The survey, which will gather insights and identify trends on the adoption and challenges of using open source technologies, is now live and is open to all industry professionals working with open source software in their organizations. 

Open source software plays a prominent role in most organizations’ software infrastructure and applications. The building blocks of today’s software development and operation are all based on open source software, and the rapid growth and adoption of open source software means organizations need to stay current with trends and challenges in using today’s most popular open source technologies.

In the 2022 State of Open Source Survey, OpenLogic and OSI will gather information about the use of open source software, the level of open source maturity and strategy within organizations, and the larger trends shaping the open source ecosystem.

To all OSI members, collaborators, users, and contributors to open source, we invite you to share your perspective in this important under 10-minute survey. There will be one lucky winner receiving a $200 gift card for completing the survey. The closing date for the survey responses and prize draw entries is January 7th 2022. The results from the survey will be published in the 2022 State of Open Source report at the end of January 2022.

Get Ready!

Javier Perez

Chief OSS Evangelist

OpenLogic by Perforce

At OSI, we love open source software and open source communities— and so we protect them.

For over 20 years the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has worked to raise awareness and adoption of open source software and build bridges between open source communities of practice. As a global non-profit, our membership champions software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition (OSD), and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement.

I hope you are reading this today because you agree with those ideals. Here is your task (two, really): no superhero or demigod powers are required.

First, join the OSI

Or renew your membership during our 2021 Membership Drive. Being an OSI member is a great way to directly support the mission of OSI while becoming more involved in open source community development and advocacy. You aren’t just helping one open source project—you’re helping all open source projects! 

We have 2 individual levels of participation to choose from:

1. Full Membership – For $40 per year, you support the OSI programs that define standards for open source definitions across different licensing models. You also have voting privileges that allow you to shape those programs in achieving the OSI mission.

2. NEW Free Limited Membership – Not everyone can provide financial support, but we want your participation, too! Voting privileges are not included at this level, but you do receive the cool digital member badge to show your support of OSI. The Member badge is built uniquely for each member: after you sign up, a script generates a SVG file based on your name. Check the Membership Drive page for more details.

Of course, Affiliate Memberships and Corporate Sponsorships are also available. Contact us at sponsors@opensource.org to find out more about how your organization can promote open source development, communities and software.

Second, help us reach our goal

We’d love to sign up 300 new and renewing members in 30 days! Share this message with your friends, family and colleagues, and encourage them to sign up as well. 

Join the OSI during our Fall Membership Campaign, and show your support by providing the resources to defend #opensource licensing: https://t.co/RmzzEytguK

— OpenSourceInitiative (@OpenSourceOrg) November 21, 2021

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:6868339996278054912

That’s it: two simple but impactful ways that you show your support for open source.

Thank you for your support of OSI. Only with a strong and active member base can we continue in our role as the internationally recognized nexus of trust, the foundation for, and authority in open source software. So, join today and share your support of open source software on your favorite social networks.

OpenProject

Free and open source project management software.

• OpenProject, released a new integration into GitHub. With the integration of GitHub into OpenProject, any developer or stakeholder can see the overall status of the software development, from project timing, requirements specification, down to the respective pull requests being worked on.
• When working and collaborating online, your data is potentially exposed to the software provider and its data privacy regulations. Be wise and include these criteria in the decision-making process for a software to avoid data breaches.

JOOMLA (Open Source Matters)
A free and open source, mobile-ready and user-friendly way to build your website

• Joomla 4.0 and Joomla 3.10 are here! After 9 years of hard work by our volunteers, we are proud to announce the release of our new major version, Joomla 4.0, alongside Joomla 3.10, known as “the bridge”. Joomla enables website creators to create powerful websites, where maintaining its content is easy and seamless. Build a beautiful, scalable website that will grow with your business.

KDE

25 Years of Bringing Free Software to the People

• Within the FLOSS community, KDE is probably best known for its powerful and versatile Plasma desktop environment. Outside the Open Source bubble, KDE is known for its world-class apps, from creativity-boosting programs for artists and filmmakers, to educational software used by millions for children, as well as a never-ending stream of frameworks, IDEs and utilities that provide devs worldwide with the means to create applications for any platform.

OpenInfra Foundation

An open source foundation supporting a global community to build and operate open infrastructure software

• Join us for OpenInfra Live: Keynotes, a two day special edition of OpenInfra Live for you to meet the newest players to the open infrastructure space, interact with leaders of open source projects like OpenStack and Kubernetes to hear how the projects are supporting OpenInfra use cases like hybrid cloud, gain insight into public cloud economics and the role open source technologies play, and celebrate as we announce this year’s Superuser Awards winner. This will be the one time everyone will be coming together this year. Come interact with the global OpenInfra community—Live on November 17 – 18 at 9am CT/1500 UTC!

OpenForum Europe

A not-for-profit, Brussels-based independent think tank which explains the merits of openeness in computing across Europe

• The European Commission just published a landmark study on the impact of Open Source on the European economy (which was conducted together with Fraunhofer ISI). The study recommends setting up Open Source Program Offices in European governments and providing more official funding towards OS. It found that if there was a 10% increase in OS contributions in the EU, the region would see additional €100 billion in its yearly GDP.

Brandeis GPS

Graduate Professional Studies offering fully online open source microcourses

• Take part in a micro-course at Brandeis University and join your fellow peers and collaborators in a program endorsed by the OSI. The Open Source Technology Management program consists of six non-credit four-week micro-courses that can be accessed in any order with a seamless path to collect digital badges, earn a full-program certificate and the option to earn graduate-level credit. The next micro-course, Establish an Open Source Program Office, starts on October 18. To learn more, please visit their website or contact the Brandeis corporate team at partnerships@brandeis.edu.

The Xerte Project

Provide high quality free software to educators all over the world

• The Xerte Project is delighted to announce the release of Xerte v3.10, with a heap of new features and enhancements. See the release notes, download from https://xerte.org.uk. The recordings from our Xerte21 event are available here. Xerte is used by thousands of tutors around the world, and the content they create reaches millions of learners.

Open Research Institute

Non-profit research and development organization, provides their work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research

• Open Research Institute, Inc. is the co-host of the upcoming IEEE Information Theory Chapter Event “Space and Satellite Symposium – The Role of Information Theory in Space with Special Emphasis on Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite” to be held 30 October 2021 8am-12pm US Pacific. The event features open source and open access work in the space and satellite field. Register for free and if you are interested in presenting, please read through the call for participation.
• On 2 September, 2021, Open Research Institute, received an advisory opinion from US Commerce Department BIS.The letter confirmed that posting information on the internet so that it is available to the public means that open source amateur satellite communications work is not subject to the Export Administration Regulation (EAR). Michelle Thompson, ORI CEO, highlighted the value of the work for the amateur radio satellite service and also placed the results in a broader context. “This is a significant regulatory success for open source amateur satellite work and open source in general.”
• All documents and links to presentations about the work are freely available on github. Ms. Thompson continued with appreciation for the team. “Thank you to those who have supported and assisted ORI during the many stages of this successful regulatory endeavor. Making a successful argument requires competence, persistence, and patience. ORI will build upon this work moving forward in order to advance the aims and purposes of open source amateur radio work.”

Drupal

Free and open-source web content management system

• The Drupal Core Contribution Coordinators, supported by the Drupal Association, are holding their first Mentor Summit, to help train more mentors introducing contribution to Drupal, on 17th September. More details.
• DrupalCon Europe 2021 has just released its schedule for the event, taking place 4-7th October online. See the full schedule.

TODO Group

An open group of organizations who want to collaborate on practices, tools, and other ways to run successful and effective open source projects

• The TODO group is proud to announce OSPOlogy: A set of OSPO resources made up of monthly meetings, OSPO news, and open discussions with the aim to study the status of Open Source Program Offices.
• OSPOCon Europe is happening on October 6th in London, UK.
• OSPOCon is happening September 27th – 29th in Seattle, Washington and Virtual

CAVO

Mission to develop and make available open voting systems for use in public elections

• California Association of Voting Officials applauds Mississippi for breaking ground on open source voting.

TikiWiki

Free and open source Wiki-based content management system and online office suite

• Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware 23.0 was released.This release includes more than 500 contributions from 28 community developers.
• Open Source Web Monetization with Tiki: Final report for Grant for the Web (GftW), a $100M fund to boost open, fair, and inclusive standards and innovation in Web Monetization.

Breathing Games

Community of heath care professionals and open source developers collaborating to transform breathing therapy into games

• Global crises, democratic solutions—within days. Using Internet to empower citizens, reach popular consensus, and ensure democratic decision-making. Zenodo preprint.
• Research questions and methodologies: why science is always political​.

Sysarmy

Provides comprehensive cybersecurity solutions

• OSI affiliate sysarmy is organizing the 8th edition of nerdear.la, our yearly conference for nerds in Latin America. Last year’s event included 30,000 people registering to 130+ talks and workshops entirely for free and featured keynotes from legends such as Alan Kay, Brian Kernighan and Jon “Maddog” Hall.
  This year’s event (Oct 20-23) will have over 150+ sessions and workshops and will have even more legendary keynote speakers. More information on Nerdear.la official website.

OpenUK

Represents the business of Open in the UK

• OpenUK Kids Camp is back for a second year and this year has made 5000 OpenUK Gloves inspired by MiMu, making an open source based sustainable glove. 3800 gloves are available to individuals, schools and community groups, and 1200 are complete with microbit two and reserved for digitally excluded young people to help break down the digital divide. The second OpenUK Kids Camp will begin on 4 October and each Episode has been inspired by one of the 10 Open Source Definitions and additionally teaches coding in Make Code, Python and Java. Each Lesson is accompanied by an ezine to support the learning with educational content on individuals working in open source, Foundations, open data, belonging and sustainability. The content is all creative commons and free to use. Order a glove if you are in the UK or take a look at the Camp content from last year, and this year’s as it is shared at openuk.uk/openkidscamp #openkidscamp.
• The third and final phase of OpenUK’s report which established the UK’s leading position in open source software, as number one in Europe with up to 43.15bn per annum in contribtuion to GDP in phase one, then shared the output of a survey demonstrating 89% of UK businesses run open source software, will look at the Values of open source in the UK and be shared on 13 October. You can see Phases one and two at openuk.uk/stateofopen
• OpenUK will be hosting the Open Technology for Sustainability Day at the Skypark Fringe within the Security Cordon at COP26 on 11 November. The event will be for circa 200 in person delegates and content will be shared in two tracks across two domes, with the main dome content being live streamed. Booking details and the agenda for the day will be shared at openuk.uk/sustainability in early October. The event will be keynoted by the Hon Francis Maude, Lord Maude of Horsham, the instigator of GDS and the UK’s world leading policies on open source in the public sector, which have been replicated across the globe and is sponsored by Red Hat who will lead a session on collaboration. OpenUK’s Award presentation will be conducted in the evening from the stage at COP26 in a hybrid ceremony with 100 face to face attendees and 150 digital attendees. 

PALO ALTO, Calif. – May 20, 2019 – The Open Source Initiative ® (OSI), the global organization working to promote and protect open source, is excited to announce the Affiliate Membership of the Software Liberty Association Taiwan (SLAT). Founded in 2001, SLAT is Taiwan’s first legal entity dedicated to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), supporting both the development and user communities.  As an active community of advocates and technologists, SLAT both drives initiatives, and partners with existing projects, to promote FOSS, including the Open Source Software Application Consulting Center—a program fostering FOSS in Taiwan’s schools.  

Critical to both the OSI’s and open source projects’ success is, as stated in the OSI mission, “building bridges between communities.” Both the OSI and SLAT believe those organizations serving Free and Open Source Software communities should seek out ways to support each other—SLAT’s Affiliate Membership is an excellent example of such collaboration.

“We’re thrilled to have SLAT join us in our work to advance Open Source Software and foster open source development,” said Patrick Masson, OSI General Manager. ”SLAT is already doing amazing work throughout Asia, and I hope we can compliment their efforts, and even help expand their good work through other OSI Affiliates. Open Source Software is a world-wide phenomena, so the OSI must commit to working globally.”

“We found a blue ocean in the world of FOSS,” said Franklin Weng,  former SLAT president and current executive director. “Many  educational applications simply aren’t profitable enough for proprietary vendors to invest in  however are vital to students and schools . FOSS plays a critical role in educational software: programs like Kanagram, Geogebra, GCompris, Kalzium, Stellarium, and Kmplot, covering all kinds of subjects, and making education accessible.  Everyone, every kid, no matter rich or not, elite or not, they all can use these resources in their learning.”

In  2015, SLAT launched the Software Liberation Movement, The goal, “explain to people that they have the freedom to choose whatever software tools they need according to their real-world requirements,” explained Weng. “We, the users,  should be the ones who determine which tools we use for achieving our goals. However in reality, most people are bound by limitations or restrictions inherent to proprietary software.  We’d like to make people aware that they have many choices, and Open Source Software should be like that of ‘public infrastructure’ in the physical world—just like buses, trains, accessibility facilities, etc. The value of public infrastructures lies not in how many people are using them, but in the fact that they exist when people have such requirements.”

Most recently SLAT has begun promotion of “Public Money Public Code“ in Taiwan. Such policies require that publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. “If it is public money, it should be public code as well.”  Again Weng, “OSI and SLAT are both committed to educating people about open source — its spirit and value. The OSI reviews and certifies open source licenses, which we think is very important, clearly identifying what is open source. It’s very important developers in Taiwan use OSI approved open source licenses. We’re very happy to join OSI as an Affiliate Member to, together, support  initiatives like the Software Liberation Movement, and Public Money Public Code.”

The OSI Affiliate Member Program is available at no-cost to nonprofits, educational institutions, and government agencies that support the OSI’s mission to promote and protect open source software. As the steward of the Open Source Definition certifying Open Source Software Licenses, by establishing such certification as the standard for open source software development and distribution, and with the support of our Affiliate Membership, the OSI has become a cornerstone of software freedom.

About Software Liberty Association Taiwan
Founded on April 8, 2001, the Software Liberty Association (SLAT) is dedicated to serving the free and open source community, promoting free software and open source applications to promote community growth.To learn more about SLAT, visit: https://slat.org/

About The Open Source Initiative
Founded in 1998, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) protects and promotes open source software, development and communities, championing software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition, and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement. The OSI is a public charity with global vision based in California. For more information about the OSI, please see https://opensource.org .

Mike Milinkovich at Eclipse Summit India
Mike will be in Bangalore for this event from August 25-27th. In is presentation, he’ll discuss Open IoT. Amongst other topics, Mike will examine business models for IoT devices and how proprietary models in this space will fail.

Leslie Hawthorn at OpenSym & FrOSCon
Leslie will Keynote the OpenSym Conference in Berlin, which takes place August 17-19th. Her talk focuses on sustainable open source development, such as best practices for corporations engaging with open source projects. She’ll also talk a bit about the OSI’s Beyond Licensing Working Group, including how to get involved with the project.

Leslie will also Keynote the FrOSCon Conference on August 21st, exploring ways in which open source projects can fail to meet their user’s needs. Titled I am your user, why do you hate me?, the talk covers the human elements of software development. The FrOSCon Conference runs all weekend in Sankt Augustin, Germany.

Upcoming Talks in September

We’ll see you next month with an update about talks from current and former board members, plus OSI member talks on open source topics. Remember to get in touch!

His unexpected and sudden death is an untimely loss to the software freedom movement and OSI extends its deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

Since we made this change, we’ve made great progress. We have many Affiliates, multiple Corporate Sponsors and a substantial number of individual members. We have been able to hire a full-time General Manager, which has resulted in a steady stream of improvements, most visibly regular newsletters but also to infrastructure, Board facilitation and organisational effectiveness. That’s led to new work, including being able to act as the fiscal sponsor for [OpenHatch][OH], backing the development of [a higher-education curriculum][FLOW] and hosting a cross-community group to help open source entities gain US non-profit status.

As part of these changes, OSI introduced term limits for Board membership so that vacancies for new Directors would open that could be filled by representatives of the new membership. The people who made this wise and bold decision have mostly left the Board now, and I will leave the Board next April as well. In the light of that and with the support of the Board, I decided not to offer myself for re-election as President this year, so there would be space for a new leader to be appointed while I am still a Director.

As a result, the Board unanimously elected [Allison Randal][WP] as its new President yesterday. She is a fantastic choice, with long experience at the heart of the free and open source movement as well as in the business use of open source at all scales. She’s been chairing the ongoing in-person Board meeting and continuing the move towards an OSI that enables people to make things better in open source as well as stewarding licenses.

With Allison at the helm, OSI will continue to get better and better and I encourage you to join now as [an individual][Join], to [affiliate your community][Aff] and to persuade your company to [become a sponsor][Corp]. The things we have been discussing today at the Board meeting are very exciting and you will want to be part of them!

___________


[Join]: http://opensource.org/join
[Aff]: http://opensource.org/affiliates
[Corp]: http://opensource.org/support
[FLOW]: http://wiki.opensource.org/bin/Projects/flow-syllabus
[OH]: https://openhatch.org/
[WP]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_Randal

And you should be, too.

Full disclosure: I sit on the Board of the Open Source Initiative and am running for reelection in 2015. My board seat is a volunteer position and I receive no financial compensation for this work.

For the first time ever, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) is running a membership drive to recruit more individual members. The goal is to recruit 2,398 new members, with that number chosen in homage to the organization’s founding date on February 3, 1998. As an individual member of the OSI, you receive a number of benefits for joining:

• Direct participation in the OSI’s governance through voting for Individual Members board seats and/or standing for election yourself
• Free three months subscription to Linux Voice Magazine, with access to back-issues (electronic version)
• 20% off registration fees for O’Reilly’s OSCON
• 10% off registration for Linux Foundation convened events, such as LinuxCon, CloudOpen or ApacheCon
• A nifty membership card

While the benefits you receive for your 40 USD annual membership dues are pretty great, they’re not the only reasons to support the OSI by becoming a member today. (I’d say there not even the best reasons to become a member, but I’m a big fan of participatory democracy so I’m hesitant to say the first bullet above isn’t the best reason to join. )

By joining the OSI as an Individual Member, your voice and membership dollars are put to good use in the service of the OSI’s mission: to promote and protect open source software. The OSI accomplishes its mission in a number of ways:

• Providing an incubator framework and set of collaboration tools for various working groups, such as the newly launched group to work with crowdfunding sites to ensure claims that products are open source are accurate and the creation of a curated content library for professionals who need to learn about open source software.
• Raising awareness of the good works of our individual and affiliate members through our blog, social media and our monthly newsletter.
• Building bridges between communities who can benefit from open source software, e.g. convening the Open Communities Reception at EDUCAUSE 2014, along with OSI Affiliate Member The Apereo Foundation. (For those who are not familiar with it, EDUCAUSE is the largest conference worldwide on the subject of IT and higher education.)
• Educating the public at large about open source software through contact with the media, in-person events and curated content.
• Reviewing and/or approving new open source software licenses.

With your help as an Individual Member, the OSI can not only continue to execute on these strategic initiatives, we can also break new ground on additional projects, such as giving http://opensource.org a much needed overhaul. Even more importantly, with each new member joining us, the power of our support and promotion of open source software becomes ever stronger.

I hope you will join us today and participate in our upcoming election for Board of Director Individual Members.

Joining takes less than 5 minutes and just 40 USD. You can become a member for one year or have your membership fees renewed automatically each year.

Please support the OSI now!

Published by Reset The Net on 30 April 2014

We get this a lot. There are a million answers (our favorite short one is “Nothing to hide? Really?”) but here’s something thoughtful and comprehensive to share with a friend the next time it comes up. The short version? None of the freedom and progress we’ve won over the past century would have been possible without the freedom to change things (starting with our own lives first) that privacy gives us.

Imagine a world where you were constantly being judged by everyone around you, suffering immediately, or years down the road, for anything you did or said that was unusual, unpopular, or against the rules. In that kind of world, social and economic progress grinds to a halt, because everyone’s afraid to rock the boat!

Social progress

Gay rights. Interracial marriage. Medical marijuana. None of these would exist now if people were unable to break the rules in the privacy of their own home, building momentum and legitimacy until they could show the world what change looked like, that it wasn’t so scary, and that it could make the world a better place.

We owe massive amounts of social and economic progress to privacy. Think about it. Don’t take it for granted.

Liberty & even beer

Think about the prohibition of alcohol that took hold in the 1920s. Prohibition crumbled because people defied it, raising the social cost of enforcement. If prohibition had been 100% enforceable due to mass surveillance, it would have been much harder to get rid of.

You probably wouldn’t even be able to drink alcohol in the US, if people couldn’t privately defy prohibition. Remember that, the next time you crack open a cold beer on a hot day.

A ticking time bomb

The NSA’s current capability extends beyond privacy invasion. Right now, the NSA’s access give it the power to secretly undermine the work of journalists and elected leaders around the globe, intimidating sources and tipping elections. The NSA abuses this secrecy to undermine the systems (like Congressional oversight) meant to keep it in check. It’s hard to imagine something someone with the power Edward Snowden had couldn’t do in total secrecy. This capability to subvert democratic systems is a timebomb, waiting to go off.

And it will, if we let it continue to exist.

The worst part? When the NSA does subvert our democratic institutions, we might not even know it happened until it’s already too late.

So the next time you hear somebody say “I’ve got nothing to hide,” send them this.