Open Source Initiative

The Board of the Open Source Initiative has constituted a number of committees to perform the work of the organization and advance its agenda. These committees all report to the Board at regularly scheduled Board meetings. The committees are listed in alphabetical order below:

Communications Committee

The Communications Committee translates OSI policy and positions to public statements, and also ensures timely, professional responses to all who communicate with the OSI. The chair is Martin Michlmayr and the members are Simon Phipps and Andrew C. Oliver.

Education Committee

The Education Committee focuses on the use and teaching of open source software in the educational context, from earliest childhood instruction up through graduate and post-graduate levels. The Education Committee is responsible for developing, arranging, and conducting educational conferences, programs, courses of instruction, and online educational seminars covering open source software, licensing, and communities. The chair is Alolita Sharma and the members include Harshad Gune, Dr. Fabio Kon, Dr. Tony Wasserman and Michael Tiemann. Board Observers Ken Coar and Nnenna Nwakanma also maintain an active role in supporting various education initiatives. Additionally, members of osi-edu-discuss@opensource.org are also members of this committee.

Fundraising Committee

The Fundraising Committee supports the mission of the OSI by raising funds to support travel, programs, infrastructure, and administrative costs. The chair is Michael Tiemann. The officers of the OSI (Treasurer Danese Cooper and Secretary Alolita Sharma) are all members.

Governance Committee

The Governance Committee has been charged by the board to develop and recommend a governance model that will increase the OSI's operational capacity, increase its authority within the open source community, and become an organization run by and for the people and organizations it represents. The chair is Simon Phipps. Other members include Andrew C. Oliver and Danese Cooper.

Infrastructure Committee

The Infrastructure Committee is responsible for overseeing the management of the hardware, system software and operational infrastructure of the OSI. The committee ensures the systems are in good working order and that the needs of the OSI are being fulfilled. The chair is Alolita Sharma and the members are Dr. Martin Michlmayr, Andrew C. Oliver, Steve Mallett, Robin Monks, Chamindra deSilva.

Legal Affairs Committee

The Legal Affairs Committee discusses the theory, practice, challenges, and opportunities of open source principles and ideals within a legal context. This includes, but is not limited to, software licensing, license proliferation, data rights, software services, software patents, etc. It also manages the trademarks of the OSI for the OSI. The chair is Danese Cooper and the members are Russ Nelson and Simon Phipps. The Legal Advisory Board are also members of the Legal Affairs Committee.

License Review Committee

The License Review Committee presides over the license approval process, solicits community input, develops community consensus, and reports the progress of these discussions and recommendations to the Board. The committee also concerns itself with the topic of open source license proliferation. The chair is Russ Nelson and the subscribers to license-review at opensource.org are the members of the committee.

New Projects and Outreach Committee

The New Projects and Outreach Committee collects proposals for new projects that advance the Mission of the Open Source Initiative. Groups wishing to bring their project under the OSI umbrella should contact the New Projects Committee to submit a proposal. The chair is Alolita Sharma and the members include Danese Cooper.

Policy and Economic Development Committee

The Policy and Economic Development committee focuses on open source policy research, development, and dissemination in the public and private sectors. This committee also monitors and works with policy-making and standards-setting organizations when such policies and/or standards have a direct impact on open source, such as the proper definition of-and relationship between-"open standards" and open source. FLOSSCC.opensource.org is one of projects supported by the work of this committee. The chair is Michael Tiemann and the members are Alolita Sharma, Dr. Fabio Kon, Dr. Tony Wasserman and Nnenna Nwakanma. Other participants include Harish Pillay and Venky Hariharan.