OPEN SOURCE INITIATIVE (OSI) ANNOUNCES NEW AFFILIATE MEMBERS

By Deb Bryant
March 12, 2014

Palo Alto, California — The Open Source Initiative (www.opensource.org) is very pleased to announce two new organizations have joined the OSI as Affiliate Members: inBloom (www.inbloom.org) and LinuxFest Northwest (www.linuxfestnorthwest.org). The OSI Board of Directors offers a warm welcome to both!

With inBloom and LinuxFest Northwest joining as OSI Affiliates, our membership of non-profit organizations supporting our mission—to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source, and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community—increases to thirty. OSI Affiliate Members help define the direction and development of, not only the organization itself, but the open source community as well. OSI Affiliates may serve on the OSI Board—contributing their unique perspectives, expertise and vision; create and participate in a variety of special-interest working groups—collaborating with other organizations for the mutual benefit of open source development, and; extend their own networks by partnering with other Affiliates—extending awareness of and participation in their own projects and communities.

inBloom is an independent nonprofit organization that provides efficient and cost-effective means for school districts to give teachers the information and tools necessary to strengthen their connection with each student. inBloom’s Secure Data Service enables widely varied educational tools to work together so that teachers can more easily tailor education to the needs, skill level and learning pace of each individual student. It can also engage parents more deeply in their children’s learning, and save teachers time and schools money. In addition, inBloom offers a substantial security upgrade to the common resources being used, including paper records or disconnected and antiquated databases with few security features.

"inBloom intends to become a champion of open source software development in the context of educational tools for K12 and fully uphold the Open Source Definition. As a company that has built a disruptive technology for an industry where there is a lot of resistance to change, our mission mirrors that of the OSI as educators and advocates for the transparency and community involvement that is synonymous with open source software,” said Vincent Mayers, Open Source Community Manager at inBloom.

LinuxFest Northwest provides a creative environment for the open source community to come together to share new, innovative ideas, and promote through educational activities Linux/open source software principles and technologies to the general public.

Bill Wright, Board Member of LinuxFest Northwest, noted, “As a nonprofit organization we feel a strong camaraderie with the OSI in mutually promoting our goal to facilitate a viable and effective Linux and open source community.”

This April 26th and 27th marks LinuxFest Northwest's 15th year anniversary to be celebrated during their annual conference in Bellingham, WA. Join the Linux and open source communities, along with Jon "Maddog" Hall, Monty Widenius, The EFF and ACLU, as well as the OSI team and many others for a weekend of collaboration, community and creation: see the LinuxFest Northwest website for more details.

The OSI would like to thank both the community and leadership of inBloom and LinuxFest Northwest for their trust and participation. "The OSI vision of building bridges within the open source community is strengthened and advanced by these two additions," said OSI President Simon Phipps.

The OSI Affiliate Member program allows non-profit and not-for-profit organizations to become OSI members. Full details of OSI Affiliate Membership and the names of the Affiliate Members are available on OSI's Affiliate Membership pages (www.opensource.org/affiliates) together with details for other non-profit and not-for profit organizations on how to join. Individuals can also become Members at www.opensource.org/join

About the Open Source Initiative

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a California public benefit corporation, with 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, founded in 1998. The OSI is the stewards of the Open Source Definition (OSD) and the community-recognized body for reviewing and approving licenses as OSD-conformant and is also actively involved in Open Source community-building, education, and public advocacy to promote awareness and the importance of non-proprietary software. OSI Board members frequently travel the world to attend Open Source conferences and events, meet with open source developers and users, and to discuss with executives from the public and private sectors about how Open Source technologies, licenses, and models of development can provide economic and strategic advantages.

Press Contact:  press@opensource.org