I am seeking election to my first term as an OSI Board member. I have been actively involved in the free software community as both an attorney and as a sometimes individual contributor. My entire legal career has been focused on free and open software issues. I am running for the board because I believe it is important to have an attorney's voice on the board who has spent most of their career to representing community free and open source projects and nonprofits. I believe OSI should continue on the path of promoting user's and developer's software freedom by only approving licenses that uphold the spirit of the Open Source Definition. I also believe now is a opportune time for OSI to reach out to governments to promote the adoption of open source by national and regional governments.

About me

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I am a lawyer with substantive experience and a passionate interest in free software legal and policy issues. I have been a user of free software since buying my first Walnut Creek CD of Slackware Linux in the mid-nineties. I have over 6 years of experience as a legal counselor almost exclusively focused on representing open source project developers, open source/free software nonprofits, and commercial entities involved in free software use and development.

For the past two years I have been in-house legal counsel for CivicActions, a professional services company that works with governments and nonprofits to provide solutions based on free software licensing. All of CivicActions’ work is delivered under a free software license or under a license that enables our customers to release it as free software. In addition to advising CivicActions as in-house counsel I also provide consulting services to government legal offices on how to use and develop free software projects. I continue to regularly act as pro bono counsel for several prominent free software and open data nonprofits.

Before joining CivicActions I was counsel at the Software Freedom Law Center, where I principally advised free and open source software nonprofit projects and individual free software developers. The projects I advised ranged from projects with a small team of core contributions to some of the largest and most prominent free software nonprofits.

Prior to becoming an attorney I spent 17 years as systems administrator and architect at a public research university. I regularly developed software, deployed open source solutions, and contributed back to free software projects in that role. My experience developing software and working as a technologist has allowed me to be particularly effective serving legal clients developing free software, and will continue to inform my perspective and bring value to my service on the Board. I also speak regularly to diverse technical, legal, and government audiences on topics at the intersection of open source, law, and policy. Recent conferences I have spoken at include CopyleftConf, FOSDEM, and LibrePlanet. 

Why I'm running for election

I am naturally drawn to the licensing mission of the OSI. I believe it is important to have an attorney well versed in open source licensing on the board of OSI. However, I do not believe the board should be dominated by attorneys. An attorney's professional voice is only one of many voices that should help guide the future of OSI and the Open Source Definition. I would be honored to participate along with experienced software developers and community leaders in guiding the OSI.

One of the most important functions of the OSI is to continue its leading role in interpreting and applying the Open Source Definition -- a role that is now more critical than ever. OSI's approval of licenses and the OSD is highly regarded and frequently referenced explicitly or implicitly in government policies and commercial transactions. OSI should use its position of authority to protect the OSD, advocate for the greater adoption of open source licensing, and advance software freedom for users -- uncompromised by the short term interests of commercial actors. OSI now has an earnest responsibility to defend the OSD against a new wave of commercial actors who, while recognizing that open source has "won", are now seeking to undermine the spirit of the Open Source Definition to fit their business models.

I believe my experience qualifies me to make significant contributions to the Board's work of protecting the spirit of the Open Source Definition. This doesn't mean there is no space for new licenses or innovation; to the contrary, I believe OSI should take a leading role in recognizing new licenses that are created in response to new issues that arise as technology advances. OSI should ensure that new licenses approved as open source conform to the open source spirit and preserve the trust that both free software communities and commercial actors have in using software licensed under an OSI-approved Open Source License.

OSI's license gatekeeping function is critical for establishing and strengthening the legal framework that allows open source development to prosper. I believe OSI should take a more active role in explaining the spirit of the Open Source Definition -- including updating the annotations to the OSD and the approval process to ensure the approval process is responsive to the current social and technological environment. This should be done by building on the current board's efforts to clarify that the primary mission of OSI and the purpose of the OSD is to advance software freedom.

While I believe commercial actors should be welcomed and encouraged to participate in the free and open source community, they should be expected to participate in a manner consistent with the community values. To that end, OSI should be active in combating "open washing" efforts that deceive users into relinquishing their software freedom. OSI must continue to nurture relationships with other free software and open source community organizations who share similar values, including the Software Freedom Conservancy and the Free Software Foundation.

I also believe now is the time to actively engage with governments around the world who are increasingly adopting "open source" as part of their procurement and transparency strategy. OSI should work to ensure that “open source” is more than a buzzword, so both government and the public can benefit from the use of open source software. The FOSS community ethos is a natural ally of good government, personal privacy, and transparency efforts. Open source is a non-partisan issue that is being embraced by agencies around the world as an opportunity for government to regain its computational and data sovereignty, and to do so in a fiscally responsible manner. OSI should also encourage governments to look at the benefits of using open source to promote public involvement in government and to allow constituents to create modern digital businesses in their local communities.

Feel free to ask me any questions by emailing me marc_at_joneslaw.io. Thank you!