The full recording of the Virtual All Member Meeting #1 is now available (Japanese language).
Newsletter – Issue 36 – April 2020
OpenChain in Q2 – Continuing Leadership, Continuing Support
The global lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19 is a unique historical moment. We are seeing both great success and great challenges in addressing this disease, and at all times there is an awareness that it can impact our close friends and families. To a large extent the OpenChain community is fortunate. Many of our companies allow us to work from home. Many of us are near excellent health services. We are well-positioned to weather this storm. We will do so with the health of our community and the societies in which we work as our highest priority.
Read more here:
OpenChain @ Webinars:
- Over the last three years the OpenChain Project has held bi-weekly calls on the First Monday (9am Pacific) and Third Monday (5pm Pacific) of each month. These calls have driven forward our standard for open source compliance and a large corpus of supportive reference material. Today we are at an inflection point and we have an opportunity to enhance our service to the global community.With less emphasis right now on editing our standard (the forthcoming ISO version is fully baked) and our reference material largely produced via local work teams, there is an opportunity to launch an on-going series of webinars that provide access to people and knowledge that we would otherwise obtain at events.
We kicked off on Monday the 6th of April at 9am Pacific with speakers covering Supply Chain Governance and Container Compliance.
- https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2020/04/08/openchain-webinar-1-supply-chain-governance-container-compliance-full-recordingWe got some pretty great feedback in a survey:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2020/04/17/openchain-webinar-1-survey-results
Our second Webinar was held on the 20th of April and covered compliance in China and OpenChain at Facebook.
We also announced our third Webinar for the 4th of May covering Contribution Policies + OpenChain in M&A. Watch this space for the recording in the next issue.
OpenChain @ Translations
OpenChain Specification 2.0 Available In Russian
- The official reference translation of the OpenChain Specification 2.0 is now available in Russian thanks to Denis Dorotenko (Yandex) and Pavel Lugovoy (independent counsel). This marks another important milestone for our project, providing greatly increased geographic coverage for our work, and helping to support engagement in a country with a long history of technology leadership.
https://www.openchainproject.org/featured/2020/04/03/openchain-specification-2-0-available-in-russian
OpenChain @ Conformance
Siemens Announces OpenChain 2.0 Conformance
- Siemens, an OpenChain Platinum Member and pioneer of adoption around our standard, has announced OpenChain 2.0 conformance. This builds on their previous public work in describing their journey and announcing 1.1 conformance in April 2017.
https://www.openchainproject.org/featured/2020/04/09/siemens-announces-openchain-2-0-conformance
OpenChain @ Partners
OSS Engineering Consultants is an OpenChain Partner
- On the 20th of April we announced OSS Engineering Consultants (OSSEC) as a partner organization. This is a consulting firm based in North America, providing solutions for managing OSS use for organizations with complex software supply chains.
https://www.openchainproject.org/featured/2020/04/20/oss-engineering-consultants-is-the-latest-openchain-partner
Osborne Clarke is an OpenChain Partner
- On the 27th of April we announced that Osborne Clarke as a partner organization. This is an international legal practice with offices situated around Europe, Asia and the USA with a strong focus on technology law.
https://www.openchainproject.org/featured/2020/04/27/osborne-clarke-is-the-latest-openchain-partner
OpenChain @ Work Groups
- The OpenChain Taiwan Work Group launched a local website:
https://www.openchainproject.org/featured/2020/04/01/openchain-taiwan-work-group-launches-new-website - OpenChain Japan Work Group held a special webinar to discuss the outcomes of six sub-groups:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2020/04/29/openchain-japan-virtual-all-member-meeting-1-reports-from-six-sub-groups-april-23rd-2020
OpenChain @ Events
- Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager, delivered a webinar covering the OpenChain Reference Training slides as part of his contribution to the open source advisory council of UNTIL:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2020/04/09/openchain-reference-training-united-nations-technology-innovation-labs - Shane Coughlan also co-hosted a webinar with the team from FOSSID on OpenChain, standardization and the path to real world utilization:
https://www.openchainproject.org/featured/2020/04/15/fossid-webinar-openchain-standardization-and-real-world-deployment-april-29th-2pm-pacific
Coming Next
- This newsletter marks 36 months since we started a major outward push for awareness and adoption in the OpenChain Project. During this time we have seen our industry standard enter a multitude of new markets. You can expect this continue and you can expect initiatives like our webinars to grow over time. Our next newsletter will both provide a new look and a great way for people to get started with our activities. Watch this space.
SAN FRANCISCO, APRIL 27, 2020 – The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that Osborne Clarke is our latest partner organization. Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with offices situated around Europe, Asia and the USA with a strong focus on technology law.
The deep IT sector knowledge of Osborne Clarke comes from acting for an impressive client base comprising the great and the good in global technology, which exposes the firm to fresh ideas and new operating models ahead of the competition. Osborne Clarke has more than ten years of experience in providing comprehensive legal and technical advice on open source software and offers solutions in the area of open source compliance and contributions. Having developed a legal tech solution for evaluating and handling the legal aspects of open source licenses, Osborne Clarke helps companies to comply with legal open source license requirements, from startups to stock exchange-listed groups, as streamlined and efficiently as possible.
The OpenChain standard defines inflection points in business workflows where a compliance process, policy or training should exist to minimize the potential for errors and maximize the efficiency of bringing solutions to market. The companies involved in the OpenChain community number in the hundreds. The OpenChain standard is being prepared for submission to ISO and evolution from de facto into a formal standard this year.
“In the recent past, OpenChain has evolved as a de facto standard in the field of open source license compliance,” says Dr. Hendrik Schöttle, Partner at Osborne Clarke in Germany. “Being involved in open source compliance on a daily basis, joining OpenChain was the logical consequence for Osborne Clarke. We hope to contribute and to push forward the great and valuable efforts of OpenChain for compliance standardization.”
“The OpenChain Project has a strong emphasis on ensuring the support infrastructure for adoption is as comprehensive as possible as we transition from a de facto to formal standard via the ISO process,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager.“ Hendrik Schöttle and the team at Osborne Clarke have exceptional knowledge in this field and provide us with a substantial increase in coverage and knowledge throughout the OpenChain Partner Program.”
About Osborne Clarke
Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 270 Partners and more than 900 talented lawyers in 26 locations. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it’s fundamental to our success.
Learn more about OC’s open source work at http://www.osborneclarke.com/oss
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. More information can be found at www.openchainproject.org.
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 Contact:
Shane Coughlan
+818040358083
coughlan@linux.com
The OpenChain Project has launched a series of bi-weekly free webinars that provide access to people and knowledge that we would otherwise obtain at events. We hold our third meeting on Monday the 4th of May at 9am Pacific with four guest speakers.
Tobie Langel will speak about ‘Open Source Contribution Policies That Don’t Suck.’ In his own words: Open source contribution policies are long, boring, overlooked documents, that generally suck. They’re designed to protect the company at all costs. But in the process, end up hurting engineering productivity, and morale. Sometimes they even unknowingly put corporate IP at risk. But that’s not inevitable. It’s possible to write open source contribution policies that make engineers lives easier, boost morale and productivity, reduce attrition, and attract new talent. And it’s possible to do so while reducing the company’s IP risk, not increasing it.
Leon Schwartz and Tony Decicco from GTC Law will provide an overview of open source-related topics in the context of mergers, acquisitions, financings, investments, IPOs, divestitures, loans, customer license agreements, rep and warranty insurance and other transactions. This will span:
- Types of open source risk
- open source due diligence as part of transactions
- open source-related terms in agreements
- The strategic use of open source in transactions
Andrew Katz will present a due diligence questionnaire and sample warranties based on the the OpenChain specification, and will explain how adoption of this framework will drive further adoption of the standard. This builds on the observation that the OpenChain specification provides a great framework for due diligence and share purchase agreement warranties, even where the target is a software company which is not OpenChain compliant.
Each talk will run for 10~15 minutes and there will be plenty of time for questions, comments and suggestions. As with all OpenChain Project activities, our goal is to facilitate knowledge-sharing between peers.
Everyone is invited to join this free webinar via zoom. It will also be recorded and made available later on our website.
Join Our Zoom Meeting
Password *
- 123456
One Tap Telephone (no screensharing)
- +358 9 4245 1488,,9990120120# Finland
- +33 7 5678 4048,,9990120120# France
- +49 69 7104 9922,,9990120120# Germany
- +852 5808 6088,,9990120120# Hong Kong
- +39 069 480 6488,,9990120120# Italy
- +353 6 163 9031,,9990120120# Ireland
- +81 524 564 439,,9990120120# Japan
- +82 2 6105 4111,,9990120120# Korea
- +34 917 873 431,,9990120120# Spain
- +46 850 539 728,,9990120120# Sweden
- +41 43 210 71 08,,9990120120# Switzerland
- +44 330 088 5830,,9990120120# UK
- +16699006833,,9990120120# US (San Jose)
- +12532158782,,9990120120# US
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abeUqy3kYQ
Not all countries have available numbers.
After dialing the local number enter 9990120120#
This webinar is about the current Chinese market and it also provides an update on what Facebook is doing around open source governance and licensing.
Our Presenters
Maggie Wang spoke about OpenChain in China. Maggie’s background ranges from working as an in-house at Huawei to acting as the China representative for Ladas and Parry. Her unique experience in-house and as outside counsel positions her perfectly to help contextualize where we are with regards compliance, standardization and business reality in one of our most important markets.
Michael Cheng spoke about OpenChain at Facebook, a topic that ranges from adoption activity and broader leadership in the compliance space by the company. His perspective will provide added value given the simultaneous decision by Facebook, Google and Uber to join OpenChain as Platinum Members in late 2018, and plenty of runway for our audience to ask questions about real-life lessons learned.
Check Out The Rest Of Our Webinars
This is OpenChain Webinar #2, released on 2020-04-22.
The OpenChain Japan Work Group will host an online meeting on the 23rd of April. This meeting will feature reports from six of the sub-groups and will have plenty of time for questions or comments. This meeting will be held in the Japanese language and is open to everyone.
開催日： 2020年4月23日(木)
場所： Zoom（SocioNextさんのご厚意にて利用予定）
https://socionext.zoom.us/j/99975267803?pwd=M25XMnJLaWlYRi9hWkxESVFleWp5UT09
時間： 午後1時～3時30分（暫定）を予定。
内容： 各サブグループの活動内容紹介
Promotion subgroup
FAQ subgroup
Leaflet subgroup
Education subgroup
License Info subgroup
Tooling subgroup
説明15分、QA5分程度を予定しています。
SAN FRANCISCO, APRIL 20, 2020 – The OpenChain Project is excited to announce OSS Engineering Consultants (OSSEC) as our latest partner organization. A consulting firm based in North America, OSSEC provides a unique and proven solution for managing OSS use for organizations with complex software supply chains.
OSSEC (www.ossengineeringconsultants.com) focuses on helping organizations looking to implement an efficient and holistic governance structure to empower developers and promote collaboration. OSSEC’s goal is to improve developers’ efficiencies and productivity within the organization by building a thorough and compliant OSS process, all while managing risk.
Prior to starting OSS Engineering Consultants (OSSEC), Russ Eling spent over 20 years in several engineering and systems engineering roles at General Motors, one of the largest automotive OEMs in the world. Russ developed a successful OSS program at General Motors in 2013, which is now regarded as the most comprehensive program in the automotive industry. He designed and implemented a process and system for managing OSS use and compliance in every GM vehicle across the globe. This process is still in use today.
“The automotive industry has one of the most intricate and complex supply chains in existence,” says Russ Eling, CEO and Founder, “Despite these challenges, we were able to implement a simplified process and unified system to bring it all together. We developed a method that simplifies complexities and mitigates risk, and we look forward to helping other organizations that face similar challenges, regardless of their industry.”
“The key to successful deployment in complex industries like automotive is having great processes in place,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “The creation and implementation of these processes requires standards such as OpenChain to provide a framework, as well as the institutional knowledge and experience of parties in that field. Russ is tremendously experienced in compliance process management and we will be working closely with him in ensuring companies and suppliers of all sizes can effectively engage with our industry standard for compliance.”
About OSS Engineering Consultants
OSS Engineering Consultants (www.ossengineeringconsultants.com) is a global consulting firm providing flexible end-to-end OSS system ideation, implementation, and execution solutions. Based just outside of Detroit, MI, USA, OSSEC has over 20 years of successful experience in automotive engineering, including extensive experience and community contacts in the open source compliance industry.
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. More information can be found at .
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 .
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: .
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Media Contacts:
OpenChain Project
Shane Coughlan
+818040358083
OSS Engineering Consultants
Russ Eling
+1 313-730-4677
russ@ossengineeringconsultants.com
The first OpenChain Webinar took place on the First Monday of April with talks on Supply Chain Governance and Container Compliance. You can learn more about the specifics of the event here.
OpenChain will continue to hold webinars on a bi-weekly schedule throughout the next months. You can find out more about our second webinar on the 20th of April, featuring OpenChain in China + OpenChain @ Facebook, right here. Our goal is to provide our community with access to the knowledge and the people they would normally discover at events.
To ensure we do the best job possible we will run surveys alongside some of the webinars and here are the results from the very first one. We had 11 respondents from an audience of 55 live and 50 for the recording. A small sample but useful for our forward planning.
All in all, a pretty good start. It was interesting that we had one respondent note that Nick’s research on supply chain governance was not relevant (and all others mark it as very relevant). A follow-up question would be why this is so? We will give people more space in future surveys to provide such feedback.
A big thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. You are helping to make things better.
Max Gnipping of FOSSID and Shane Coughlan of OpenChain will co-host a free, interactive webinar to discuss OpenChain, standardization and the path to real world utilization. This is an event hosted by our partners at FOSSID and is open to everyone. It is a great way to get started with our industry standard or to explore cross-division adoption.
Register for this Free Event
