OSI Board Meeting Minutes, Friday, October 11, 2019

Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative held via Jitsi conferencing on Friday October 11, 2019.

Quorum

Quorum reached and meeting called to order at 1500 UTC

Attendees

Board Members

  • Josh Simmons
  • Hong Dang Phuc
  • Patrick Masson
  • Elana Hashman
  • Faidon Liambotis
  • Pam Chestek
  • Simon Phipps
  • Chris Lamb

Sent Regrets

  • Molly de Blanc

Officer Reports

Secretary’s Report (Simon)

  • The motions to approve minutes for the August 16th and September 20th meetings were tabled until the next meeting as the minutes are not ready for review.

Treasurer’s Report (Hong)

President’s Report (Hong)

  • Molly is not present 

General Manager Report

  • See Appendix B
    [Patrick added the report on Nov. 2, 2019)

Board Topics

  • Appointment of two Directors (Molly)
    • Several proposals were put forward to discuss and appoint the two new directors, including a recommendation that following discussion, each director would send an e-mail listing their ranked selections for the first vacancy to Patrick. After determining the results for the first appointment, directors would send Patrick an e-mail with the directors’ ranked selections for the second vacancy.
    • After discussing the above, the board agreed to seek consensus during the meeting if at all achievable.
    • Board agreed to keep conversation about this election completely confidential.
    • Motion (Patrick): Appoint Deb Bryant to fill one of the two appointed board seats to serve a term from Oct 11, 2019 to Oct 31, 2021
      • Second (Josh).
      • Discussion:
      • Vote: 7 Yes; 0 No; 1 Abstain (Elana).
    • Motion (Elana): Appoint Tracy Hinds to fill one of the two appointed board seats to serve a term from Oct 11, 2019 to Oct 31, 2021
      • Second (Josh).
      • Discussion:
      • Vote: 8 Yes; 0 No; 0 Abstain.

Membership Topics

  • Affiliate membership application review (Patrick).
  • Motion (Simon): Accept Open Preservation Foundation as an affiliate
    • Second (Patrick).
    • Discussion: See Appendix B – Reports: Membership Report. We thank Open Preservation Foundation for their interest and support.
    • Vote: 8 Yes; 0 No; 0 Abstain.
  • Motion (Josh): Accept FOSS Africa as an affiliate
    • Second (Patrick).
    • Discussion: See Appendix B – Reports: Membership Report. We thank Open Preservation Foundation for their interest and support.
    • Vote: 8 Yes; 0 No; 0 Abstain.

Incubator/Project Topics

Standards & Public Policy (Simon)

  • Contract with Mirko Boehm
  • EC Meeting Nov 14-15 needs representation

ClearlyDefined update (Chris)

  • See Appendix B: Reports, Incubator/Projects Reports

Next Board Meeting

The next OSI board meeting is scheduled for November 12 & 13, 2019 (Fall F2F)

Meeting adjourned at 1700 UTC

Appendix A – Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer’s Report For the Month Ending As of September 30, 2019

Total Assets at Beginning of Period, 09/01/19: $456,561

  • Revenue or Sources of Funds
    • Contributions: $23,364
    • Commissions: $13
    • Memberships: $760
    • Interest: $8
  • Total Revenue or Sources of Funds: $24,145
  • Expenses or Uses of Funds
    • Compensation: $11,120
    • Fundraising Expense: $5,300
    • Legal & Professional Fees: $593
    • Office Expenses: $414
    • Program Service Expense: $20,000
    • Promotional Expense: $918
    • Travel & Entertainment: $628
    • Other Expenses: $261
  • Total Expenses or Uses of Funds: $39,234
  • Change in Cash
    • Change in Accounts Payable: $5,001
    • Other: $4
  • Total Assets at End of Period, 09/30/19: $446,477

Appendix B – Reports

Board Action Report

  • Google sheet with current items and status.

Membership Report

     Affiliate Member Application: Open Preservation Foundation ( https://openpreservation.org/ )

  1. Signed Affiliate Agreement
    ✓ Signed Affiliate Agreement is attached
  2. Currently recognized as a (or application submitted for) non-profit / not-for-profit (or equivalent) by the national government were organized
    ✓ The Open Preservation Foundation is a not for profit membership organization in the UK. Our purpose is stated in our ​Articles of Association​ (p3). The Foundation was set up by the British Library in 2010.
  3. Mission statement describing purpose and goals.
    ✓ Mission: Enabling shared solutions for effective and efficient digital preservation; the Open Preservation Foundation leads a collaborative effort to create, maintain and develop the reference set of sustainable, open source digital preservation tools and supporting resources. This set of tools (including software and standards) enables organizations to evaluate, validate, document, mitigate risk, and process digital content to be preserved in line with desired policies and community best practice
    – http://openpreservation.org/about/organisation/vision-mission-strategy/
  4. Documentation formalizing organization, e.g. by-laws.
    ✓ http://www.openpreservation.org/public/OPF_ArticlesofAssociation.pdf
  5. Publicly available release of a product(s) or service(s). 
    ✓Multiple projects are available at the OPF’s Github account: https://github.com/openpreserve and associated projects, https://github.com/verapdf
  6. Use of an OSI approved open source license (software development projects only).
    ✓ Multiple examples:
    – https://github.com/openpreserve/jhove#licensing  (GNU Lesser General Public License)
    – https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library#licensing (GPLv3+ & MPLv2+)
    – https://github.com/openpreserve/fido/blob/master/LICENSE.txt (Apache License, Version 2.0)
    – http://jpylyzer.openpreservation.org/ (GNU Lesser General Public License)
  7. Documented approach for participation by the public.
    ✓ We aim to make collaborative, open source software development friendly and fun, while encouraging and helping members to follow some simple and effective best practices to ensure that the software is tested and used by as wide an audience as possible. We believe that the best software development practices are underpinned by communication and visibility. Online, open public infrastructure is key to our strategy, we use:
       – GitHub for revision control and collaborative development
       – Travis-CI for continuous integration, ensuring software is built and tested regularly
       – a hosted Jenkins instance for running nightly quality assurance builds; and
       – a hosted Sonar server for automated code quality analysis.
       – https://openpreservation.org/technology/principles/shared-development/)✓ OPF’s latest hack week information:
    – https://openpreservation.org/event/opf-document-hack-week-october-2019/
    –     https://openpreservation.org/news/join-us-for-jhove-hack-week/
  8. An active community:
    ✓ Issues raised and addressed on GitHub:
    – https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/issues
    –     https://github.com/openpreserve/jhove
    –     https://github.com/openpreserve/fido/issues
    –     https://github.com/openpreserve/jpylyzer/issues✓ A Product Board prioritizes fixes and features and guides development
    ✓ Social media presence: https://twitter.com/openpreserve✓ Global hack days and weeks (see above)
    ✓ Workshops on using our tools
    ✓ Host a community blogging platform for the digital preservation community to write about their work and seek feedback from others: http://openpreservation.org/knowledge/blogs/✓ Run mailing lists and user lists
  9. Methods for current and interested individuals/organizations to join and participate in your community
    ✓ OPF offers a membership program (https://openpreservation.org/about/join/)✓ A program of ​webinars​ and events open to the public
    ✓ Speaking at ​digital preservation conferences
    ✓ Organizing online hack days
    ✓ Running mailing lists and posting on social media
    ✓ An active Github presence
    ✓ Hosting open community resources including http://www.digipres.org/​ and http://coptr.digipres.org/Main_Page✓ Running member and community digital preservation surveys on use of tools,policies and approaches
  10. Active participation from multiple contributors, i.e. individuals and organizations other than founders (contributions may be other than programming/technology)
    ✓ Member interest groups (formats, archives)
    ✓ Webinar and event attendance (https://openpreservation.org/events/category/webinars/)✓ Issues and pull requests on GitHub
    ✓ Hack week attendance
    ✓ Blog contributions (https://openpreservation.org/knowledge/blogs/)

     Affiliate Member Application: Open Source Community Africa (https://www.oscafrica.org/)

  1. Signed Affiliate Agreement
    ✓ Signed Affiliate Agreement is attached
  2.  Founding documentation formalizing organization, e.g. by-laws.
    ✓ Governance and related documentation is avaialbel on the OSCA’s Github account: https://github.com/oscommunityafrica/docs/blob/master/src/GOVERNANCE.md
  3. Association memberships, partnerships, etc. (if applicable) with international, national, professional and/or affiliated organizations.
    ✓ Current sponsors include: Open Collective, Salesforce, TripleByte, and Webflow (https://github.com/oscommunityafrica/docs#sponsors)✓ Offers memberships. To become an OSCA member one must make at least one contribution to any open source project or organization. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FloV5IVTWNVOXDvb1IFNM5PfUS74lWdGVdCsjs0FBqY/viewform?ts=5bd0aa4c&edit_requested=true)
  4. Mission statement describing purpose and goals.
    ✓ We are a diverse community of open source lovers, collaborating on different projects to make a difference across Africa. We currently achieve this through the following vehicles; OSCA Chapters, Open Source Festival and through featured open source projects.
    Our main goal is to create an atmosphere in which Africans not only use software and hardware but are also creators of these technologies.
    – https://www.oscafrica.org/about-us)
  5. Publicly available release of events/activities, e.g. meetings, conferences, etc.
    ✓ Projects and activities are developed, documented, and managed via Github (https://github.com/oscommunityafrica)✓ Project Nigeria (https://github.com/oscommunityafrica/made-in-nigeria) provides a list of resources developed in Nigeria to support open source development, education, and adoption.
  6. Documented approach for participation by the public.
    ✓ The public is invited to apply to OSCA to host events. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AxbxuGZpJb4u1dZmKx6iLil75lqEjIOh3nq2K7-tX1w/viewform?ts=5bd0aab4&edit_requested=true)✓ Open Collective for contributions (https://opencollective.com/osca#backer)✓ Github for both tradtional development (https://github.com/oscommunityafrica/docs/blob/master/src/contribute.md) organizational and documentation development (https://github.com/oscommunityafrica/docs/blob/master/src/documentation.md)
  7. An active community:
    1. Methods for current and interested individuals/organizations to join and participate in your community
      See above.
    2. Active participation from multiple contributors, i.e. individuals and organizations other than founders (contributions may be other than programming/technology)
      ✓ Participation includes backers and sponsors (those who make financial contributions), members, and hosts of OSCA events. Made in Nigeria has 60+ contributors (https://github.com/oscommunityafrica/made-in-nigeria/graphs/contributors)
  8. References from other open source projects, ideally a current OSI Affiliate Member.
    ✓  Josh Simmons, Patrick Masson

Incubator/Projects Report

     ClearlyDefined

     (This report is canonically located at: ClearlyDefined Monthly Board Report: October, 2019)

  • Summary
    Work and resources on the project this month were stable. We are focusing on promoting ClearlyDefined at the conferences occurring early in 2020. We continue to want to get more users of the data involved in the project.
  • Resources
    Contracting resources remain the same as last month, with two contractors provided by WebYourMind. Financial resources are experiencing the same burn rate as the previous month. We have begun efforts to identify new funding opportunities for 2020 so we can ensure that we don’t meet any limitations early next year when we are expected to run through our existing funds.
  • Technology
    We have experienced a few bugs this month, primarily one involving casing mismatches, and those have been fixed by our contractors. The technology itself remains stable, reliable, and resilient. Some members of the community have expressed interest in building the ability to mirror data into ClearlyDefined, so we have begun having exploratory conversations around building a spec for this.
  • Community
    The community remains engaged in the project and well-represented from a number of companies, organizations, and individuals. We are aiming to increase the number of curations coming from other companies and organizations in order to continue driving investment in the data quality.We are also aiming to submit to conferences for early next year around ClearlyDefined to continue bringing attention and visibility to the project and encouraging new users of the data.
  • Upcoming goals
    1. Submit talks to CFPs for FOSDEM and Copyleft Conf (possibly with the OSI) by their respective deadlines.
    2. Draft specification on mirroring in order to go/no go on starting work for it.

General Manager’s Report

  • OSI staff “To Do” list. (Patrick)
  • Administration
    • Board
      • The Berkeley Group Application Update.
      • Board appointment recommendations.
      • Board minutes (draft/post)
      • Board meeting planning.
    • Trademarks
      • Open Hardware logo.
  • Communications
    • Press
      • LinkedIn Interview: Funding open source projects.
    • Publicity
      • The New Stack: possible promotions of OSI initiatives.
      • The New Kind: PR and branding opportunities.
    • All Things Open planning
      • OSI will be hosting a booth (complementary).
      • Swag for conference bags.
      • OSI, with Brandeis, is planning a Breakfast for Monday, Oct, 14. Inviting OSI affiliates and sponsors.
    • China Open Source Conference: invitation to keynote.
    • Linux Foundation’s OSSummit EU planning.
    • PerconaLive Amsterdam conference booth staffed by local individual member.
      • Conference materials sent.
    • RSA Conference, invitation to Board for OSI representation.
    • SFSCon planning.
    • Twitter: September 2019: Tweets, 177; Impressions, 633.8K; 2438 Interactions
      • “Our friends and sponsors @DigitalOcean want to know your thoughts on the state of #opensource. Take their latest Currents survey to help shape the future and conversation on #OSS (plus, you’ll get an awesome limited edition OS Sammy the Shark!): http://do.co/currentsOSS”: Impressions, 14,768; Total engagements, 86; Link clicks, 36; Likes, 11; Profile clicks, 11.
      • “@CoralineAda The intro to the Hippocratic Licence might lead some to believe the license is an Open Source Software license, and software distributed under the Hippocratic Licence is Open Source Software. As neither is true, we ask you to please modify the language to remove confusion:” Impressions, 14,306; Total engagements, 926; Detail expands, 630; Profile clicks, 172; Likes, 88: Retweets, 20; Replies, 16.
      • “European Commission launches survey targeted at developers of Free and #OpenSource Software to understand needs and how EU can contribute to safer #OSS ecosystem… More on EU’s FOSSA 2 project:…” Impressions, 10,367; Total engagements, 145; Link clicks, 59; Likes, 35; Retweets, 29; Profile clicks, 5.
      • “We’re seeking passionate practitioners, working in and with #opensource software, to share their knowledge and experience with students interested in the growing number of careers supporting Open Source Software:” Impressions, 8,613; Total engagements, 197; Link clicks, 113; Likes, 30; Profile clicks, 20; Retweets, 12; Replies, 2.
      • “‘The importance and impact of free and #opensource software on society is one that cannot be underlooked. I want to support that as a developer as well as an activist and advocate for it.'” – @jackyalcine. Thank you Jacky for your recent #OSI membership!” Impressions, 8,339; Total engagements, 40; Likes, 18; Retweets, 8; Profile clicks, 8; Replies, 3.
    • Direct mailings (10: Affiliates, 8; Individuals, 6; Sponsors, 4)
      • OSI quarterly affiliate call – Wed. Sep. 18, 2019: Intended Recipients, 78; Successful Deliveries, 78 (100.00%); Unique Opens, 36 (46.15%); Total Opens, 70; Click-throughs, 3 (3.85%).
      • Surveys (DigitalOcean & European Union): Intended Recipients, 511; Successful Deliveries, 509 (99.61%); Unique Opens, 191 (37.52%); Total Opens, 411; Click-throughs, 104 (20.43%).
      • Percona Live Europe 2019 (Netherlands members): Intended Recipients, 11; Successful Deliveries, 11 (100.00%); Unique Opens, 4 (36.36%); Total Opens, 7; Click-throughs, 0 (0.00%).
      • Brandeis Faculty Recruitment #002: Intended Recipients, 3128; Successful Deliveries, 3021 (96.58%); Unique Opens, 809 (26.78%); Total Opens, 1610; Click-throughs, 241 (7.98%).
      • Affiliate Membership Conf Call, Reminder (Sept, 2019): Intended Recipients, 78; Successful Deliveries, 78 (100.00%); Unique Opens, ; Total Opens, 85; Click-throughs, 10 (12.82%).
      • OSI Affiliate Member Benefits: Profit sharing and discount codes: Intended Recipients, 69; Successful Deliveries, 69 (100.00%); Unique Opens, 31 (44.93%); Total Opens, 116; Click-throughs, 12 (17.39%).
      • 2019 Membership Campaign – Membership Profiles: Intended Recipients, 69; Successful Deliveries, 69 (100.00%); Unique Opens, 32 (46.38%); Total Opens, 203; Click-throughs, 7 (10.14%).
      • 2019 Membership Campaign – Membership Profiles (02): Intended Recipients, 69; Successful Deliveries, 69 (100.00%); Unique Opens, 31 (44.93%); Total Opens, 93; Click-throughs, 0 (0.00%).
      • Updates to the OSI Board: Appointed Directors: Intended Recipients, 454; Successful Deliveries, 453 (99.78%); Unique Opens, 220 (48.57%); Total Opens,510 ; Click-throughs,15 (3.31%) .
      • ATO Breakfast: Intended Recipients, 105; Successful Deliveries, 103 (98.10%); Unique Opens, 48 (46.60%); Total Opens, 93; Click-throughs, 11 (10.68%).
    • Mailing Lists:
      • Advocate Circle: 0
      • Affiliates: 0
      • Contact: 23
      • Members: 1
      • Membership: 12
      • Press: 8
      • Trademarks: 3
    • Blog posts
      • Open Source in 2019: 14,734 reads
      • Open Source Success in Schools – Something to make a “FUSS” about: 13,265 reads
      • The Mythical Economic Model of Open Source: 11,067 reads
      • OSI Seeks Faculty (YOU!) to Teach New Open Source Courses: 8,601 reads
      • Updates to the OSI Board: 5,840 reads
  • Fundraising:
  • Infrastructure
  • Incubator Projects
    • OSTM
      • Brandeis ATO Breakfast: inviting all current and prospective sponsors and affiliates attending ATO to promote courses.
      • Market survey with Brandies sent to OSI contacts, open source community.
      • Reaching out to members, affiliates reps, and sponsors to teach and contribute content.
    • FLOSS Desktops community coordinator job description.
    • Standards
      • ETSI representative update (Mirko for Bruce)
  • Licensing/Policy
    • Contracting and planning for LR/LD reports.
    • Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment
    • Workshop on Open Source Software and Hardware
    • Ethical licenses response.
    • OpenCore response.
    • SPDX integration.
  • Membership
    • Affiliates:
    • Individuals:
      • 490 current members, 685 previous members, 1090 supporters
      • Membership campaign planning: long time membership endorsements.
      • Student membership processing.