OSI: expanded programs, counsel, and board. Raymond steps down

[surely there is a spell checker out there that is licensed under an OSD 
compliant license. :p they even got their own name wrong.]

OPEN SOURCE INITIATIVE (OSI) ANNOUNCES EXPANDED PROGRAMS, COUNSEL, AND BOARD

(San Francisco, California) The Open Source Initative (sic) 
(www.opensource.org) today announces its intention to expand its activities 
beyond its stewardship of the Open Source Definition and the certification of 
Open Source licenses consistent with that definition. These new activities 
will include

* the establishment of principles of Open Source development and best
   practices
* the creation of a registry of software projects that adhere to those
    principles
* the definition of Open Standards that are consistent with Open Source
   (licenses, principles, and practices)
* inclusion of international perspectives and initiatives related to Open
   Source.

To address these issues as responsibly as the OSI has managed the Open Source 
Definition, the OSI anticipates expanding the board to nine people, drawing 
many new board members from outside the US. To lead these new initiatives, the 
board has elected new officers. Russ Nelson will become President of the OSI, 
and Michael Tiemann will become Vice President. Danese Cooper will continue as 
Secretary / Treasurer.

Also today in view of these expanded activities OSI announces the appointment 
of two new legal counsellors (sic). The position of General Counsel will be 
held by Mark F. Radcliffe, Esq., a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US 
LLP. The new position of Director of Legal Affairs will be held by Laura 
Majerus, Esq., a partner at Fenwick & West, LLP.

"OSI can benefit from fresh ideas and new energy like every open source 
project", said Lawrence Rosen, OSI's first general counsel and secretary and 
its one-time executive director. "I'm pleased and looking forward to helping 
Mark and Laura as they take on their new roles, and I will continue to support 
OSI's activities to advise the open source community on licensing and related 
issues."

Open Source licensing has become one of the most important topics in the 
software industry today, and with good reason. Software covered by 
OSI-certified licenses, such as the Linux kernel, the Apache webserver, and 
the Firefox web browser have achieved industry-leading status in terms of 
innovation, support for standards, adoption, and, increasingly, preference for 
new implementations. And interest in Open Source licenses and Open Source 
licensing is only growing as more and more users, companies, governments, and 
developers seek to adopt, practice, and profit from Open Source.

The term Open Source was coined in 1998 to help explain, in a 
business-friendly way, the technical and economic benefits of sharing, rather 
than restricting, the availability of computer source code. A developer's 
talents, abilities, and education determine what he or she can do with 
software. The size and connectedness of a developer community determines what 
they can do when they all work together. A software company can hire talented 
developers and get them to work together, but when those developers are 
prohibited from sharing outside their closed community, their potential, and 
the software they create, is very limited. By contrast, a software license 
that permits developers the freedom to work on any software, any time, with 
anybody, creates a far greater potential--given that there are many more 
developers outside any given company than there are working inside any 
company. The OSI chose to focus on Open Source licensing because we saw that 
as the most powerful way to maximize the developer's potential and community's 
potential, at least for Open Source software.

"One of the natural growth passages of a successful institution is outgrowing 
the need for its founders to be running things," said Eric S. Raymond, founder 
and outgoing President. Raymond, under the title President Emeritus, will 
continue to do outreach and ambassadorial work for OSI. "One of the most 
important parts of any founder or leader's responsibility is to know when to 
step aside and let that growth happen."

"Open Source isn't limited to individuals and the hacker community anymore. 
Organizations of all sizes, state, local, and national governments are 
embracing free and open source software and are adopting it in record numbers. 
Stresses on the Open Source community, including big corporate involvement and 
the expectations of a growing user community are challenges OSI can help 
with", said Russ Nelson, President of the OSI. "We'll be offering initiatives 
aimed at meeting the needs of what has become a serious and professional 
software ecosystem."

While the OSI could continue to focus narrowly on licensing topics, Open 
Source has grown to touch many other issues. As the Open Source community 
itself has shown, sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to break it 
into smaller pieces. We have decided to expand our scope so that we can 
address Open Source in the context of international issues, software project 
practices, and open standards problems as separate from, even if highly 
related to, Open Source licensing. In so doing, we believe we can strengthen 
what Open Source means as well as expanding the role it plays in society.

#-#

The Open Source Initiative is a 501(c)3 California public benefit corporation. 
It was founded in 1998 to recognize and promote the burgeoning Open Source 
model of software development. Its programs consist of an informal speaker's 
bureau, a widely-accepted definition of what constitutes Open Source Software, 
a certification program for upholding the quality of licensing of Open Source 
software, and a website educating visitors of the benefits of Open Source. The 
Open Source Initiative may be contacted through its website at 
http://opensource.org. Russ Nelson may be contacted via email at 
[email protected]