OSI Awareness Expansion Working Group 

The OSI Awareness Expansion Working Group was chartered by the board on March 5, 2014 and created as a short-term activity to call on volunteers to assist to refresh OSI's communications approach and thereby improve its ability to meet its non-profit mission.

Activities

During the period of March through June 4, 2014, working group members will work together through discussion forum, wiki, and teleconference.  

Detailed Timeline for the Working Group will be posted here by April 5, 2014.

Volunteer

If you are interested in joining the effort, please email dbryant-at-opensource-dot-org and we'll set you up to access the working group space.

Overview

OSI’s presence and ability to communicate its mission, goals, activities and in the marketplace of ideas is need of improvement, as it is with many evolving non-profits. We propose creation of a working group focused on expanding global awareness of OSI and strengthening its ability to fulfill its mission.

The work group will be comprised of experienced communications professionals and enthusiasts, marketing/research and brand experts, and community development and management leaders. Their task will be to review OSI’s communications strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges, and to recommend steps that OSI can follow to increase global awareness of OSI, while keeping within OSI's community culture, volunteer goodwill and financial resources.*

Details

Project Sponsors are Board members and OSI Outreach and Education Committee co-chairs Deb Bryant and Tony Wasserman.

What we want to produce:

It is our goal provide OSI with concrete recommendations to assist in improving its communications; strengthen its ability to use and protect its registered mark. This will be fundamental to advancing OSI’s initiatives to educate and advocate for open source software.

A written recommendation will come from the work group which will include

• General path for revitalizing/expanding OSI’s communications
• Specific recommendations for action
• Suggested approach including a mix of volunteer vs. paid professional services

The report will be submitted and or presented at the June 4, 2014**, OSI board meeting.

* Key Concepts likely to be included in discussions of the work group include

• A messaging platform that reflects OSI’s member-driven mission, ideally based on segmenting OSI’s audience subsets (various member classifications; kindred organizations (including current Affiliate Members); industry and community groups etc.)
• Improvements on existing public-facing assets such as the OSI web site and Google community groups
• Resources for content creation and management
• Strategies for more effective use of social media
• An approach to managing the OSI logo as a communications asset
• Search Engine Optimization and other contemporary inbound marketing tools
• Identifying high leverage events in which OSI should participate
• Facelifts for look and feel for all outbound OSI communications (“branding”)
• SWAG and other tangibles
• Membership drives and other ways to attract people to join OSI
• Designation of evangelists who can help build awareness and support for OSI and its mission
• Budget needs to implement awareness programs