The OSI board expands, adding two new seats; focus on AI and international policies

At the August board meeting, the OSI board voted to add two new appointed seats, and at the December board meeting named Professor Sayeed Choudhury and Gaël Blondelle as new board members.

The expansion of the board was voted upon to give greater operational stability and continuity to the organization. The rationale for this decision is explained in further detail in the August 2023 board meeting minutes. The new composition of the board is:

• four directors elected among individual members (seated for two years), 
• four directors elected among representatives of Affiliate organizations (seated for three years), and
• four directors (previously two) appointed by the board (seated for three years).

All four board-appointed seats are carefully selected by the board based on the strategic priorities of the OSI. Professor Sayeed Choudhury and Gaël Blondelle were chosen to fill the two new board seats because of their expertise in areas that will be most relevant to the OSI in coming years: AI and international policies.

The skills and contacts Sayeed and Gaël bring to the board will serve the OSI’s mission and goals moving forward. The two new board members will also be instrumental in the fundraising efforts of the organization with their deep networks of corporate donors and grant givers.

Sayeed Choudhury

Sayeed Choudhury is the associate dean for digital infrastructure and director of the Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) at Carnegie Mellon University. He started the first OSPO based at a US university while at Johns Hopkins University. He is the director of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for coordination of University OSPOs and a co-investigator for the Black Beyond Data Project. He is the software task force leader and member of the steering committee for the Research Data Alliance (RDA) – US. Choudhury was a President Obama appointee to the National Museum and Library Services board. He has testified for the Research Subcommittee of the Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

“The Open Source Initiative plays an important role in the Open Source ecosystem from a community, legal and policy perspective,” said Choudhury. “Carnegie Mellon University has recently launched two initiatives that focus on impact from Open Source software — Ecosystem for Next Generation Infrastructure (ENGIN) and Open Forum for AI (OFAI). I look forward to partnering with the OSI board and working with the OSI membership on these initiatives and other programs being advanced by the OSI.”

Gaël Blondelle 

Gaël Blondelle joined the Eclipse Foundation in 2013 and now serves as chief membership officer. He has been involved in the Open Source arena for more than 18 years in a number of key roles. Blondelle co-founded an Open Source start-up and worked as its chief technology officer. He then worked in business development for an Open Source systems integration company and managed a strategic research project aiming to create an Open Source ecosystem with major industrial players. Blondelle joined the Eclipse Foundation to pursue his goal of helping more companies work in Open Source, and to grow open, innovative and collaborative ecosystems.

“I am honored to join the OSI board, and look forward to helping the OSI onboard more sponsors and affiliates globally,” said Blondelle. “The work being done on the Open Source AI Definition is fantastic and we need an organization like the OSI to stand for Open Source AI in an elaborated and well articulated way. At the same time, we also need to stand for the Open Source Definition (OSD) that is regularly under attack from different sides. The OSD has enabled the development of Open Source technologies over the last 25 years, and we need to make sure this continues.”

Please join us in welcoming these two new board members to the OSI!