Shane Coughlan

The OpenChain Project had an exceptionally busy first half of 2020. From conformance to membership announcements, from reference material releases to taking the final steps in our ISO submission, the project and its community has pushed forward the state of the art in compliance.

You Can Expect Big News in Q3

First, a recap. OpenChain 2.0 is our current industry standard. It was reformatted for ISO submission in Q1 via something called the ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS transposition process. This reformatted but functionally identical document was termed OpenChain 2.1 and constituted our ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS submission in Q2. The goal is simple: our mature de facto industry standard (OpenChain 2.0) is going through a process to become a formal International Standard. There are two positive implications:

1. Everyone conformant with OpenChain 2.0 will also be conformant to the International Standard and;
2. People new to our field can easily engage and adopt our standard.

Our ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS submission (DIS 5230) will complete its voting period on the 22nd of September. Unless there is a request for a further FDIS ballot, our International Standard will be published within six weeks or less. In other words, OpenChain will have completed its transition from de facto industry standard into a formal international standard, expanding our audience of immediate interest from hundreds to thousands of companies. We will be the first formal standard from The Linux Foundation in 14 years (the last was Linux Standard Base / ISO/IEC 23360) and we are the first project to collaborate with Joint Development Foundation on transitioning a de facto standard from our field into an International Standard via the ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS transposition process.

A lot of our time and energy from now until then will be about putting everything in place to welcome new companies and new collaborators to our project. We want to ensure that people from sales, procurement and other areas impacted by the inclusion of ISO standards can quickly get up to speed. Our goal is to facilitate smooth adoption and to ensure everyone gets the benefit of great open source compliance programs.

The Outcome Will Be:

• An International Standard
• Improvements in our current reference material
• New reference material for sales/procurement/etc

Expectation 1

You can expect to always be able to access our International Standard on the OpenChain website. The OpenChain Specification 2.1 that will be hosted on our website will be “technically aligned” with the published ISO standard = they are the same. This is very similar to how the standard for Office Open XML File Formats is addressed with free access via ECMA-376 and formal ISO publication (gated access) via ISO/IEC 29500.https://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm

Expectation 2

You can expect to always be able to self-certify to the OpenChain Specification 2.1 on the OpenChain website, along with all previous and future versions of our standard. By the same measure, you can always discover and collaborate with our official partners for legal support, services support and even full third-party certification precisely as before.

Expectation 3

You can expect all future work on the OpenChain ISO standard to remain right here, running under the same processes, our well-established and refined method of ensuring we have a concise, useful and pragmatic solution to the question of open source compliance.

Expectation 4

And you can expect stability. Our forthcoming ISO standard is the end result of years of contributions from hundreds of people. It has seen four iterations after originally going to market in October 2016 (OpenChain 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and finally 2.0). Each iteration refined our work based on practical feedback from real world deployment. OpenChain 2.0 has been out since April 2019. It is rock solid, it is seeing adoption across every major geography and market. The status of OpenChain 2.0 and the functionally identical ISO formatted OpenChain 2.1 (DIS 5230) is simple: this International Standard, when it completes the ballot process, will be in market for many, many years to come. Adoption of OpenChain 2.0 and our forthcoming ISO standard is the adoption of a consistent standard that can be deployed with confidence in any supply chain.

And Of Course…

This does not mean we will put away our editing gloves. We want to capture experience and feedback from today and into the foreseeable future. As of last month we began bi-weekly calls to provide this forum. Oversimplifying things a little, we want to make sure that every viable idea and suggestion is captured and recorded on our GitHub for the Specification.

Get this guide and many more documents in the OpenChain Reference Library: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material

This will allow us to draft future generations of the standard at an appropriate pace while also addressing and resolving many items via reference material. As always, the process will be clearly defined and clearly monitored, thanks in no small part to the exceptional work of Mark Gisi as the chair of the OpenChain Specification Work Team. Thanks Mark!

What else in 2H 2020? Conformance announcements. Membership announcements. Partner announcements. The usual. Each reflecting a new milestone in our continued progress. Most importantly our work teams, whether global and addressing spaces like automotive and reference tooling, or local and addressing geographies like China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Germany and (as of July) the UK, will remain the heart of everything we do. OpenChain is created by and run by user organizations to solve challenges for user organizations. This laser focus is at the heart of our success and it will remain so in the future.

On a final note, the OpenChain Project expects to be operating virtually until 2021. Our individual work groups in various geographies may hold physical meetings based on their discretion, but for the project as a whole our emphasis will be on ensuring our online communication and sharing is effective and consistent. We already put everything in place (bi-weekly webinars, bi-weekly space for spec discussions, our pre-existing mailing lists, free access to Zoom + UberConference), and we will continue to execute against this plan.

Regards

Shane Coughlan
General Manager, OpenChain
e: scoughlan@linuxfoundation.org       
p: +81 (0) 80 4035 8083                
w: www.linuxfoundation.org

Want to Talk More About This? Schedule a 1-2-1 Call

• https://calendly.com/openchainproject

Our wonderful OpenChain Japan Work Group is running a global survey in English covering open source compliance in business environments. Please assist in our ongoing mission to lock down real-world data points to help everyone increase efficiency around compliance activities. Huge thanks to Watanabe San from Hitachi Solutions for the English translation of the material. Amazing work all!

From OpenChain Japan

We would like to investigate and analyze the actual situation of companies’ OSS compliance operations. In order to do so, we decided to conduct a questionnaire survey. We believe the result of this investigation to help improvement the operations of each company. In addition, we will post the analysis of this to the Intellectual Property Association of Japan for development OSS skill standard. We would like to ask you to respond to a wide range of responses for conducting effective survey. I understand you are occupied at the moment, but we appreciate your cooperation. In addition, since the deadline for responses is July 17, 2020, please respond within the deadline.

If you have any questions, please let us know:
OpenChain Project Japan Work Group Promotion Sub Group OSS Skill Standard Development Team

1. The name of this survey
   The Survey of OSS Compliance Operations in Companies
2. The purpose of this survey
   -Research and analyze the actual situation of OSS compliance operations in companies
   -As part of the proposal for the development of the OSS skill standard, we will write a technical paper and contribute the paper to Intellectual Property Association of Japan.
3. The Method of this survey Open Ballot and Anonymous Tabulation
   *For considering duplicate responses from the same organization, please enter your name
   *The data we receive will be collected anonymously and used in a format that does not identify the responding company.
4. The Result of this survey
   -Once the survey results have been compiled, we will share a simple summary to you.
   -Detailed data and analysis results will be published in a paper from next spring.

• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6KuL1na6fgid8a_jXWCvdQ1Z5wDO9XQTRskK7j2ZTAWU3Rg/viewform

GDPR Privacy Policy
The personal data acquired in this survey will be used only for the purposes related to this survey. Personal data will be transferred to Japan and stored on our Google servers. Our team will professionally manage the personal data of respondents. Respondents may ask our team to access their personal data, correct inaccurate personal data, and limit data processing while verifying the accuracy of personal data. The contact information for this survey is oss-skill-standard@googlegroups.com.
If you agree to the above regarding the use and transfer of personal data, please check the box in the survey form. Respondents have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. And withdrawing this consent does not affect the legality of data processing or data transfer prior to withdrawal.

This Monday at 9am Pacific (Monday midnight Beijing/Taipei, 1am Seoul/Tokyo) we will hold our seventh webinar. We will cover two strategic topics. VM (Vicky) Brasseur will open with a discussion on Lessons Learned over her wide-ranging career in open source and business. Katy Gibson and Robert Grannells will then discuss how an initiative in the UK is fostering Future Leaders in our field, a timely topic given recent observations by parties like Linus regarding the challenge of finding new blood to take over old projects.

This is part of the bi-weekly OpenChain Webinar series. Every two weeks we have international speakers covering a wide range of topics related to practical open source compliance challenges, solutions and considerations.

You can learn more about this series here: 
https://www.openchainproject.org/webinars-interviews

Learn More About Our Speakers

VM (Vicky) Brasseur corporate strategist, open source & technical leader, author, speaker Resume Book About Publications Presentations

VM (Vicky) Brasseur is an award-winning free/open source advocate and corporate strategist, international keynote speaker, and writer. She’s the author of Forge Your Future with Open Source, the only book detailing how to contribute to free/open source (FOSS) projects. Aside from articles in various publications, she also writes about FOSS, business, and their intersection on her blog.

Katy Gibson – Associate Commercial IP/IT Solicitor – Bristows LLP – Co-chair of the OpenUK Future Leaders Group

Katy is an Associate in the Commercial IP/IT Team at Bristows LLP and advises on a variety of matters involving data protection, IT and intellectual property for clients in a range of industries, including those within the Life Sciences and TMT sectors. She trained at Bristows and qualified in 2018.

Robert Grannells – Associate Technology Solicitor – Fieldfisher LLP – Co-chair of the OpenUK Future Leaders Group

Robert is a technology lawyer experienced in advising a variety of clients of all sectors and sizes, on a variety of issues across software, hardware, infrastructure, networking, open source and web technologies. He has extensive knowledge of the actual technology underpinning what his clients do, want they want to use and how they need it to work to get business done.

Amanda Brock, CEO at OpenUK

Amanda is CEO of the UK body for “open technology being open source software, open hardware and open data”, OpenUK; the Chair of the Open Source and Intellectual Property (IP) Advisory Group of the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs;  European Representative of the world’s biggest defensive patent pool, the Open Invention Network;  OASIS Open Projects’ Advisory Council Member(open source and open standards); Advisory Board Member KDE; Advisory Board Member Beamery and Mentors C Suite individuals. 

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credativ, a leading open source support and services provider, announces OpenChain 2.0 conformance. credativ was an early adopter of the industry standard for open source compliance, and the adoption of 2.0 further demonstrates their commitment to continual improvement across all aspects of their business.

“Nowadays most businesses benefit from open source software or even employ it in their business critical infrastructures,” says Dr. Michael Meskes, CEO of credativ. “In order to do that, businesses need to trust the software. Here is where the OpenChain project’s easily adoptable guidelines come in. Fostering trust and expanding on the positive impact of open source in business, we hope that many more companies will be able to shift to a progressive infrastructure and a more wide spread adoption of open source.”

“credativ has a long pedigree in the open source world both as an innovator and as a community builder,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Their early adoption of the OpenChain industry standard for compliance underlined this, and their announcement today of conformance with the latest version of our standard – functionally identical to our forthcoming ISO standard – solidifies their position of excellence in open source governance. I am looking forward to continued collaboration in the months and years ahead.”

About credativ

The credativ Group is an independent consulting and services company with primary locations in Germany, the United States, and India.
Since 1999, credativ has focused entirely on the planning and implementation of professional business solutions using Open Source software. Since May 2006, credativ operates the Open Source Support Center (OSSC), offering professional 24×7 enterprise support for numerous Open Source projects. For more information, visit http://www.credativ.com

About the OpenChain Project

The OpenChain Project builds trust in open source by making open source license compliance simpler and more consistent. The OpenChain Specification defines a core set of requirements every quality compliance program must satisfy. The OpenChain Curriculum provides the educational foundation for open source processes and solutions, whilst meeting a key requirement of the OpenChain Specification. OpenChain Conformance allows organizations to display their adherence to these requirements. The result is that open source license compliance becomes more predictable, understandable and efficient for participants of the software supply chain.

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and industry adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. 

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contacts

Shane Coughlan
+818040358083
scoughlan@linuxfoundation.org

The OpenChain Project held a mini-summit adjacent to Open Source Summit North America. Here is the recording of our event and a copy of the main slides presented.

The Recording

The Slides

OpenChain @ OSS North America Virtual Event – OpenChain Mini-Summit from Shane Coughlan

On the 1st of July at 4:05pm Central Time Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager will deliver a talk entitled ‘Open Source in ISO: Building the First LF Standard in Fourteen Years and What It Means for You.’

Open Source in ISO Building the First LF Standard in Fourteen Years and What It Means for You from Shane Coughlan

This talk will explore the process of building and deploying the first Linux Foundation ISO standard in fourteen years, highlighting both what has changed since we deployed Linux Standard Base, and why formal standardization is a topic that will increasingly be on your radar. The discussion will be primarily focused on OpenChain, the industry standard for open source compliance, and how collaboration with the Joint Development Foundation allowed a transformation from de facto into formal standard in a timescale that suits open source development. The lessons learned are applicable to any projects building out specifications or code that seek worldwide, sustainable adoption across multiple industries, and the presentation will include an explanation of how Linux Foundation and Joint Development Foundation are ready to support that process today.

Learn More

• https://sched.co/c3Y1