78 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Launch announcement of the Open Source Initiative
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Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 21:25:01 GMT
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The Mozilla release in January of this year opened up a new era for
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the hacker culture of the Internet. Bruce Perens, myself, and other
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interested parties followed up on that breakthrough by launching the
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Open Source campaign. This was a sustained effort to argue for
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``free software'' on pragmatic grounds of reliability, cost, and
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strategic business risk.
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As part of this effort, Bruce Perens applied to register "Open Source"
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as a certification mark with a binding legal definition. In this way,
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he and I believed we could protect the term from abuse both accidental
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and deliberate. By doing so, we both safeguarded the hacker community's
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interests and made the Open Source attractive to software producers
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and consumers as a brand.
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Ten months later, the Open Source campaign has racked up some truly
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remarkable successes. It has almost completely turned around the negative
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image that ``free software'' had outside the hacker community. Dozens
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of software producers have sought Open Source certification for new
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products and software licenses. Major corporations like Netscape,
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Corel, and IBM have embraced the "Open Source" label and the
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development model that goes with it.
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Within the community, we have even been instrumental in resolving the
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ugly and long-simmering dispute over the Qt library license, ending
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the GNOME/KDE flamewar and the divisions it produced.
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These successes make the defense and management of the Open Source
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trademark a key issue for the whole community. Bruce Perens applied
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for the mark while president of SPI, remaining the U.S. Government's
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holder of record. But Bruce and I concluded months ago that it was no
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longer appropriate for the trademark to be organizationally tied to
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one single distribution (Debian) of one operating system (Linux).
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Some time before leaving SPI, Bruce assigned the mark to me. We
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have now followed up by forming the Open Source Initiative, an
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unincorporated nonprofit that will seek 501(c)3 status in the state of
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California as a research and educational association. The Open
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Source Initiative's mission will be to own and defend the Open Source
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trademark, to manage the www.opensource.org resources, to develop
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branding programs attractive to software customers and producers, and
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to advance the cause of open-source software and serve the hacker
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community in other appropriate ways.
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The initial Board of Directors of OSI includes Ian Murdock
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(Secretary), Russ Nelson, Bruce Perens (Treasurer), Eric S. Raymond
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(President), Tim Sailer, and Chip Salzenberg. While we have no plans
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to become a membership association (those are too complicated to run)
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we are seeking to expand the initial board to be representative of the
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entire open-source community.
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Applicants should be senior and respected members of the hacker
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community with an interest in open-source advocacy. Experience in
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project leadership or running a successful volunteer organization will
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be considered a plus. Ability to speak for a sub-community not
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represented on the existing board will be a plus. We are willing to
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expand the board to as many as nine or ten members, but will be
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demanding about qualifications. Applicants should write me at
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president@opensource.org.
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Many adventures lie ahead. The hacker community's support of the Open
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Source campaign to date has been stronger than we initially dared
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hope; it has been powerful fuel for our efforts and a continuing
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inspiration to us through the hard work of building credibility in
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press and corporate circles. We hope that you will give the Open
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Source Initiative the same support and trust that I and the other
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individuals in the campaign have so far benefited from. We will
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always do our utmost to be worthy of that support and trust.
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Issued by and for the OSI Board of Directors
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22 November 1998
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- --
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<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>
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