As OpenID grows, some form of governance structure is required. After many months of discussion, our collective plans for the creation of the OpenID Foundation was announced today to the OpenID-general mailing list.
Here is the announcement:
OpenID’s growing popularity over the past few months bring two pain points to light:
- A clear home for the intellectual property, trademark, and infrastructure (hosting, legal, marketing).
- A good open way for people to organize joint marketing efforts for OpenID.
Hosting is largely resolved through the generous support of the OSU Open Source Labs. The vendors in the bounty program have also worked together on presentations, articles, and community conference calls every few weeks, though it is however evident that we need to organize for a broader effort. Amsoft, Cordance, JanRain, NetMesh, ooTao, Opinity, Six Apart, Sxip and VeriSign started working on these issues recently looking for possible solutions.
We propose forming an OpenID Foundation (US 501(c)3 non-profit) as a very good way to proceed. This approach would provide:
- One home for all the IPR.
- A formal way to engage lawyers and other services on behalf of the OpenID community.
- A mechanism to provide and maintain hosting infrastructure for the OpenID community.
- The ability to do inclusive joint marketing efforts in collaboration with the wide OpenID community.
The idea is to formally commit to doing everything with the support of this community and we very much want your feedback.
Attached is a draft of the charter for the OpenID Foundation. We hope the charter expresses the vision and purpose of the OIDF, along with the responsibilities, governance, and management in a clear, cohesive fashion. Next is developing the bylaws and working with a legal firm in Portland, OR which has previously guided the legal formation of the OSDL and Wi-Max Forum.
From these companies in the OpenID community, the following individuals have agreed to serve as the initial board for the foundation:
- Artur Bergman (Six Apart, abergman@removed-you-know-where.com, San Francisco CA USA)
- David Recordon (VeriSign, drecordon@removed-you-know-where.com, San Francisco CA USA)
- Dick Hardt (Sxip Identity, dick@removed-you-know-where.com, Vancouver BC Canada)
- Drummond Reed (Cordance, drummond.reed@removed-you-know-where.net, Seattle WA USA)
- Johannes Ernst (NetMesh, jernst@removed-you-know-where.us, Sunnyvale CA USA)
- Martin Atkins (independent, mart@removed-you-know-where.co.uk, Essex England UK)
- Scott Kveton (JanRain, scott@removed-you-know-where.com, Portland OR USA)
Bill Washburn has also graciously agreed to help us through this process due to his vast experience with organizations like this in the past.
We feel certain these individuals understand OpenID’s roots, well represent the various integral parts of the larger OpenID community, share a strong vision for moving OpenID forward, and will serve with integrity as individuals while transparently representing the needs and values of their respective companies.
So, before we go any further, we want to bring you up to date and make sure that:
- We’re on a good track.
- This organization will actually be useful and productive.
- We’re doing this with sufficient clarity and in a transparent fashion.
Please also feel free to ask questions, I’m sure there are things we’ve missed that we’ve either not thought about or have just forgotten to write down.
(Signed)
–David
–Artur
–Bill
–Dick
–Drummond
–Johannes
–Martin
–Scott
(No link because the mailing list archive seems to have truncated the post there ..)
Of course, I’m very happy to serve as a member of the initial board of directors, and promise to conduct my work there in the most constructive manner for the benefit of the entire community. This is not always easy, as the difficulties in creating this organization in the first place have shown, but I believe that we all in this community ultimately win or fail together, and that understanding is definitely taking root.
One of my first priorities is getting the principles articulated that the OpenID community and the Foundation Board work under, such as meritocracy, open process on all levels, etc.
As board member, I definitely want to have an open-door policy. Please send all questions, concerns, suggestions that you might have to make the OpenID Foundation work for you. Thank you!