Plone Foundation Board Votes to Become Open Source Initiative (OSI) Affiiliate

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) recently invited the Plone Foundation to join its ranks as an OSI Affiliate. Following a discussion online among Foundation members, the Foundation Board voted in their December 1st meeting to become an OSI Affiliate.

All that is required to become an OSI Affiliate is a formal statement by the Board that Plone endorses and support the mission of the Open Source Initiative and wishes to become Affiliated. Following that, the foundation will appoint a delegate to represent Plone to the OSI, as well as possibly participating in OSI working groups.

"Plone operates in a sector with a large number of both Open Source and proprietary products," said Plone Foundation President Matt Hamilton.  "With Open Source now becoming the default for many customers, it is more important than ever to protect the definition of the term Open Source against corruption. By working alongside the OSI, The Plone Foundation can help further promote and protect both Open Source in general and Plone as a truly Open Source Content Management System."

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation with global scope formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community.

OSI was established at the end of the 90s to advance the idea of open source - pragmatic software freedom based on objective definitions. In the decade that followed, the Open Source Definition became the keystone for the doorway to software freedom and OSI's stewardship of the OSD and its expression in evaluating open source licenses was crucial to establishing open source as the norm for software development and deployment. As the slogan for this year's OSCON said, open source has moved "from disruption to default" - from being a force for change driven by the few to being the benchmark for excellence respected by the many.

You can find out more about OSI by visiting http://www.opensource.org/