Certification Process

[Forrest J. Cavalier III]

I will not excuse the people who are supposed to
be doing certifications.  I am not one of them.
I think the certification process should be outlined AND
time limited.

However, I do know that many of the people behind OSI
were unavailable yesterday.  There is an open source
conference.

Certification (and marks) are important.
The whole point of the certification mark is to be able
to make the concept of free software visble to END USERS, and
allow them to "look for the union label."  Like a recycled,
or environment-friendly label.

I asked about the certification trademark and its importance in
bringing the message to end users during the Q&A at yesterday's
thebazaar.org panel discussion.  ESR responded it was still bogged down
in procedural problems, but was coming.  I hope soon, but no
indication of time frame was given.


As for the certification of new licenses, it is a need that
the OSI people have agreed exists and should be served.

You observe that those who have agreed there is a need for new
certifications have not been serving everyone equally.  I agree...

but...

That's life.

Bruce is busy.  We all are.  He has to prioritize.  I believe
he has claimed that he isn't getting paid for these consultations.
I don't know if it has changed.

If he only has time to service a "Sun"-sized company that has a
huge amount of software they want to open source or a small
guy with a 2,000 line library, he will service the big company
because the end result is more free software affecting more people
sooner.   

Everyone except the conceited (and many lawyers fall into
that Not-Invented-Here philosophy) agree that using an existing
license is better than writing a new one.  Pick one if at
all possible.  And if you are a small developer, you are better
off using a known license almost no matter what.  (You don't want
an unfamiliar license to be the reason your stuff is not
accepted.  You will lose more value that way than you can ever
protect by using a new license.)

Also, it often goes without saying that if you haven't had a lawyer
write (or at least read and approve) a license, and the license
has major issues (like totally misusing some wrong assumptions
about copyright laws) then don't expect much attention.
No one has time to baby sit.

Forrest J. Cavalier III