OSI Expands to China with KAIYUANSHE Joining as Latest Affiliate Member

Shared mission of raising awareness and adoption through community building extends international development, collaboration and advocacy for open source software.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Jan. 10, 2016 — The Open Source Initiative® (OSI) is pleased to announce the Affiliate Membership of KAIYUANSHE (http://www.kaiyuanshe.cn/), a Chinese alliance of open source software companies, communities and individuals. Like OSI, KAIYUANSHE works to promote open source software adoption and development as well as connect organizations participating in, and contributing to, open source software around the world. KAIYUANSHE which roughly translates as “open source alliance,” is comprised of 50 organizations, such as Microsoft, CSDN, GitCafe, GNOME.Asia, Ubuntu Kylin, Canonical, OSChina, Firefox, and others.

“We’re thrilled to learn of the work KAIYUANSHE is doing for open source in China and welcome them to our Affiliate Membership Program,” said OSI President Allison Randal. KAIYUANSHE has gained international recognition through a variety of services and community activities, including: the Open Source Star program, which helps software developers apply OSI-approved licenses to their projects; Open Source Ambassadors, a program recognizing individuals and organizations championing openness and collaboration; Open Source Campus Tours held on Chinese universities promoting open source; Open Source Hackathons; The “Annual Open Source Report,” a summary of the Chinese Open Source Ecosystem; and; an annual open source conference for Chinese and International open source software communities. “KAIYUANSHE initiatives seek to advance open source education and industry-wide governance, paralleling our own work and values at OSI” added Randal.

OSI Affiliate Membership is a significant step for KAIYUANSHE as it continues to mature as an organization and introduce more Chinese companies, communities and individuals to open source software. Most significantly, OSI membership will foster greater engagement between open source communities in China and other parts of the world, providing broader opportunities for Chinese developers and projects to participate in the continuing evolution of the global open source movement as a whole. “We are happy to see KAIYUANSHE joining the OSI as an affiliate member, which is a great way for KAIYUANSHE to get directly involved in international open source community development and advocacy”, said Jack Guo, CEO of Mozilla Firefox Ltd.

As a member-driven organization, OSI Affiliate Members participate directly in the direction and development of the OSI through Board of Director elections, incubator projects and working groups. Participation provides a forum where some of the world’s most successful open source software leaders, projects and communities collaborate through a variety of initiatives to raise awareness of the benefits of open source software and development, increase adoption of open source projects, and extend and improve their own open source communities.

Considering China’s growing and important contributions to software and technology, KAIYUANSHE will be a vital partner, ensuring China’s open source activities and voices are not neglected as open source software continues to grow globally. “Joining the OSI is a big step for KAIYUANSHE”, said Jack Yu, Founding member of KAIYUANSHE and Lead of Ubuntu Kylin, “we now have a better way to contribute to, and build bridges between China and the international open source community.”

The OSI Affiliate Member Program, available at no-cost, allows non-profit and not-for-profit organizations—unequivocally independent groups with a clear commitment to open source—to join and support the OSI mission to raise awareness and adoption of open source software and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community. You can learn more about the OSI’s Affiliate Member Program, its benefits, and how your institution can join at: http://opensource.org/affiliates

About The Open Source Initiative
Founded in 1998, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) protects and promotes open source by providing a foundation for community success. It champions open source in society through education, infrastructure and collaboration. The OSI is a California public benefit corporation, with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. For more information about the OSI, please visit: https://opensource.org.

About Kaiyuanshe
KAIYUANSHE is an open source alliance organized by enterprises, communities, and individuals in China that support open source. It is founded voluntarily by all members on the principles of “Collegiality, Consensus, and Contribution”. The vision of KAIYUANSHE is to advance the open source communities of China to become positive participants and contributors for the global success of open source software development. Its mission is to build a healthy and sustainable open source eco-system in coordination with communities, enterprises, universities, and governmental organizations in China. It has a tenet to popularize knowledge and provide relevant services for the correct usage, licensing, and community building & governance in terms of open source software and hardware in China.

KAIYUANSHE roughly translates as “open source alliance”,  current members are comprised of over 50 organizations, Including members: Microsoft, GNOME.Asia, CSDN, Gitcafe, Ubuntu Kylin, Alauda, Arduino.cn, BeyondSoft, BlenderGET, Canonical China, CloudStack China, OSChina, Coding, CS2C, DataMan, Docker.cn, Egret, Firefox, FOSSASIA, Foheart, Goodrain, JStorm, LeanCloud, Lunuxeden, Linux-Ren, MoPaas, Open Source Force, OpenInventionNetwork, Pactera, Ping++, Qiniu, Seafile, SegmentFault, SequoiaDB, SpeedyCloud, TenxCloud, Xueqing, UDN, Wicresoft, WRTnode, Nature Easy Soft, IQAlliance, Maitao, HZbook, Shuhai Data, SHSPC and COPU.

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Ed Schauweker
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