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The time is once more upon us to elect board members for the Open Source Initiative. This organisation is led by its members, and as such your participation both as a voter, or as a candidate, is essential to our continued success in protecting and promoting open source software, development and communities, and championing software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure. If you are not already a member, consider changing that now so you can participate in our upcoming elections!

For those considering nominating candidates or running for a seat on the board of directors, there are just a few items to note before nominating yourself or others.

Individual Member seats are appointed based on Individual Members' votes for a 2 year term and a maximum 3 consecutive terms.

The representation of the board is as follows:

• Five Directors of the Board are appointed based on Individual Members' votes (2 year term, maximum 3 consecutive terms)
• Five Directors of the Board are appointed based on Affiliate Members' votes (3 year term, maximum 2 consecutive terms)
• One Director of the Board will be dedicated to the General Manager, ex officio (term to last length of employment)

Nominations open on February 3rd, and will run until February 15th. Only current members may run for an individual member seat on the board.

Standing for election is quite straightforward. Current Individual Members who would like to run for an Individual Member seat just need to send a contact request, with the category “Candidate Nomination”, via the OSI Contact Form. When we receive your request, we will send you back the information required to create your election profile. Our current election eligibility policy can be be found in Article V, Sections 3-5 of the Open Source Initiative bylaws. Further information can be found in the FAQ on our elections page. Important dates relating to nominations, voting, and newly elected board members taking their seats, can be found below.

Remember, if you are not already a member, and you would like to vote and/or run in the upcoming election, we would ask you to please consider registering now for membership. Not only will you have a say in the upcoming elections, but registering as an Individual Member comes with multiple benefits; OSI Individuals receive several premiums through our Affiliate Members and Corporate Sponsors.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS & IMPORTANT DATES:

February 3, 2016: Nominations open
February 15, 2016: Nominations close (Candidate's' platform is required upon nomination),
February 29, 2016: Voting opens
March 14, 2016 (midnight PST): Voting closes
March 21, 2016: Run-off elections (if needed)
April 1, 2016: Elected members take seats

University continues commitment to open source software and communities through OSI Membership.

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Jan. 24, 2016 -- The Open Source Initiative® (OSI) announced today the Affiliate Membership of Indiana University (IU), a long time champion for the use of open source software as a means for greater efficiency in higher education. The partnership highlights the OSI's recent efforts to extend support to higher education: helping colleges and universities across the globe realize the benefits of open source software, develpoment models and communities.

IU has long been committed to the development and adoption of open source software as well as the cultivation of open communities of practice. Under the leadership of Brad Wheeler, IU’s vice president for IT/CIO and interim dean of the IU School of Informatics and Computing, the university has co-founded some of higher education's most transformative open source software and service collaborations including the Sakai Project for teaching and learning software, and Kuali for financial and other administrative systems.

IU joins other higher education Affiliates, the University of Southern Queensland, Marist College, and the Apereo Foundation--a consortium of over 100 colleges and universities working to co-develop open source software for education. Affiliate membership is the ideal way for institutions of higher education to support the mission of the OSI and contribute to the continued awareness and adoption of open source software, while growing their own local open source software initiatives, portfolios and communities on campus and across higher education.

Patrick Masson, OSI General Manager and Director, welcomed IU and acknowledged the universitiy's impact, "Indiana University's investment, and especially the work of thier CIO Brad Wheeler, is arguably one of the greatest factors for the growth and success of open source in higher education." Masson added, "With IU's lead, open source software moved out of the narrow confines of the data center, to broad adoption across the entire enterprise supporting user-facing systems for both academic and administrative services."

In 2009, the IU Office of the Vice President for Information Technology was recognized among the nation’s top 100 organizations by CIO magazine for its leadership in developing open source software with dozens of colleges, universities and commercial partners.

"By becoming one of the first higher education institutions to join the Open Source Initiative, Indiana University shows its continued commitment to open source," said Daniel Calarco, Chief of Staff for the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology at Indiana University. Calarco will serve as the university’s affiliate member representative to OSI.

The OSI Affiliate Member Program, available at no-cost, invites non-profit and not-for-profit organizations to directly participate in the direction and development of the OSI through Board of Directors elections as well as incubator projects and working groups that support the open source movement. Affiliate members engage with some of the world's most successful open source software leaders, projects, businesses and communities through member driven initiatives to, not only raise awareness and adoption of open source software, but also to extend and improve their own open source efforts through co-creation, collaboration and community. Campuses interested in learning more about the expanded Affiliate Member Program can visit the OSI website at http://opensource.org/affiliates or contact the OSI directly via http://opensource.org/contact.

About Indiana University
Founded in 1820, Indiana University is a major public research institution more than 114,000 students across eight campuses. Digital textbooks, virtual software delivery, and flexible learning environments support IU's mobile community and place the university at the cutting edge of IT for higher education. As part of this culture of innovation, Indiana University manages the nation's leading research networks, heads research initiatives supported by the National Science Foundation, partners with other universities on open source software development, and provides leadership in cybersecurity. For more about IT at IU, see http://it.iu.edu.

About the Open Source Initiative
Founded in 1998, the Open Source Initiative (http://opensource.org) protects and promotes open source by providing a foundation for community success. It champions open source in society through education, infrastructure and collaboration. As the steward of the Open Source Definition, the OSI is recognized internationally as the sole standards body for certifying open source licenses and preventing abuse of the open source concept by bad actors. The (OSI) is a California public benefit corporation, with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

Media Contact
Ed Schauweker
ed@agilepr.net

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.

The OSI Board is very sad to note the death of Ian Murdock. As well as founding the Debian GNU/Linux distribution in 1993 (Debian obituary), Ian was a co-founder of the Open Source Initiative and was the original Board Secretary named in our Articles of Incorporation. A charismatic and visionary leader, Ian influenced many community and commercial projects and was a friend of many former and current OSI Directors and Members.

His unexpected and sudden death is an untimely loss to the software freedom movement and OSI extends its deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

Marist College, consistently recognized as an innovator in open source systems, becomes the second institution of higher education to join the OSI.

Dec. 9, 2015 - Palo Alto, CA -- In the Summer of 2015 the Open Source Initiative® (OSI) announced the extension of its Affiliate Member Program to include institutions of higher education, and shortly after announced admission of our first member from the higher education community, the University of Southern Queensland. Today the OSI announces Marist College has joined as well. Marist College is an important supporter and contributor to not only the advancement of open source software within colleges and universities, but also as a community member of another OSI Affiliate, the Apereo Foundation. Marist College's experiences in open source software adoption, community development and policy advocacy within the higher education landscape will inform the OSI's work throughout the education sector and help shape the Affiliate Member Program to best serve institutions of higher education exploring, using and producing open source software.

"Marist is a great reference model, highlighting how colleges and universities can leverage open source software and communities to improve their infrastructure in line with their mission," said OSI General Manager, Patrick Masson. "Indeed, Marist is consistently recognized—through public and private grants, as well as the education and technology press—for their innovative use of open source software and systems in support of their teaching and learning programs."

Marist College as implemented a variety of open source software identified to compliment new and emerging campus initiatives: the deployment of OSI Affiliate Apereo's open source Learning Management System Sakai in support of online education; partnering with OSI Affiliate, The Linux Foundation, on the Open Mainframe Project; as well as their Joint Studies projects which are multidisciplinary, applied research projects in advanced high-performance computing, open source software development and support, and converged networking.

"Given Marist's leadership role within the open-source higher education community we are very excited to become an OSI Affiliate member", said Josh Baron, Assistant Vice President, Information Technology for Digital Education, "and help support the important strategic work OSI undertakes that facilitates open source collaboration."

Affiliate Membership in the OSI is available at no charge and allows institutions of higher education to directly participate in the development and direction of the Open Source Initiative. 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 Marist
Marist College, recognized for excellence by The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Barron's Best Buys in College Education, and Entrepreneur, is a highly selective, comprehensive, liberal arts institution noted for its leadership in the use of technology in and out of the classroom.  Founded in 1929, Marist overlooks the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York, midway between New York City and Albany, the state capital.  Marist is ecumenical in character and reflects the ideals of the founder of the Marist Brothers, St. Marcellin Champagnat: commitment to excellence in education, a pursuit of higher human values, and dedication to the principle of service.  Marist is dedicated to helping students develop the intellect and character required for enlightened, ethical, and productive lives in the global community of the 21st century.  Marist educates 4,700 traditional-age undergraduate students and over 1,400 adult and graduate students in 44 undergraduate majors and 12 graduate programs, including fully online MBA, MPA, MS, and MA degrees.  In partnership with Istituto Lorenzo de' Medici, Marist also educates over 500 students annually at the College’s branch campus located in Florence, Italy.

Media Contact
Ed Schauweker
ed@agilepr.net