Friday, February 6th, 2009 (face-to-face)

OSI Board Face to Face Meeting
Brussels, Belgium
Day 2: February 6, 2009

Meeting start time: 09:00 local time. Meeting called to order at 09:30 local time. Quorum at 09:30 local time.

Meeting Venue

Scotland House
Rond Point Schuman 6 - 8th floor
Brussels 1040 BE

Attendees

Board Members

1. Mr. Michael Tiemann, President
2. Ms. Danese Cooper, Secretary and Treasurer
3. Mr. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Director
4. Mr. Harshad Gune, Director
5. Mr. Russell Nelson, Director
6. Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma, Director
7. Mr. Martin Michlmayr, Director
8. Ms. Alolita Sharma, Director
9. Mr. Bruno Souza, Director

Board Observers and Guests

1. Mr. Andrew Oliver, Board Observer
2. Mr. Simon Phipps, Invited Guest

Expected, but Not Present

None.

Sent regrets

1. Mr. Ken Coar, Director
2. Mr. Bdale Garbee, Board Observer
3. Mr. Zak Greant, Board Observer
4. Mr. Ernest Prabhakar, Board Observer
5. Mr. Mark Radcliffe, General Counsel
6. Mr. Merrill Freund (Schwartz Communications)
7. Mr. Karl Fogel, Invited Guest

Agenda

0900: Meeting starts
0900 - 1000: OSI Goals (Mr. Tiemann)
1000 - 1100: OSI Goals contd.
1100 - 1200: Outreach initiatives for 2009 (Education, Press, Conferences)
1200 - 1300: Affiliate Program Discussion (with Mr. Phipps)
1300 - 1400: Lunch - ED discussion (Ms. Cooper)
1400 - 1430: Bridging the Gap: How to promote discussions between FSF & OSI to create a public perception of merging the two concepts (Mr. Souza)
1430 - 1500: Walk to EC meeting
1500 - 1600: Meeting with EC
1600 - 1630: Walk back to Scotland House
1630 - 1730: Discussion/Preparation for Public Meetings at FOSDEM

Detail

1. OSI Goals (Mr. Tiemann)
   
   Mr. Tiemann started the discussion on OSI's goals for 2009. These goals include:
   1. Open Source Policy and economic development
   2. Education
   3. Licensing (including proliferation control)
   4. Community outreach
   5. Governance of organization
   
   Open Source Policy and economic development: Governments across the world are evaluating and using open source software and techniques. The OSI works with governments on policy helping develop opportunities on the ground for open source. An healthy affiliate program would also help promote this mandate.
   
   Education: Sub projects on open source in education in colleges and universities, K-12, business and best practices, as well as developing curricula are areas where the OSI can help.
   
   Licensing: The OSI is most active in this area today. To promote the open source effect in this area of licensing, the licensing committee could:
   
   1. Renew licenses every year
   2. Publish and enforce a license retirement policy
   3. Publish guidelines for users to select an open source license for their source code.
   4. Provide literal language translations of approved licenses
   
   Community outreach: This is another area where the OSI can be very effective. Ms. Nwakanma felt that the OSI could represent the global community. Open Source and Linux usergroups could easily be represented under the umbrella of the OSI.
   
   Governance of organization: Fundraising, Press, Communications, Infrastructure are functions under this mandate of the OSI. Membership is also part of this governance function. Funding can be raised for projects in education, legal advice for licensing and proliferation control. Other projects that could be candidates for funding include promotion of open data in collaboration with Creative Commons and Mozilla. Membership is key to the OSI. Representation and authority can only be executed through a membership and affiliate program.
   
   
2. Outreach initiatives for 2009 (Education, Press, Conferences)
   
   Education is a key area where a lot can be done in 2009. Ideally, it should be organized as an open source project where various sub-projects such as sharing of best practices with industry, K-12 curricula development, undergraduate curricula and content development, can be carried out.
   
   OSI board members and observers attend and present at conferences globally as well as conduct interviews with the press.
   
   
3. ED Discussion (Ms. Cooper)
   
   Informal lunch discussion.
   
   
4. Bridging the Gap: How to promote discussions between FSF & OSI to create a public perception of merging the two concepts (Mr. Souza)
   
   The OSI and FSF both believe and promote freedom and open source/free software. Everyone understands what freedom represents but it also means that they need to understand that it also means open. How do we educate our global audience and make adoption easier. Mr. Souza would like to see adoption of FOSS not FLOSS which neither represents open nor free.
   
   
5. OSI Meeting with European Commission
   
   Time: February 6, 2009 1500-1600
   Coordinator: Rishab Ghosh
   Attendees: Michael Tiemann, Danese Cooper, Rishab Ghosh, Harshad Gune, Martin Michlmayr, Russ Nelson, Nnenna Nwakanma, Bruno Souza, Alolita Sharma, Andrew Oliver
   Agenda: The discussion covered the following topics - explanation of OSI history and current role, OSI activities in Europe, background on OSOR, IDABC and EC w.r.t open source, licensing issues, EUPL, and potential involvement of OSI in European Public Sector activities.
   
   
6. Discussion and preparation for OSI public meetings at FOSDEM on Saturday, February 7, 2009
   
   Meeting 1: OSI Recent Activities and Future Directions
   Day Saturday
   Room Ferrer
   Time 13:00 - 14:00
   Duration 01:00
   Info http://fosdem.org/2009/schedule/events/osi
   Agenda: The Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) will cover recent activities of the organization in this presentation, talk about the adoption of open source throughout the whole world and discuss the future direction of the OSI, such as the introduction of a membership program.
   
   Meeting 2: Public Meeting of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
   Room AW1.105
   Time 14:00 - 16:00
   Duration 02:00
   Info: http://fosdem.org/2009/schedule/events/osi_public_meeting
   Agenda: The Open Source Initiative (OSI) will hold its public meeting at FOSDEM.
   This meeting is open to everyone and the agenda is very flexible. Topics include recent activities of the OSI, the future direction of OSI, and other topics of importance to the open source community.
   
   

Meeting adjourned at 17:45 local time.