OSI Board Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Quorum reached and meeting called to order at 08:03 am PT.

Attendees

Board Members

1. Mr. Michael Tiemann, President (joining in at 810 AM PDT)
2. Ms. Danese Cooper, Treasurer (available from 8AM to 9AM PDT)
3. Mr. Ken Coar, Director
4. Mr. Harshad Gune, Director (via IRC)
5. Mr. Russell Nelson, Director
6. Mr. Andrew Oliver, Director
7. Ms. Alolita Sharma, Secretary

Board Observers and Guests

1. Mr. Bdale Garbee, Board Observer (via IRC)
2. Mr. Simon Phipps, Board Observer

Expected, but Not Present

1. Mr. Zak Greant, Board Observer
2. Mr. Ernest Prabhakar, Board Observer
3. Mr. Merrill Freund (Schwartz Communications)

Sent Regrets

1. Mr. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Director
2. Mr. Martin Michlmayr, Director
3. Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma, Director
4. Mr. Mark Radcliffe, General Counsel (out of office till 9/16)

Agenda

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Officer reports
3. Committee reports
4. Staff reports
5. Old business
6. New business
7. Motions for consideration by board

Detail

1. Approval of Minutes

   Please review the August 5, 2009 minutes as edited for public posting. Motion to approve minutes by Mr. Tiemann. Seconded by Ms. Sharma. Motion passed unanimously.

2. Officer Reports

   President’s Report:

   I was honored to represent the OSI at the Brazilian CONSEGI conference in Brasilia at the end of August. The conference was arranged by SERPRO, the IT organization of the Brazilian Federal Government. On the first day of the conference, President Lula again delivered a rousing speech about the importance of “software livre”, which encompasses both free software and open source software. The OSI was frequently and positively referenced by many at the conference, and it is abundantly clear that the OSI has a major role to play as a strong but neutral advocate of open source in public administration and in the private sector. While at CONSEGI I made contact with many open source advocates who work with or for other governments, ranging from next door neighbor Paraguay to south-south neighbor South Africa, all the way to South Korea, who sent at least two representatives to the meetings from ETRI, the Korean-sponsored government research agency.

   At a more mundane level, I was hoping to see some definitive materials that we could use to claim our trademark’s allegation of use in the field of education, but apparently that has not yet happened. I believe that we have less than five months to do this, so the sooner the better for those who are working specifically on education. Perhaps there is an opportunity to partner with the folks behind http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Main_Page . I am seeing a good deal of traction around this effort, and it certainly is a good place for the OSI’s brand to be!

   Due to travel and email challenges (there was very limited connectivity at the CONSEGI conference for non-wired laptops such as mine), I was not able to keep up with my administrative tasks, including the task of seeking telephony support from Red Hat. I will try again immediately following the board meeting.

   General Counsel Report:

   No report by Mr. Radcliffe.

   Secretary’s Report:

   Ms. Sharma reports that all approved board minutes have been posted on opensource.org.

   * July 1, 2009 meeting minutes – Minutes approved for July 1, 2009 have been posted on opensource.org.
   * June 10, 2009 meeting minutes – Minutes approved for June 10, 2009 have been posted on opensource.org.
   * February 2009 FOSDEM Face to Face meeting minutes – Minutes for FOSDEM face to face meeting are still pending. Ms. Sharma will refer to notes to recreate and complete minutes for review and approval by the board.
   * July 2009 OSCON Face to Face meeting minutes – Minutes for the OSCON face to face meeting are in progress.
   * August 5, 2009 meeting minutes – Minutes for August 5, 2009 meeting are ready for review and approval by board.

   Ms. Sharma will send email to board for review of face to face minutes ahead of next month’s board meeting.

   Treasurer’s Report:

   Ms. Cooper reports that all expenses for OSCON’s face to face meeting have been cleared. Sun Microsystems was sent a copy of the invoice for their donation. RimuHosting has been paid a year in advance (offer: pay 12 months in advance get 13th month free). All future invoices from RimuHosting will be sent to Ms. Cooper at OSI’s San Francisco mailing address.

3. Committee Reports

   Licensing Committee

   License Review status: Mr. Nelson reports the following status on licenses submitted for review / approval to the OSI.

   1. Title: MXM Public license
   Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:717:chenjkbbnllffijebmno
   License: in submission
   Comments: Matthew says no. Chuck says no. Nigel says no. I say no. Bruce says no.
   Recommend: No approval

   2. Title: Signatured-GPL
   Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:776:ogamklhhmiegammjlgjf
   License: in submission
   Comments: Several commentators suggested that he simply use dual-licensing.
   Recommend: No approval

   3. Title: 36 Open Software License
   Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:794:ieaabfdiekkhoofbogjd
   License: http://36ic.phoenxsoftware.com/36OSL.txt
   Comments: Bruce had questions, which didn’t get answered. John pointed submitter in the direction of the LGPL.
   Recommend: No approval

   4. Title: The Azure License
   Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:800:200908:mclfkcpnkhbkcceokoho
   License: neither of the links to the license that he’s given are working.
   Comments: Dag-Erling points out that the BSD license already requires attribution in the form of the required copyright notice. http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:810:mclfkcpnkhbkcceokoho
   Recommend: No approval; that we point him in the direction of the BSD license.

   5. Title: Falcon Programming Language License
   Submission: http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?17:mss:826:naokadpjdjicihdgloog
   License: http://www.falconpl.org/index.ftd?page_id=license_1_1
   Comments: Clearly OSD-compatible but … it’s the GPL with an added freedom to embed the language interpreter creating a single work without invoking the terms of the GPL. If that were it, then we could leave it there, but Giancarlo adds required attribution above and beyond that required by the GPL.
   Recommend: Discussion has been insufficient to justify approval at this time.

   Motion made by Mr. Tiemann to adopt license committee report as submitted by Mr. Nelson. Motion passed unanimously.

   Membership Committee

   Mr. Oliver reports that he spoke with Simon Phipps briefly. Mr. Phipps was going to send Mr. Oliver another draft of what he and Josh Berkus have been working on. The effort seems to have died down, therefore Mr. Oliver is going to take a more proactive role in scheduling regular discussions with expected artifacts and outcomes. Mr. Oliver expects to schedule the first meeting for next week. Mr. Oliver will follow-up with the board on further progress via email.

   IT Infrastructure Committee

   Ms. Sharma reports that the infrastructure committee met on IRC to discuss setup and support for our new server. Mr. Greant, Mr. Oliver, Mr. De Silva and Ms. Sharma participated in the meeting. Significant progress has been made in establishing software packages for various infrastructure functions to support OSI projects. Mr. Greant has taken the lead on setting up SVN and the server. Mr. De Silva has setup Docuwiki as our project wiki. Mr. Oliver has been looking at mail server issues. Ms. Sharma has worked on wiki and website content updates. Mr. Fogel as been an valuable advisor to the team effort. Thanks to all team members for their effort. Mr. Oliver would like the committee to submit recommendations to the board in the next meeting. Ms. Cooper has granted Socialtext wiki admin access to Mr. Greant.

   It is also suggested that the IT Services report be merged into the infrastructure committee report to the board.

4. Staff Reports

   IT Services

   Mr. Greant, acting in his role of manager of IT services, reports:

   The infrastructure team has made decent progress this month, setting up software on the Rimuhosting server, discussing key issues around infrastructure and infrastructure management, etc.

   Outstanding issues and notable progress include:

   * Using SVN to manage some of the issues around having multiple, part-time sysadmins for the Rimuhosting box.
   * Payment of RimuHosting hosting fees (Note that Mr. Oliver has paid the hosting fees on behalf of the OSI for the next two months (till end of September 2009)).
   * Processing of some of the backlogged issues in the issue tracker.
   * I’ve removed confusing attribution lines from opensource.org articles (http://ideas.opensource.org/ticket/64)
   * Setup testing instance of Drupal 6.
   * Need to provide recommendations on key issues like email management, etc.

   Many thanks to Mr. de Silva, Mr. Fogel, Mr. Oliver and Ms. Sharma for their hard work here.

5. Old Business

   OSI trademark and logo usage agreement for public use (Ms. Sharma)

   In our sprint at OSCON in July, Mr. Nelson had been appointed trademark executor for OSI. It was discussed at that time to provide a PDF version of the OSI trademark and logo usage agreement on the OSI website (opensource.org).

   Will Mr. Nelson be posting this document? What are next steps to complete this task?

   Reference URLs are:
   Trademarks of OSI: http://opensource.org/trademark
   Trademark Guidelines: http://opensource.org/trademark-guidelines
   Logo Usage Guidelines: http://opensource.org/logo-usage-guidelines

   Mr. Tiemann indicates that for some activities (such as doing a t-shirt with the OSI logo) require permission from the OSI and would need the agreement. Mr. Tiemann will resend the document to Mr. Nelson. Mr. Nelson will add some user instructions and the agreement on the website page. Mr. Tiemann also suggests we consider using the OSA (Open Source for America) as an organization to promotes the OSI using the new trademark usage guidelines.

   Education resources for trademark filing (Mr. Tiemann)

   Mr. Tiemann reports that we need to post training material which is OSI related on the website. Specifically, we must show our logo used in conjunction with specific educational initiatives. If you are running a specific educational initiative (such as teaching open source, consulting, etc.) in a way that represents the OSI, then use the mark, send Mr. Tiemann a link to that usage/offering, and we’ll have the evidence we need for a Class 41 filing.

   What are next steps?

   Ms. Sharma will take the lead to pursue individuals to pull information together for demonstration of educational resources for OSI’s Class 41 filing by the October 14 board meeting. Mr. Oliver also suggests that we have the education committee meet to discuss future efforts including teachingopensource.org.

   Dial-in numbers for board communications (Mr. Tiemann)

   We may need a new conference call dial-in number. Does anybody have the ability to provide an alternative? Mr. Tiemann will check with Red Hat.

   opensource.com and Red Hat follow-up (Mr. Oliver)

   A discussion is in order about how the OSI can best work with Red Hat to ensure that the larger open source community is involved in an advisory capacity at opensource.com. Mr. Oliver has offered to work further on putting a strategy paper for further discussion. Any update on this activity?

   Mr. Oliver reports that he has forwarded the outline to board@ and sent another follow up to Chris Grams of Red Hat. Mr. Oliver suggests that we schedule an special executive session on Oct. 7 to discuss and pull the board’s ideas together. The OSI should aim to draft a motion to represent its interests specifically promotion of open source. Ms. Sharma will coordinate with Mr. Oliver to discuss agenda before Oct. 7th meeting.

   opensource.org Privacy Policy (http://ideas.opensource.org/ticket/185)(Mr. Greant)

   DLA Piper has provided us with a questionnaire to complete for the opensource.org privacy policy. I’ve taken a preliminary pass at the document and solicited review from the board on August 13. No comment has yet been received. The questionnaire is stored at Privacy Policy.

   Ms. Sharma will send out email to follow-up on the privacy policy review before next board meeting.

   OSI Online T-Shirt Shop (http://ideas.opensource.org/ticket/103) (Mr. Greant)

   Mr. Fogel provided an overview of his experience in this area. The board should decide what priority, if any, this project has. Mr. Coar will follow-up with Mr. Greant and Mr. Fogel to map out a strategy to get the current t-shirts online as well as new merchandise. Mr. Phipps would also be interested in this activity.

   Ms. Sharma will send out an email to interested parties to start the discussion and make further progress on setting up the shop.

6. New Business

   Status of the OSI (Discussion)

   Ms. Cooper reports that she has followed-up with DLA Piper about the paperwork needed to be filed to the Secretary of State. Ms. Cooper will contact the OSI accountant, tax lawyer and attorneys from DLA Piper. It was clarified that this role is part of the treasurer’s responsibilities. Ms. Cooper will follow-up and report back to the board by the next board meeting. Mr. Coar would like to ensure that the license-discuss mailing list where this is was reported is responded to in a demonstration of OSI’s committment to pro-active action.

   Friends of OSI program (Ms. Sharma)

   Ms. Sharma would like to request the board to consider a Friends of OSI program similar to Friends of GNOME and Friends of FSF to engage the global open source community to join and contribute to the OSI. This would be in line with our membership efforts as well as support fundraising. Should we wait for the membership committee to make progress and then work on this initiative or look at it in parallel?

   Mr. Tiemann supports the idea since it greatly helps build constituencies that have a sense of engagement with the OSI. Mr. Phipps mentions that this activity may be more than what the OSI can support today. There are paid staff at both FSF and GNOME to support this activity whereas the OSI has no paid staff.

   In an associated discussion, Mr. Tiemann requests a Donate button on each page of the website and asks the infrastructure commmittee. Mr. Oliver will also request Ms. Cooper for member / affiliate information on behalf of Mr. Phipps of the membership committee.

   Provisioning guidelines for @opensource.org email addresses (http://ideas.opensource.org/ticket/181) (Mr. Greant)

   Mr. Phipps requested an @opensource.org email address. Mr. Nelson noted that policy has been to only provide board members and emeritus with @opensource.org addresses. A general discussion on provisioning email seems useful, if not high priority.

   Mr. Tiemann suggests that opensource.org email address be granted to anyone who is actively working for the OSI as long as the board can revoke these rights if needed. A policy needs to be drafted accordingly. Mr. Tiemann suggests we look at the OSI TOS to use as a blueprint. Mr. Tiemann will work with Mr. Radcliffe to draft this policy for the next meeting. Mr. Oliver and Ms. Sharma agree with this. Mr. Oliver also suggests that the infrastructure committee come up with a process recommendation.

7. Motions for consideration by the board

   * Motion to approve August 5, 2009 minutes.

   * Motion to adopt or reject Mr. Nelson’s licensing recommendations.

The next OSI BOD meeting is set for October 14. Mr. Tiemann motioned to adjourn the meeting. Ms. Sharma seconded the motion.

Meeting Adjourned at 09:50 PDT.