iHack, therefore iBlog

The objective of moving
to a membership model is
to
broaden the “ownership” of
the OSI to include the
global
community of people who
are investing their lives in
open
source. Those members
then become the true trustees of
the
open source movement,
which gives the OSI further
legitimacy
as representing
their collective voice.

The OSI is currently
wholly governed by a set of “trustees” in the form of its board of directors. As
directors have left, replacements have been selected by the remaining directors
in order to keep the board fully staffed. This model was both necessary and
appropriate when the the organization was conceived and formed by the original
board.

However, since then the world of
open source has mushroomed far beyond what it was when the original board formed
the OSI, and what was appropriate then is less so now. In particular, the size
of the OSI board is much too small to be representative of the world of open
source as it now exists.

The objective
of moving to a membership model is to broaden the “ownership” of the OSI to
include the global community of people who are investing their lives in open
source. Those members then become the true trustees of the open source
movement, which gives the OSI further legitimacy as representing their
collective voice.

To that end, the OSI
Board is soliciting proposals for a general membership structure, including
specifics on how the Board should be constituted and elected. Please email
your thoughts to the membership-discuss mailing list, where Board Member Ken
Coar will moderate and collect feedback to present to the
Board.

[Note: To join, email
“subscribe” to membership-discuss-subscribe@opensource.org]