Open Source Initiative
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.
The organization was founded in February 1998 by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond when Netscape Communications Corporation, published the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product as free software, due to lowering profit margins and competition with Microsoft's Internet Explorer software.
Raymond was president from its founding until February 2005; Russ Nelson replaced him for one month, but after some controversy he resigned and Michael Tiemann became interim president.
The phrase "open source initiative" is also used by the ObjectWeb consortium to differentiate market-aware endeavors from open source projects. An example of an open source initiative is the "ESB initiative" incepted by ObjectWeb in June 2004.
The term "Open Source" achieved much press coverage from 1998 to 2000, although it was often misunderstood. Numerous enterprises opened to the thought of an alternative open source operating system. The Open Source Initiative was able to publish a number of internal Microsoft memos, the Halloween documents, that showed Microsoft was an opponent of Linux and had suggested various methods of eliminating the threat of open source software. See also Embrace, extend and extinguish.
The Open Source Initiative is still active with a board comprised of:
- Matt Asay
- Ken Coar
- Danese Cooper
- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh
- Joi Ito
- Russ Nelson
- Bruno de Souza
- Michael Tiemann
- Sanjiva Weerawarana
OSI board alumni include:
- L. Peter Deutsch
- Brian Behlendorf
- Guido van Rossum
- Bruce Perens
- Ian Murdock
- Chip Salzenberg
- Tim Sailer
- Eric S Raymond
- Chris DiBona
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Open-source leader steps aside at industry group (Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com, 1st February 2005)
