OSI Board Meeting Minutes, Saturday, July 26, 2008
OSI Board Meetings Face-to-Face
Dates: July 26-27, 2008
Venue: Park Room, Westin Portland
Day One: July 26, 2008
Quorum reached and meeting called to order at 9:10am PST.
Attendees:
- Mr. Michael Tiemann, President
- Ms. Danese Cooper, Secretary / Treasurer
- Mr. Russ Nelson, Director
- Mr. Ken Coar, Director
- Mr. Bruno Souza, Director
- Mr. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Director
- Ms. Alolita Sharma, Director
- Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma, Director
- Mr. Martin Michlmayr, Director
- Mr. Harshad Gune, Director
Guests/Observers:
- Mr. Zak Greant, Board Observer
- Mr. Andrew C. Oliver, Board Observer
- Mr. Karl Fogel, Charter Member
- Mr. Jim Blandy, Charter Member
- Mr. Josh Berkus, Guest, PostgreSQL community member
- Mr. Jos Boumans, Guest, Perl community member
Expected, but Not Present:
None.
Sent Regrets:
- Mr. Ernest Prabhakar, Board Observer
- Mr. Bdale Garbee, Board Observer
- Mr. Merrill Freund (Schwartz Communications)
- Mr. Mark Radcliffe, General Counsel
Meeting Co-Hosts:
Mr. Michael Tiemann
Ms. Danese Cooper
Agenda:
8:00am-9:00 am
Breakfast
9:00am-10:00 am
New Board Member Orientation
Ms. Cooper asked new board members to introduce themselves. Ms. Nwakanma, Mr. Michlmayr, Mr. Gune introduce themselves and their interest as to why OSI is important to them. Ms. Cooper mentioned that OSI has made a conscious effort to internationalize the board and to promote open source advocacy effectively. Mr. Tiemann mentioned that OSI being a key advocacy organization has communication as major asset. Board members should use the website opensource.org more effectively to promote various open source activities they’re involved in on a regular basis. Setting up a del.icio.us account for new board members should be part of the orientation.
Ms. Cooper requested Q&A with new board members to further develop board orientation guidelines.
Ms. Cooper will maintain issue parking lot for the meeting.
10:00am-10:15am
The break was postponed to be taken later after the charter membership discussion.
10:15am-11:15am
Introductions of all meeting participants.
Charter Membership welcome
Ms. Cooper thanked the charter membership for participating. Ms. Cooper was pleased to report that 42 out of 50 members accepted invitations to join OSI’s charter membership. She reported that a second round of invitees had been emailed for filling the remainder 8 spots. Ms. Cooper and Mr. Tiemann explained reasons why OSI’s board decided to use the open source project model for the OSI’s governance. Three expectations from the charter membership include definition of who the charter membership is, what projects/goals should the OSI pursue, and help the OSI and its board in protecting and promoting OSI’s assets.
Mr. Fogel, volunteered to coordinate membership discussions across the charter members and board members. Ms. Nwakanma suggested that selection criteria be developed for international region membership. Mr. Ghosh noted that the charter membership should reference other potential members. The issue being addressed is how does active participation get balanced with the objective of bringing in fresh talent unknown to the charter membership.
Board members were asked to give their opinion of how the Board should be elected as the charter membership rolls in over time. A majority of the board is in favor of no more than a third of the board being elected by the membership each year (eg. staggered terms of service).
A discussion ensued about expectations and ideas charter members and board observers have about OSI’s membership efforts. It was decided that the new charter membership would decide if OSI board members can participate in membership discussions.
11:15am-12:30pm
Turning OSI into an Open Source Project (TRAC, Public Archives, join at opensource dot org program)
Mr. Greant outlined how TRAC works and expectations of what content and how it is noted in TRAC.
Ms. Cooper provided an overview of what is being done about archiving OSI’s minutes, action items and other documents for public review. She mentioned that OSI has received a lot of public requests to make OSI’s mailing list archives more publicly searchable and accessible. Mr. Tiemann mentioned that all items that can be made public from the OSI wiki can be put on opensource.org for public view.
Ms. Cooper outlined the Join program and what is available for registering on opensource.org. She mentioned that the Board has been discussing an affiliate program for the OSI as the charter membership process completes. She brought up the idea of using tickets in TRAC.
Mr. Greant presented on progress on OSI’s IT infrastructure movement to OSU/OSL. Mr. Greant will look at getting access on OSL infrastructure for all volunteers from OSI membership and board to participate on changing content on opensource.org and localization of content. Mr. Tiemann would like to use TRAC for holding OSU accountable for supporting OSI’s IT infrastructure needs.
Brainstorming about how OSI can increase participation. Discussion with the attending charter members included suggestions of thank-you letter to people supporting/donating to OSI, media preparation/orientation for OSI board members and charter members, business cards for OSI volunteer advocates, partner with other open source foundations, work with open source user groups or form local chapters, look at FSF’s volunteer program, using a mascot instead of the OSI logo. Mr. Tiemann mentioned that the OSI does not want to discriminate in fields of work and OSI’s open source pledge should define the values that everyone agrees on.
12:30pm-1:30pm
Lunch (served in the room)
1:30pm-3:00pm
Measuring Participation (bring your ideas, assigning responsibility, including and recognizing all forms of participation)
The OSI will be using TRAC to measure participation. In an open source project, there are different things that people can participate on. Mr. Greant mentioned that identity and trust are key to open source members. Often codes of conduct are implicit. Discussions followed about what board members can participate on and how.
3:00pm-3:15pm
Break
3:15pm-4:15pm
Discussion overflow
Open Source Education
Mr. Fogel presented an update on what’s happening in the open source world in education. Mr. Oliver would like to see more detailed curricula, courses and more effort towards open source education for the younger generation. Mr. Souza talked about open source classes in Brazil, getting Brazil’s minister of education to ratify this education program and building content for distribution in various regions around the world. Mr. Gune presented on the conference he conducts in Pune – GNUnify. This conference focuses on educating computer science degree students about open source software. Ms. Nwakanma presented on open source in education programs in Africa.
Specific initiatives discussed were Software Freedom Day participation, Cool kids do Open Source, Facebook and Orkut pages for educating high school and college students about open source, adding a text book about open source to curricula, educating teachers about open source, rewarding with books autographed by famous open source developers (such as Michael Tiemann). More interfacing with education board members, education ministers, and education conferences is a great opportunity for OSI to promote open source education.
4:15pm-5:15pm
Executive Director Redux
Mr. Tiemann calls to adjourn meeting at 5:15pm.
6:00-8:00pm
Dinner at Mother’s Bistro, Portland