To promote and protect open source software and communities...

For over 20 years the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has worked to raise awareness and adoption of open source software, and build bridges between open source communities of practice. As a global non-profit, the OSI champions software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition (OSD), and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement.

Open source software is made by many people and distributed under an OSD-compliant license which grants all the rights to use, study, change, and share the software in modified and unmodified form. Software freedom is essential to enabling community development of open source software.

News

Join us for OSI's first State of the Source Summit!

Submitted by jenn.cummings on Mon, 2020-08-24 15:52

We need open source now, more than ever. Now is the time to foster global connections, knowledge exchange and cross-border collaboration. Only by working together can we make bigger strides in solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. The mission of OSI has always been to advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community. Our goal is to establish State of Source as a platform to bring together open source projects, communities and advocates from around the world.

Announcing OSI's New Interim General Manager

Submitted by administrator on Thu, 2020-08-20 11:00

The Open Source Initiative is bringing in Deb Nicholson as its new Interim General Manager. Nicholson will be supporting the organization through a period of growth and introspection over the upcoming year as stakeholders continue building on the non-profit's past successes. She will be overseeing day-to-day operations, including marketing, staffing and infrastructure, as well as supporting board and volunteer activities. 

OSI's President, Josh Simmons elaborates, "We're thrilled to welcome Deb as an Interim General Manager at OSI. Her credentials are top notch, and she's well respected within the free and open source software communities... I couldn't ask for a better partner as OSI works through its second major transformation! Deb's roots in the software freedom community and at Conservancy bode well for our movements as we strive to present a more unified front to advance our shared goals."

February 2020 License-Discuss Summary

Submitted by travinkeith on Mon, 2020-07-20 19:22

In February, the License-Discuss mailing list discussed the OSD and compulsory user reporting, the delisting of licenses, the MIT-Clone and conern on the copyright notice, GDPR/CCPA and the Cryptographic Autonomy License (Beta 4), the CERN Open Hardware License 2.0, Ethical Open Source Licensing – Persona non Grata Preamble, Fairness vs Mission Objectives of the OSI, ethical open source licensing - Dual Licensing for Justice, discouraging governments from creating bespoke licenses, and the psychological relationship between an author and the work. 

OASIS Open Joins Open Source Initiative

Submitted by administrator on Tue, 2020-06-30 07:00

Shared vision and combined resources extend both organizations’ ability to advance open source through standards.

OASIS Open Logo

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 30, 2020 -- The Open Source Initiative® (OSI), the internationally recognized steward of the Open Source Definition and open source licenses, is excited to announce the Affiliate Membership of OASIS Open, a global nonprofit consortium managing a broad technical agenda encompassing cybersecurity, blockchain, privacy, cryptography, cloud computing, IoT, urban mobility, emergency management, and other content technologies.

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