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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