Newsletter – Issue 21 – January 2019
The OpenChain Project has active bi-weekly calls and a central mailing list that provide the “nuts and bolts” of our community activity. These are joined by various releases of documents and announcements of OpenChain-related events throughout each month. We collect key developments in this newsletter once a month.
Introduction
The OpenChain Project started the year with a strong series of meetings, reference materials launches, and significant localization announcements. In other words, we have begun the year in a very practical manner designed to help explain, support and expand the OpenChain community ahead of our next generation Specification and entry into the formal standardization process, both expected in April.
OpenChain @ Events
The OpenChain Project opened the year with a presentation to the American Bar Association Committee on Open Source Software by David Marr, Vice President, Legal Counsel, Qualcomm Technologies:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/08/aba-committee-on-open-source-software-openchain-2
It was followed by our first workshop in Korea on the 23rd of January, a significant milestone that also saw the formation of the first OpenChain Work Group in the country:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/24/openchain-workshop-in-korea-january-23rd-2019
We held a brief survey at the event which showed:
- 64% of respondents strongly agree with the goals of the OpenChain Project, 32% agree with the goals.
- 71% of respondents think OpenChain will be a great help to their companies, 29% think it will be helpful.
- 80% of respondents plan to continue attending future meetings, 20% believe such meetings are vital and will host them.
This event was immediately followed by a volunteer table at the first open source event of the year in Japan, OSC Osaka. Great thanks are due to Dote San for helping to spread the word:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/29/openchain-osc-osaka-26th-january-2019
On the 29th of January the OpenChain Japan Work Group met to discuss License Information Exchange, a discussion that featured demonstrations of existing systems used by Hitachi and Fujitsu, and discourse focused on ensuring ease of future adoption by other companies:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/29/openchain-japan-work-group-sub-group-in-spdx-meeting
Future events announced include:
OpenChain @ Reference Material
OpenChain released an open source policy template to address multiple requests from entities of all sizes around the world. This template was created by our British partners Moocrofts and Orcro, and represent knowledge learned from practical deployment:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/17/openchain-open-source-policy-template-now-available
Thanks to assistance from our friends at KPMG the OpenChain Project was able to release an M&A Checklist covering open source and our industry standard. This short, targeted document is designed to help companies address the identification of key requirements of quality open source compliance programs in their acquisition targets:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/16/openchain-ma-checklist-version-1-out-now
The OpenChain Japan Work Group continued their prolific release of information with a graphic to explain a reference guideline for exchanging license information in the supply chain:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/09/knowledge-sharing-reference-guideline-for-exchanging-license-information-in-the-supply-chain
and a guide to using SPDX and FOSSology:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/09/knowledge-sharing-how-to-use-spdx-and-fossology-from-the-openchain-japan-work-group
The OpenChain Japan Work Group also released a series of “raw” case studies to describe open source compliance training programs. This are immediately available in English and Japanese and will – at a later date – be professionally formatted as part of a larger case-study program:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/30/raw-case-studies-open-source-compliance-training-program
OpenChain @ Promotional Material
The OpenChain overview slides were given another periodic refresh to help companies and individuals explain OpenChain to third-parties:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/24/openchain-super-short-overview-slide-decks-now-available
OpenChain @ Localization
OpenChain continued its program of internationalization driven by our community of volunteers by announcing the release of the OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Italian thanks to Carlo Piana and Marco Ciurcina:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/01/29/openchain-specification-1-2-in-italian
This was followed almost immediately by announcement of the OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Korean, and the adjacent release of the OpenChain Reference Training Slides for Specification 1.2 in Korea thanks to the excellent work of Haksung Jang at LG Electronics and Jongbaek Park at BKL:
Summary
Outreach in Korea and improved reference material to help explain options around process content set the tone for an outward-facing, pro-active year that will see OpenChain dramatically expanding its engagement with companies around the world.
License and Trademarks
Copyright 2019 The Linux Foundation. This newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0). Please feel free to share it onwards! OpenChain is a trademark of The Linux Foundation. It may be used according to The Linux Foundation Trademark Policy and the OpenChain Terms of Use. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.
