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Shane Coughlan

Shane Coughlan is an expert in communication, security and business development. His professional accomplishments include spearheading the licensing team that elevated Open Invention Network into the largest patent non-aggression community in history, establishing the leading professional network of Open Source legal experts and aligning stakeholders to launch both the first law journal and the first law book dedicated to Open Source. Shane has extensive knowledge of Open Source governance, internal process development, supply chain management and community building. His experience includes engagement with the enterprise, embedded, mobile and automotive industries.

OpenChain Tooling Group – Special Presentation – 2025-02-19

By News

This meeting featured a special presentation by Jeronimo Ortiz of SCANOSS. It provided an overview of the open source SCA tooling and technologies that SANOSS has open sourced and maintains, and looked at some of the user guides and documentation to reduce the adoption effort.

In addition, Jeronimo demoed how to make use of the osskb.org service from Software Transparency Foundation at scale using GitHub Actions, and how you can leverage scanoss.py to make use of such a service for detecting open source at file and snippet level, getting license and copyright information, or creating simple and quick SBOMs in different formats.

The presentation also included an overview of the work being done to integrate osskb.org with well known tools like ORT or FOSSology.

Webinar: DeepSeek – How Open Source AI is unlocking the future – 2025-03-28 @ 07:00 UTC

By News

An introduction to DeepSeek, its technical highlights, its history, its company, and its vision. The main presentation for this webinar will be by Jerry Tan, a long-time contributor to the open source ecosystem in China.

Join using this link up to ten minutes before the official start: 

More About Our Webinars:

This event is part of the overarching OpenChain Project Webinar Series. Our series highlights knowledge from throughout the global OpenChain eco-system. Participants are discussing approaches, processes and activities from their experience, providing a free service to increase shared knowledge in the supply chain. Our goal, as always, is to increase trust and therefore efficiency. No registration or costs involved. This is user companies producing great informative content for their peers.

Check Out The Rest Of Our Webinars

RECORDING: OpenChain AI Work Group – Monthly Workshop for North America and Europe – 2025-03-05

By News

We held our regular workshop for the OpenChain AI Work Group on March 5th. It was a two-hour session to allow topics related to AI compliance to be discussed, explored and defined. The key focus for the Work Group is to develop and finalize a Guide to AI Bill of Material Compliance in the Supply Chain, and there is active drafting going on during each meeting.

The Draft Guide:

Watch the Recording:

Track This Work:

You can follow and contribute to the work of the OpenChain AI Work Group through its dedicated mailing list. This is open to everyone regardless of industry vertical or speciality. You will find it here:

Attend Future Meetings:

You can find and get the dial-in details for all future AI Work Group meetings from our participate page here:

COMING SOON: Webinar – The Future of Insurance for Open Source: Are You Really Covered? – 2025-04-22 @ 08:00 UTC

By News

Open source and insurance has long been a topic of interest to commercial providers of products and solutions. This webinar will help unpack the reality of insurance considerations in this space. All welcome.

Abstract:

Open source software providers are facing a triple threat: tightening US and EU regulations, rising IP litigation, and the risks introduced by Gen AI. Soon, your board—and your customers and suppliers— might be asking that you have specific insurance that actually covers OSS-related liabilities. But, does such insurance exist? Does it work? And how should it work?

Historically, insurers have struggled to grasp OSS risks, offering inadequate or unclear coverage. Now, a new wave of insurance solutions is emerging, informed by OpenChain standards and best practices.

Join this session to explore how the insurance industry is evolving, what new OSS-specific coverage looks like, and how you can help shape it to meet the real needs of the open source community.

Meet Your Presenters:

Lewis Parle, Head of Intellectual Property Risks @ Lockton

Andrew Katz, CEO @ Orcro

Stephen Pollard, Director Open Source Advisory @ Orcro

Join the Webinar:

LINK PENDING

COMING SOON: OpenChain Korea Work Group – Meeting #25 – 2025-03-25

By News

The 25th Meeting of the OpenChain Korea Work Group is coming soon! Join one of the most energetic, friendly and productive open source communities dedicated to better supply chain management. All welcome, even if you do not speak Korean.

Time and Date: 25th of March (2025-03-25) 14:00 – 17:00

Location: Korea Digital Certification Association (Yeouido Park One Building Tower 2, 48th floor) – https://maps.app.goo.gl/YnxTkz8LjHPXFJBv6

Check out the agenda and learn more here:

Please note: Format registration will launch soon. You can already express your interest on the OpenChain Korea Work Group mailing list (https://lists.openchainproject.org/g/korea-wg).

RECORDING: OpenChain SBOM Study Group – Monthly Meeting – 2025-02-26

By News

As always, we focused on the question of “how do we use SBOMs in production, large-scale and complex supply chains?” We are dealing with the reality of supply chains with many participants who have different levels of skill, use different formats, and perhaps follow different regulations or policies.

This meeting looked at two important pieces of analysis from the OpenChain Japan SBOM Sub-Group. The goal was to find common challenges, and how we can address them when we consider:

  • Process management as our focus (the management layer)
  • Previous OpenChain work in this field (e.g. the Telco SBOM Guide)
  • Other work around the world (e.g. emerging regulation etc.)

Background Analysis #1 – SBOM Quality Considerations:

Background Analysis #2 – Further SBOM Quality Considerations:

Watch the Meeting:

Learn More About This Study Group:

Our SBOM Study Group brings all our various SBOM-related activities together and helps answer the question of “how do we use SBOMs in production, large-scale and complex supply chains?” Our original kick-off call has all the details.

Get Involved:

✉️ We have a dedicated mailing list:
https://lists.openchainproject.org/g/sbom

💻 We have a dedicated GitHub Repo:
https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/SBOM-sg

Announcing Elixir OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230 Certification

By Featured, News

The Elixir Project is pleased to share that the Elixir project now complies with OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230, the international standard for open source license compliance. This step aligns with broader efforts to meet industry standards for supply chain and cybersecurity best practices.

“Today’s announcement around Elixir’s conformance represents another significant example of community maturity,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager: “With projects – the final upstream – using ISO standards for compliance and security with increasing frequency, we are seeing a shift to longer-term improvements to trust in the supply chain.”

Why OpenChain Compliance Helps

By following OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230, we demonstrate clear processes around license compliance. This benefits commercial and community users alike, making Elixir easier to adopt and integrate with confidence.

Changes for Elixir Users

  • All future Elixir releases will include a Source SBoM in CycloneDX 16 or later and SPDX 2.3 or later formats.
  • Each release will be attested along with the Source SBoM.

These additions offer greater transparency into the components and licenses of each release, supporting more rigorous supply chain requirements.

Changes for Contributors

  • Contributions remain under the Apache-2.0 License. Other licenses cannot be accepted.
  • The project now enforces the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO), ensuring clarity around contribution ownership.

Contributors will notice minimal procedural changes, as standard practices around
licensing remain in place. For more details, see the CONTRIBUTING guidelines

Commitment

These updates were made in collaboration with the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation, reflecting a shared commitment to robust compliance and secure development practices. Thank you to everyone who supported this milestone. We appreciate the community’s ongoing contributions and look forward to continuing the growth of Elixir under these established guidelines.

Learn more about Elixir:

CSI Piemonte Announces Recertification to OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230

By Featured, News

CSI Piemonte, an early adopter of OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230, has announced their fourth periodic recertification of the international standard for open source license compliance processes.

“CSI Piemonte has renewed its self-certification to ISO/IEC 5230:2020 for the fourth time, aware of its decades-long aptitude to implement, acquire, and publish open source software,” says Marco Alberto Panepinto, Open Source Subject Matter Expert at CSI Piemonte. “Italian law, in particular, requires public administrations to publish self-produced software on the national Developers Italia catalog, on which CSI Piemonte publishes the products implemented for local Piedmontese bodies, including mainly the Piedmont Region. Our processes are aimed at providing and promoting the creation and control of open source software, aimed at reuse by other public administrations, as our legislation provides. It is therefore since 2020 that we have adhered to the standard and we are proud to continue pursuing the goal of making our software open.”

“In recent months we have highlighted recertification activity around our standards to underline the concept of sustainable approaches to software management,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Continuity in supply chain management is key to ensure that issues are minimized and productivity is maximized. We are delighted to collaborate with CSI Piemonte on yet another reminder of this important point, and the suitability of OpenChain standards for such long-term management.”

About CSI Piemonte

CSI Piemonte has promoted technological innovation and digital transformation for public administrations since 1977. OpenChain is delighted to welcome them to our community of conformance.

Learn More About CSI

About the OpenChain Project:

The OpenChain Project has an extensive global community of over 1,000 companies collaborating to make the supply chain quicker, more effective and more efficient. It maintains OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230, the international standard for open source license compliance programs and OpenChain ISO/IEC 18974, the industry standard for open source security assurance programs.

About The Linux Foundation:

The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, OpenChain, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

Collabora Highlights ISO/IEC 5230 Renewal

By Featured, News

Collabora has recently completed its regular 18 month renewal of ISO/IEC 5230 conformance via self-certification, and is highlighting this activity for the benefit of the wider community. This underlines an important principle of standard adoption and use: sustainability through periodically checking processes to ensure their integrity.

“Our renewed ISO/IEC 5230 certification demonstrates Collabora’s unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest standards of compliance to open-source licenses,” says Olivier Potin, Chief Operating Officer at Collabora. “Through OpenChain, we ensure our customers have complete visibility into their software supply chain while guaranteeing compliance with open source licensing requirements. This certification reinforces our position as a trusted partner in delivering open source solutions.”

“The principle of ensuring continued conformance to a standard is a key part of genuine sustainability,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “We appreciate Collabora’s decision to publicly highlight their example in double-checking process integrity, and helping to inspire similar long-term approaches in the supply chain.

About Collabora:

Collabora is a global consultancy specializing in delivering the benefits of Open Source software to the commercial world. Whether it’s the Linux kernel, graphics, multimedia or machine learning, Collabora’s expertise spans across all key areas of Open Source software development. By harnessing the potential of community-driven projects, and re-using existing components, Collabora helps its clients focus on creating product differentiation, enabling them to develop the best solutions. From tailoring the latest Open Source technologies to your projects, to integrating Open Source methodologies into your organization, Collabora can help you navigate the ever-evolving world of Open Source. Learn more at collabora.com.

About the OpenChain Project:

The OpenChain Project has an extensive global community of over 1,000 companies collaborating to make the supply chain quicker, more effective and more efficient. It maintains OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230, the international standard for open source license compliance programs and OpenChain ISO/IEC 18974, the industry standard for open source security assurance programs.

About The Linux Foundation:

The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, OpenChain, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

RECORDING: OpenChain Monthly Specification and Education Call (North America – Europe) – 2025-02-13

By News

Our February meeting of the Specification and Education Work Groups for North America and Europe covered four major topics:

  1. The current status of the freeze period for proposed updates to ISO/IEC 5230 and ISO/IEC 18974
  2. Potential future standardization work
  3. The recent release of the Capability Model for ISO/IEC 5230
  4. Next steps for the Education Work Group

Check out the Meeting Slides:

Watch the Recording:

Coming Next:

We will be following up on the activities outlined above on the mailing lists, and we will continue our regular series of calls and meetings throughout the year.

Join Our Work:

Everyone is welcome to be part of the Specification Work Group. You can join their mailing list here:
https://lists.openchainproject.org/g/specification/

You can find and be part of all OpenChain calls through our participation page here:
https://openchainproject.org/participate