
Executive Director, OSI 

Note: If you also represent an Affiliate organization, you’ll receive two ballots and separate instructions to vote for the board member that will take the one seat available for Affiliates.

In this month’s Open Source Initiative’s Newsletter

• Why Open Source should be exempt from Standard-Essential Patents
• ClearlyDefined gets a new community manager with a vision toward the future
• Deep Dive: AI, Fathom III – The Final Report
• Predictions in Open Source: Security, Mature Strategies, COSO, AI/ML
• What’s next for OSI’s website
• Open Source Initiative joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance
• The ultimate list of reactions to the Cyber Resilience Act
• The 2023 State of Open Source Report confirms security as top issue
• The License Review working group asks for community input on its recommendations
• Notable open source news
• New and renewing sponsors announcements

Why Open Source should be exempt from Standard-Essential Patents

With the European Commission soon to offer the Parliament a bill relating to Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs), it is worth taking time to understand exactly why vendors requiring negotiations to use the patents they have embedded in “open” standards is antithetical to Open Source practice. Read more from OSI Standards & EU Policy Director Simon Phipps. 

ClearlyDefined gets a new community manager with a vision toward the future

ClearlyDefined has a new community manager! Nick Vidal has joined the project hosted by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) that helps Open Source projects thrive by putting essential licensing data at teams’ fingertips. Vidal comes with 20 years of experience developing Open Source communities and will lead ClearlyDefined to its next phase.

Deep Dive: AI final report is out!

Read the complete summary of the Deep Dive: AI podcasts and panels. Understand the challenges and opportunities for Open Source communities posed by machine learning.

Predictions in Open Source: Security, Mature Strategies, COSO, AI/ML

OSI Executive Director Stefano Maffulli joined Javier Perez and Rod Cope of Perforce in a webinar entitled Open Source Trends to Watch in 2023 where they reviewed their 2022 predictions and laid out some new ones for 2023.

What’s next for OSI’s website

The Open Source Initiative moved the website on a new platform, a baby step to improving the list of Approved Licenses. This is a weird announcement as weird was the journey that took us to this point. Stefano Maffulli explains how this is just a milestone for more changes to come.

Open Source Initiative joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance

OSI to contribute to Digital Public Goods Alliance’s mission to address world’s most pressing economic challenges by furthering adoption of Open Source software. The announcement was made as part of the opening keynote at the Free and Open Source Developers Meeting (FOSDEM) and celebration of OSI’s 25 year anniversary.

The ultimate list of reactions to the Cyber Resilience Act

The European Commission’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) as drafted may harm Open Source, and perhaps all other non-industrial software.

There were 131 responses to the proposed text that the Commission has sent to the Parliament, including one from the Open Source Initiative. Of those, 18 responses – representing a significant proportion of Europe’s software industry – shared OSI’s concerns to some degree. Here are some sample points from the responses.

The 2023 State of Open Source Report confirms security as top issue

For the second year in a row, the Open Source Initiative and OpenLogic by Perforce collaborated to launch a global survey about the use of Open Source software in organizations. We drew hundreds of responses from all over the world, and once again, the results are illustrative of the Open Source space as a whole, including use, adoption, challenges, and the level of investment and maturity in Open Source software.

The License Review working group asks for community input on its recommendations

Some time ago the Open Source Initiative formed a working group to examine and improve the license review process. The OSI has a parallel undertaking investigating how to improve the tooling that will be used for the license review process and also how to best serve the public in the ways we provide information about Open Source licenses. Although the tooling project and the work of the License Review Working Group are intertwined, the conclusions of the License Review Working Group are focused on the requirements and policy that will inform the tooling project, but do not include the tooling project itself.

OSI in the news

• The Open Source Initiative improves its licensing rules. The OSI is making the approval process for new open-source licenses clearer and easier.
• What Is the Cyber Resilience Act and Why It’s Important for Open Source. The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is a proposal for a European law that aims to drive the safety and integrity of software of all kinds, and it may harm Open Source.
• Open-source software sees growth across the board. As the use of open-source software (OSS) continues its year-over-year growth, the biggest area for innovation and open-source adoption is now AI.

And a huge shoutout to all of our renewing sponsors!

Maintainer

• Salesforce

Partner

• CrowdSec
• Rocket.Chat

Are you interested in sponsoring or partnering with the OSI? Contact us to find out more about how your organization can promote open source development, communities and software.