[License-discuss] OSI is not a trade association

[Mike Milinkovich]

On 2019-07-03 1:34 p.m., Scott Peterson wrote:
>
> If the Open Source Initiative was a trade association tasked with 
> providing efficient, clear determinations of what did and did not 
> conform to some standard that had been agreed among competitors in an 
> industry, then it would be important for the organization to have 
> detailed processes by which determinations are made, and it could make 
> sense for the organization to actively create guidance that makes 
> clear how the latest factors of current interest in the industry 
> affect how products will fit with respect to the lines around the 
> definition.
>
> But that is not the role of the Open Source Initiative.
> The document that is the Open Source Definition is a tool, not an end 
> in itself.
> One formalistic view of what drives the OSI can be seen in its bylaws.
> https://opensource.org/bylaws
>
> For me, the relevance of this observation developed as I watched 
> license-discuss@ and license-review@ over the last many months. While 
> not directly on topic for the ongoing threads, I see this observation 
> as continuing have sufficient relevance (albeit on the edges of what 
> is being discussed) that I have finally decided to post this comment.

I am not sure if the OSI's behaviour is predicated by its organizational 
structure. In my opinion the main obstacle to more detailed processes 
(and many other activities it could perform within its remit) is a lack 
of resources. Over the past 20 years open source has gone from a crazy 
idea to how the world works, and expecting the OSI to fulfill a 
worldwide, technology-industry-wide, mainstream mission with a volunteer 
board and 1.5 staff is not realistic.

So in my opinion, the major difference if the OSI was a trade 
association is that it would (perhaps) have the resources commensurate 
with its mission. So if you're reading this and your employer is 
notlisted as a sponsor <https://opensource.org/sponsors>, please 
consider asking your management to support the OSI's mission via a 
donation.



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