Open Source Initiative about Attribution: you decide!

Answering a comment about the attribution debate I wrote I believed that OSI had a good chance to show the world why we need them, finding a way to close the debate, as soon as possible.

Today I learn that Michael Tiemann, Red Hat Chief Technology Officer and OSI President, posted a message on the license-discuss@opensource.org mailing-list saying:

[..]In the case of the SocialText license, I feel there’s significant risk that if we take on the responsibility of making the arguments, we may create a bias that is not faithful to the real arguments you want to make. Therefore, we’d like to invite those who think we should not approve the SocialText license to work out a common position on *why* we should not approve it, which could inform how SocialText could remedy your concerns. And we’d like to invite those who think we should approve it (or should approve it with some minor change) to work out a common position on why we *should* approve it. If one or both sides an biore willing to do this, I think that the Board’s decision process will appear much more transparent.

The OSI Board it’s likely to make the decision within February, but besides appearing more transparent they risk to delegitimate themselves..

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

4 Responses to “Open Source Initiative about Attribution: you decide!”


  1. 1 Savio Rodrigues

    Hey Roberto, I don’t think that it’s such a bad thing for the OSI to ask for community input.

    Just think about how a true open source community works. Multiple viewpoints and multiple motivations but everyone’s pulling in the same direction.

    I think more input and more transparency is a good thing; whether it’s for developing software, or for deciding on what constitutes an open source license.

  2. 2 Roberto Galoppini

    I agree Savio, is not such a bad thing itself ask for comments, though they’re asking it now because they couldn’t manage to sort it out by themselves.
    Democracy through participation it’s supposed to be a philosophy, not the ultimate resource when you’re in trouble, as Pontius Pilate.

  3. 3 Savio Rodrigues

    lol - the Pontius Pilate reference made my day!

  1. 1 rand($thoughts);

Leave a Reply


About the Editor

Roberto Galoppini on Open Source Software
Roberto has over 20 years experience in the computer industry, and has spent the last 10 years working in the intersection of open source software and business development. Roberto has taken an active interest in different open source projects and organizations, he also served on some advisory boards, and helped large IT vendors, open source vendors and customers to design and deploy their open source strategies. He works at SourceForge, and opinions expressed here don't necessarily represent employer's positions, strategies, or opinion.