Skip to main content
Category

Monthly Newsletter

OpenChain Newsletter #31

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 31 – November 2019


OpenChain Japan Advent Calendar

For the holiday season the OpenChain Japan Work Group will be running new posts about the project and open source compliance in general through 1st to 25th of December.

Big thanks to Watanabe San and Endo San for making this happen!

OpenChain @ ISO Standard 

OpenChain Specification – The ISO Draft Review Process Ends 10th December,

OpenChain @ Interviews

The OpenChain Project continues our community interview series with Nicole in Germany. Learn more about her approach to and work in the technology industry here in an interview that is anchored by the OpenChain Project but covers a wide range of IT and gender related topics.

OpenChain @ Conformance

LG Electronics announces OpenChain Conformance. LGE is the first major Korean company to take this step, cementing their status as a thought leader in the space, and directly building on their active work throughout 2019 in establishing the OpenChain Korea Work Group.

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that Fujitsu, a Platinum Member of the OpenChain Project, is the latest OpenChain 2.0 Conformant company. This activity is a continuation of Fujitsu’s long-standing commitment to excellent in open source governance and represents one of the larger OpenChain conformant programs. Fujitsu is the first company in Japan and the eighth globally to achieve OpenChain 2.0 conformance.

OpenChain @ Translations

We are proud to announce the translation of the overview slide deck for the OpenChain Project in the German language:

The OpenChain Project provides extensive reference material to help companies of all sizes adopt the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program. Our mission is to help improve compliance across the global supply chain. As part of this initiative, and thanks to the hard work of our exceptional volunteer community in Japan, the OpenChain Project has released supplier education leaflets in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English and Japanese. Please get your copies below and use them freely. As with all our reference material these are provided under CC-0 licensing, effectively public domain.

OpenChain @ In The News

The OpenChain Project was featured on the OpenUK website. Shane Coughlan wrote about the OpenChain Project and Practical Compliance.

OpenChain Project was featured on the FOSSIDB blog tom November 22th. They kindly made space for an informal, detailed dive into the project, what we are doing today, and why.

OpenChain @ Events

The OpenChain Project was at many events in November. There we go!

OpenChain @ LF Energy Global Summit in Paris, France on the 4th of November:

OpenChain @ Bird&Bird Automotive Seminar in Berlin on the 5th of November:

OpenChain Workshop adjacent to OSS EU in Lyon 

OpenChain @ Asian Legal Network event in Shanghai on the 1st of December:

OpenChain @ OSS EU:
Some of the OpenChain-related talks from Open Source Summit Europe are now available:

The OpenChain Project will be at CES 2020. This initiative is being lead by the OpenChain Japan Work Group. More news to follow soon!

OpenChain @ Work Groups

The OpenChain Automotive Work Group held its second meeting adjacent to Open Source Summit Europe in Lyon during October. We had a full house (people had to sit in the corners).

The OpenChain Japan Work Group has announced the December Meeting Schedule. The 12th OpenChain Japan Work Group will be held on December 19th at NEC (Suganuma, NEC OSS Promotion Center).

OpenChain @ Case Studies

The OpenChain Japan Work Group pioneered a series of super quick case studies to help everyone get to know each other. We believe these can be useful for local Work Groups in every location and want to share a template that can be adapted. The content of this template is not editable because it refers to actual company processes, but the idea and layout can be copied freely.

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce our latest case study. This time we are exploring how the OpenChain industry standard helps create efficiencies in health tech. You can view the case study online or download it as a PDF. As with all our case studies this release is intended both to highlight the diversity of adopters and to provide practical examples of how companies approach compliance in real world deployment.

OpenChain Newsletter #30

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 30 – October 2019


In October OpenChain Projects mailing lists were transitioned to Groups.io This means that the address for each individual list will change. Your membership and our archives will automatically transition.

Our main mailing list:
main@lists.openchainproject.org

Our Specification list:
specification@lists.openchainproject.org

Our Conformance list:
conformance@lists.openchainproject.org

Our Japan Work Group lists:
japan-wg@lists.openchainproject.orgjapan-sg-licensing@lists.openchainproject.org
japan-sg-planning@lists.openchainproject.org
japan-sg-tooling@lists.openchainproject.org

Our Korea Work Group list:
korea-wg@lists.openchainproject.org

Our Automotive Work Group is *already* on Groups.io and will not change:
openchain-automotive-work-group@groups.io

Our Reference Tooling Work Group is *already* on Groups.io and will not change:
oss-based-compliance-tooling@groups.io

OpenChain @ Partners

HH Partners, a law firm based in Finland, announced participation in the OpenChain Project. HH Partners intends to support adoption of the OpenChain industry standard for open source compliance both inside Finland and across the broader global market. HH Partners will be contributing to the OpenChain project both via its open technology practice and via its own open source compliance research project, Double Open.

OpenChain @ Conformance

Liferay, a company that provides digital solutions for businesses, has announced OpenChain Conformance. They join a growing community of companies publicly announcing their adoption of the industry standard outlining the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation announced conformance with the OpenChain standard for open source compliance in the supply chain. This step builds on two years of deep collaboration between Sony group companies and the OpenChain Project in Japan, Taiwan and globally. It marks another milestone in the adoption of OpenChain across multiple industries and supports increased efficiency for managing open source licenses inside and between companies. 

OpenChain @ Self-Certification

PwC supports OpenChain Self-Certification with Independent Compliance Assessment

OpenChain @ Events

The OpenChain Project will be taking center stage during the Risk and Compliance in Open Source panel at the Nordic OpenInfra Days on the 3rd of October.

Members of Japan Working Group will introduce activities from our local chapter and sub-groups at OSS/ELC EU Technical Showcase on the 29th of October.

OpenChains Shane Coughlan will present a keynote at the LF Energy Global Summit in Paris “Next – Complex made simple”

Bird&Bird and the OpenChain Project are collaborating on a workshop uniquely positioned to explore the emerging industry standard for open source compliance and how it can be applied in automotive, infrastructure and other supply chains.

The OpenChain Japan Leaflet Sub Working Group had a booth with a Technical Showcase at the ELCE 2019. They distributed over 200 OpenChain Supplier leaflets in English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.

OpenChain @ Work Groups

OpenChain Tooling Group Meeting  on October 10th  at ESOC – European Space Operations Centre

The Tooling Sub Work Group will host a meeting on the 17th of October. This meeting will be hosted by DeNA (Shibuya, Tokyo). Everyone is welcome to join!

The Planning Sub Work Group will host a meeting on the 18th of October. This meeting will be hosted by Fujitsu ( Musashi-nakahara, Kawasaki). Everyone is welcome to join!

The License Info Exchange Sub Work Group will host a meeting on the 15th of October. This meeting will be hosted by Fujitsu Marketing (Shinagawa, Tokyo). Everyone is welcome to join!

The OpenChain Automotive Workgroup has announced its second meeting. Join us at Open Source Summit Europe on the 29th October.

The OpenChain Korea Work Group will hold its fourth meeting on the 2nd of December 2019 between 15:00 and 17:00 at Korea Telecom in Seoul. As always this meeting will be held in Korean and all parties from open source user companies are welcome to attend.

  • Find out more here:
    https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2019/10/07/openchain-korea-work-group-announces-fourth-meeting

The OpenChain Project has launched a dedicated mailing list for participants in our India Work Group.

OpenChain Newsletter #29

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 29 – September 2019


The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the launch of a series of interviews about the people behind our work. While open source is mostly about software, and governance is mostly about licenses, it is also the story of thousands of individuals collaborating. We hope these interviews with inform and inspire our readers, and encourage more people to participate in open source and OpenChain.

Kayoko Takanishi from TUV SUD has kindly agreed to be our first featured community figure.

Read Our First Interview Now

OpenChain @ Specification

We are working on the draft of the next version of OpenChain Specification. Our objective is to make only minor clarification changes over version 2.0  while we wait for ISO adoption (currently in progress).

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the immediate availability of the OpenChain Specification 2.0 in Korean. This process was lead by Haksung Jang. Many thanks to Jongbaek Park, Seo-young Isabelle Hwang and Jong-ho Hong for their contributions.

Thanks to the hard work of Andrew Katz and his teams at Moorcrofts and Orcro the OpenChain Policy Template for OpenChain Specification 2.0 is nearly ready. This provides extensive building blocks to help organizations of any size in any market create an open source policy.

OpenChain @ Self-Certification

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that OpenChain Self-Certification is now available in Korean. This translation, joining our English and Japanese self-certification, marks another milestone in ensuring that companies around the world can quickly, easily and effectively adopt the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program. Great thanks are due to Haksung Jang from LG Electronics for his fantastic work in this translation.

OpenChain @ Events

On the 17th of September, the 6th Bitkom Forum Open Source Software will take place in Erfurt, Germany. About 150 participants from 100 companies are expected.

On the 17th of September Davis Marr presented on “OpenChain: Open Source License Compliance and Management Across the Supply Chain” at the Flight Boston conference in Boston, US.

OpenChain @ Work Groups

The OpenChain Korea Work Group held its 3rd meeting at the SK Telecom offices in Seoul. As usual we had a mix of people from consumer electronics, automotive and telecommunication companies present.

The OpenChain India Work Group has just begun its first meeting thanks to Mishi, Chandana and so many other people from so many companies. As Shane Coughlan mention’s in his opening speech linked below, this is part of an exceptional month for the OpenChain Project, as we start work groups here and in China. The standard for open source compliance is reaching out to an additional 2.8 billion people. Great things lie ahead.

The first OpenChain India Work Group meeting took place on September 5th in Bangalore. This event was kindly hosted by SFLC.in and MCA. We welcome contributors from OpenChain Conformant companies such as Cognizant and Infosys along with many good friends from other Indian entities.

Video minutes are now available for the first OpenChain Automotive Work Group Meeting on the 19th of July 2019. This meeting, bringing together collaborators from dozens of companies across three continents, marked the beginning of a global effort to seek common, resource effective solutions for open source license compliance.

The Tooling Work Group will host its second meeting on the 18th of September. This meeting will be hosted by Oliver Fendt of Siemens and continues the exploratory discussion regarding the state of open source tooling for open source compliance today. Everyone is welcome to join!

The OpenChain Tooling Work Group Meeting held its second meeting on September 4th 2019

The OpenChain License Information Sub-Group will host an all member meeting on the 17th of September.

The 11th meeting of the OpenChain Japan Work Group was hosted by Olympus on the 19th of September. It marked the completion of many months of work in building, sharing and translating open source compliance material.

During the most recent OpenChain Work Group call Jeff Luszcz took center stage as our guest presenter. His talk was based on sharing his experience around real world challenges and solutions as observed during the past 15 years.

The OpenChain Project held its first China Work Group meeting on the 25th of September in Shenzhen. This event was kindly hosted by Huawei and featured attendees from companies as diverse as Baidu and DJI. It provided an excellent opportunity to build our first bridge into one of the world’s largest markets, and we received excellent local support, including via simultaneous translation.

The OpenChain Project, in conjunction with the Taiwanese Legal Network and the Open Culture Foundation, held our second open source compliance workshop in Taipei on the 27th of September.

The OpenChain Tooling Work Group Meeting held their 3rd meeting on September 18th 2019

OpenChain Newsletter #28

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 28 – August 2019


Arm and Western Digital Corporation, Platinum Members of the OpenChain Project and key participants in the global supply chain, today announce conformance with the OpenChain Specification. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Platinum Member and founding contributor of the OpenChain Project, today announces expanded conformance to the latest version of the OpenChain Specification.

OpenChain @ Partners

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that PwC Germany is the latest OpenChain Partner organization. The OpenChain Project has a diverse, global partner network that is expanding rapidly across multiple continents. This supports our mission to ensure every organization of every size can adopt our industry standard.

OpenChain @ Case Studies

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the immediate availability of our latest case study. This case study explains how third party certification works in the context of the OpenChain Project. This optional process, involving an audit of conformance by a third party, can be used by companies that want to obtain a formal certificate of conformance to our industry standard.

OpenChain @ In The News

On August 29th 2019 the OpenChain Project was featured in a blog post by Mark Gisi about how OpenChain certification aids open-source transparency for identifying security vulnerabilities.

OpenChain @ Events

OpenChain @ TechExeter Conference on 11th Sept 2019
Paul McAdam, Director at Source Code Control, will be hosting a workshop exploring the Equifax scandal. This hack resulted in costing more than $4bn yet was started by a failure to manage a single Open Source component.

OpenChain Talk Announced for Open Source Summit Europe – 29th October
Fukuchi San from Sony will be sharing ‘Experiences Building a Local Open Source Community via the OpenChain Project’ on Tuesday, October 29 @ 11:30 during Open Source Summit Europe.

OpenChain Actively Promoted @ COSCUP Taiwan Thanks to MOXA – 17-18 August
SZ Lin and his colleagues at MOXA will actively promoting the OpenChain Project via their sponsorship and their physical presence at the Taiwanese COSCUP Conference on the 17th and 18th of August.

OpenChain @ TechMatrix Open Source Seminar Tokyo – 4th September
OpenChain will be featured at the forthcoming TechMatrix Seminar on open source compliance to be held in Tokyo on the 4th of September. This event will include case studies from Olympus, FOSSID and TechMatrix.

Open Source Compliance Workshop Taipei 2019
On Friday the 27th of September the OpenChain Project, Open Culture Foundation and OSLN.tw will host an open source compliance workshop in the heart of Taipei. This event will focus on practical business solutions to open source compliance management. All parties are welcome to attend.

OpenChain @ Work Groups

The outcomes of the 10th meeting of the OpenChain Japan Work Group on the 16th of July are now available. We had 84 participants from 44 companies present, including our special guest SZ Lin from MOXA, Taiwan.

The OpenChain Project regular First Monday call video minutes are now available:

The OpenChain Japan Work Group has announced the August Meeting Schedule. Four Sub-Groups will convene to discuss milestones. Outcomes will be presented at the 11th OpenChain Japan Work Group event on September 19th at the Olympus offices. These meetings will be held in Japanese and everyone is welcome to join.

The OpenChain Korea Work Group has announced details of their forthcoming third meeting on Wednesday the 4th of September 2019. It will take place from 3pm in the B1 meeting room on the 19th floor of SK T Tower. This meeting will be held in Korean. All parties from open source user companies are welcome to attend.

The OpenChain Japan Work Group has announced the latest participation metrics. The recent meeting #10 hosted by Fujitsu had 84 individuals from 44 companies in attendance, marking our largest main event yet. Meanwhile, the OpenChain Japan mailing list continues to grow, with 159 participants from 68 companies subscribed. All parties are welcome to join the OpenChain Japan Work Group mailing lists and meetings. 

The OpenChain Project will host a workshop on the 20th of August adjacent to the Linux Foundation Legal Summit and Open Source Summit North America. 

The OpenChain China Work Group confirmed their first meeting. It will be held on 25th of September @ Huawei in Shenzhen

Mishi Choudhary & Associates, the India law firm partner of OpenChain Project, is hosting the first OpenChain India Working Group Meet-Up in Bengaluru on September 7, 2019.

On the 13th of August the OpenChain Tooling Work Group held their first meeting.

The OpenChain Korea Work Group has announced details of their forthcoming third meeting on 4th of September 2019. It will take place from 3pm at Korea Telecom in Seoul.

OpenChain @ Materials and Case Studies

Great Open Source Compliance For Everyone – Version 11 are introduction slides for the OpenChain Project with extensive speaker notes. They are intended to both provide context for the OpenChain industry standard and to enable anyone to help share the purpose, value and outcomes of the project and community.

OpenChain Newsletter #27

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 27 – July 2019


We are delighted to announce that Panasonic is our latest Platinum Member company. We have been collaborating closely with Kato San and his team for a considerable period, and their work has been central to the extraordinary growth and activity of the OpenChain Japan Work Group. It is fitting that we are making this announcement at the tenth meeting of the Japan Work Group, just prior to Open Source Summit Japan, when community participants will have an opportunity to meet Kato San and his team at panels and workshops related to OpenChain.

“Panasonic operates across multiple key markets for technology. Consumer electronics, automotive and aviation all play a part in their deployment of software around the world,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “This is a natural next step in our partnership and it provides a significant boost to our goal of addressing critical markets like automotive and in providing open source compliance excellence to suppliers of all sizes.”

Learn More

OpenChain @ Conformance

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that HELLA Aglaia, a German company focused on the automotive space, is the latest OpenChain Specification 2.0 conformant company.

“HELLA Aglaia entered the OpenChain community via the OpenChain 1.2 conformance process earlier this year,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “We were delighted with a productive, efficient collaboration, and equally heartened with their decision to take a leadership position in the adoption of OpenChain 2.0, the version of our standard positioned for fast-track submission to ISO. OpenChain is gathering particular momentum in the automotive industry due to the initiative and pursuit of excellence of such companies. We are looking forward to building new bridges to an ever wider group of stakeholders.”

OpenChain @ Specification 1.2

Thanks to the hard work of our friendly contributors, Denis and Yegor, the OpenChain Specification 1.2 has an official translation in Russian. This translation joins our growing corpus of localisation documents for our international community.

OpenChain @ Events

OpenChain Steering Committee Meeting @ OSS Japan on 19th July

The OpenChain Project hosted a Steering Committee meeting on the 19th of July as part of a wider OpenChain Workshop. This Steering Committee meeting provided an opportunity to review and raise comments around the ISO draft of our Specification. No votes were taken at this meeting, with the focus primarily on ensuring people had a chance to review the document, and with the discussion moving onto our mailing lists subsequently for more formal review.

OpenChain Japan Education Sub-Group Meeting @ Hitachi 9th July

The Education sup group is working on additional material for our reference library. The following material is being edited:

OpenChain Automotive Work Group – A Global Solution for a Global Market

The OpenChain Project launched a global Automotive Work Group. This work group already has over 80 participants from major automotive companies and supplier companies from silicon to completed components. The Automotive Work Group held its first meeting during Open Source Summit Japan on 19th of July. Learn More:

OpenChain Japan Licensing Sub-Group Meeting on 24th July

On July 24th the OpenChain Japan Licensing Sub Group held a meeting at the Olympus office in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The focus was on reviewing an English version of the OpenChain supplier education leaflet for review and discussion. Learn more:

OpenChain Launches Tooling Work Group

On July 25 the OpenChain Project announced the launch of our global Tooling Work Group. This work group, chaired by Oliver Fendt of Siemens, will see contributors from Siemens, Bosch, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi and many other companies accelerate collaboration around open source tooling for open source compliance. Learn more:

OpenChain Panel @ Open Source Summit Japan on 17th July

Fujitsu, Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba and Toyota took the stage on the 17th of July to share the latest activities of OpenChain Japan Work Group. This event was moderated by Masato Endo from Toyota and featured Wang Mingyu (Fujitsu), Nobuo Imada (Hitachi), Shinsuke Kato (Panasonic), Yoshitake Kobayashi (Toshiba) and Satoru Ueda (Sony). Learn more:

Sony Talk @ Open Source Summit Japan – 18th July

Satoru Ueda from Sony hosted a talk entitled ‘OSS Collaborative Leadership and the Software Supply Chain Problem’ that unpacked practical aspects of supply chain challenges and related solutions. Learn more:

Toshiba @ Open Source Summit Japan on 18th July

Kouki Hama from Toshiba presented the following session: ‘Using SW360 for OSS Compliance Management Process.’ SW360 is OSS tool for centrally managing software component information, license information, vulnerability information, and etc. This tool also allows you to associate project information with many software components. Toshiba is centralizing information management of open source software by SW360.

Fujitsu China @ Open Source Summit Japan on 18th July

Wang Mingyu from Fujitsu is not exactly part of the Japan workgroup, but she is a member of Asaba-san’s team. She hosted a talk entitled
‘Dandified Way to Package Management in Yocto Project.’ Her talk referenced the OpenChain Specification as a solution for real world process management.

OpenChain + Program Offices @ Bird+Bird, Germany – 25th of June

News came in that Bird&Bird hosted an Open Source Program seminar on the 25th June 2019 to explore the cutting edge in Open Source Program Offices in Europe and beyond. The opening keynote was delivered by Amani Hajj Ali and Fabienne Haag from SAP, explaining how their company’s outbound process remains transparent and agile through the use of a standard like OpenChain. There was a group discussion focused on how OpenChain supports leadership position in open source management. Learn More:

OpenChain @ Materials and Case Studies

The OpenChain Japan Education Sub-Group has released training material for compliance programs and four company case studies regarding their approach to education. Learn more:

OpenChain Newsletter #26

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 26 – June 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.

This month we begin with another media article. Mark Gisi, Chair of the OpenChain Specification Work Team, was interviewed by CIOReview in their latest special edition, this time with a focus on open source code. You can read the interview online today and it will be available in print for July. This is a recommended read and a great starting point for people and organizations new to the OpenChain industry standard.

As they said: “A new standard gaining traction is the Linux Foundation’s OpenChain certification for Open Source license compliance and usage. This certification ensures that one can trust the open source from which software solutions are built.  Influenced by customers seeking greater assurance for their supply chain’s increasing use of open source software, Wind River, a leading IoT Linux platform and solutions supplier, maintains OpenChain conformance for all its product lines.”

OpenChain @ Specification 2.0

OpenChain Specification 2.0 in Simplified Chinese

The OpenChain Specification 2.0 is now in Simplified Chinese thanks to the hard work of our volunteer community. Special thanks are due to Jerry Tan, Zhang Weilin, Po-Chun Wang, Lucien Lin and Florence Ko.

“The OpenChain Project is global and we are working hard to make our resources available in many languages,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “China, as a key market, is a priority for us. The availability of our latest specification in Simplified Chinese is the first step towards making self-certification simple and quick for companies in the region. It joins our Traditional Chinese translation as an example of our commitment to building effective bridges.”

OpenChain Case Study: Toyota

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announced the immediate availability of a case study with Toyota explaining how Kaizen and Open Source spur innovation across the global supply chain. This case study is an exceptionally important milestone for our project, marking the beginning of a series of case studies explaining the “path to conformance” in OpenChain, and providing real-world snapshots of the journeys being undertaken by market leaders. We have worked together with Endo San from the Toyota IP team in crafting this case study and are indebted to his team for clear, concise insights into the decision-making process of one of the world’s largest car companies as it relates to open source technology.

Read the Case Study

Download the Case Study as a PDF

OpenChain Supplier Education Leaflet

The OpenChain Project announced the release of the Open Source Software License Compliance General Public Guide. This document is an outcome of the OpenChain Japan Work Group, one of the most active and vibrant parts of our project. The leaflet is intended to be a short, simple and clear guide for distribution to suppliers of all sizes. Our intention is to provide a solid foundation for understanding open source license compliance in an accessible manner.

This document is made available in English and Japanese. We hope to add further translations in the future. As with all OpenChain Project reference material, the guide is made available under CC-0 licensing (effectively public domain, and it may be used, studied, shared and improved in any way you want.

Get the Guide

Contribute to the Guide

OpenChain @ Conformance

OpenChain Congratulates Wind River on being the first OpenChain Specification 2.0 Conformant Company

“We have been fortunate to work closely with Wind River from the genesis of this project through to our current status as a growing industry standard,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Mark, our primary contact, has been a highly effective chair of our specification work team and our wider relationship with Wind River has seen a keen focus on ensuring a real world solution for real world challenges. Welcoming Wind River as the first OpenChain 2.0 Conformant organization is a natural and exciting expansion of our collaboration.”

OpenChain Welcomes Cognizant to the Community of Conformance

“It is tremendously exciting to welcome another open source user company into the heart of the OpenChain Project,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Our mission is to support such companies both in pursuing internal excellent and in streamlining open source license compliance across their supply chain. The team at Cognizant is a pleasure to work with and I firmly believe we will accomplish great things in the coming months and years.”

OpenChain Welcomes Infosys to the Community of Conformance

“Infosys have always approached Open Source Software usage and compliance in a manner that takes the course of careful due diligence, and benchmarking our processes & procedures with globally acceptable industry standards,” says Shuvajit Mitra, Legal Affairs Counsel, Infosys. “To do this, we engaged with the Open Chain Project to assess our compliance practices in consonance with Open Chain Specification 2.0. To be in conformance with Open Chain Project, Infosys has implemented processes, practices and awareness to meet all requirements on OSS licensing and its implications while using and distributing OSS components bundled with Infosys software products, platforms and solutions which are the best in breed and which can be transparently demonstrated. Infosys thanks the Open Chain leadership in guiding Infosys through this process of assessment and authentication to achieve good governance as a best practice of software development.”

Be Part of This:

OpenChain @ Partners

OpenChain Welcomes New Partners Globally

The OpenChain Project is delighted to welcome FOSSID (Sweden), Maggie Wang (China), CMS (Germany), JBB (Germany), Array Law (Italy) and BKL (Korea) to the OpenChain Partner Program. Our geographic coverage provides the option for access to support for OpenChain user companies on three continents.

You can learn more about the OpenChain Partner Program on our dedicated page: https://www.openchainproject.org/partners

You can learn more about each individual new partner on their dedicated announcement pages:

OpenChain @ Events

OpenChain Announces Workshops at Open Source Summit Japan / North America / Europe

The OpenChain Project has announced workshops at three major Linux Foundation events through second-half 2019:

Each of these events will consist of a Governing Board meeting, a Steering Committee meeting, and an open discussion adjacent to the main conference. All parties are welcome to attend the Steering Committee meeting and the open discussion. See the links above for more details about each specific event.

OpenChain at Other Events

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.

OpenChain Newsletter #25

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 25 – May 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

Reminder: Companies Can Upgrade OpenChain Conformance to 2.0

Companies currently OpenChain 1.1 or 1.2 Conformant can easily check and upgrade their conformance status to 2.0 using our free online questionnaire. Upgrading is purely optional for existing conformant organizations. However, it is a smooth transition from OpenChain 1.2 and can be a great way to send a positive message to your suppliers and customers.

Access the Online Self-Certification Questionnaire

OpenChain @ Specification 2.0

OpenChain Specification 2.0 in German

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that the latest version of our specification for quality open source compliance programs is available in German. This document can be used by any organization to review and improve their internal processes.

“The OpenChain Project is expanding globally through adoption of our specification, our reference materials and use of our free self-certification process,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “The OpenChain Specification is at the heart of what we do. This document outlines the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program and can be used by any organization in any market as a “health check” and basis for refinement. The availability of our latest specification in German is another milestone in the maturity of the project.”

This translation is the result of collaboration from Catharina Maracke, Stefan Thanheiser, Stefanie Pors, Anke Thanheiser, Jan Thielscher, Miriam Ballhausen and Daniel Wulle. Big thanks are due to Catharina Maracke for coordinating the process.

Get the Specification in German

Reminder: OpenChain Conformance Badges are just a few questions away

One of the most common questions asked around the OpenChain Project is “how do I get an OpenChain badge for my conformance program and the products that go through it?”

We keep this simple. Any company in any market sector can use our free OpenChain Project self-certification questionnaire. This questionnaire has also proven useful for internal, private “health checks” to assess the current status of open source compliance programs. We are delighted to support both use cases.

Access Our Free Online Self-Certification Questionnaire

https://certification.openchainproject.org/signup.html?locale=en

OpenChain @ Conformance

OpenChain Welcomes Hella Aglaia to the Community of Conformance

The OpenChain Project is delighted to welcome Hella Aglaia to our community of conformance.

“OpenChain is becoming increasingly popular in the automotive industry,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “We have member companies like Toyota, Hitachi and Bosch directly supporting the growth of OpenChain adoption, and we have extensive engagement throughout our community from companies like Panasonic, Denso Ten and Scania. We are extremely happy to welcome HELLA Aglaia to our community of conformance and – more generally – to the wider OpenChain eco-system of collaboration.”

In their own words, HELLA Aglaia Mobile Vision GmbH is a full subsidiary of HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA and one of the leading global developers of intelligent visual sensor systems.

We specialize in customized embedded software solutions for driver assistance systems with multi-functional cameras. Our portfolio also includes the development of software for energy management systems as well as testing solutions for environment sensor systems (camera/radar) and associated products and services. Another field of expertise covers the development and distribution of people-counting devices based on integrated image processing. Our products are suitable for the integration in public transport vehicles as well as for stationary use (e.g. retail locations, airports, stations).

HELLA Aglaia was founded in 1998 and headquartered in Berlin.

Learn More About Hella Aglaia

OpenChain @ Partners

OpenChain Welcomes {metæffekt} as our Latest Partner

The OpenChain Project is delighted to welcome {metæffekt} as the latest OpenChain Partner. Our partner program helps any organization, anywhere adopt OpenChain easily. It operates adjacent to our free online self-certification to allow user companies to choose to get help with training, processes, legal matters or third-party certification. You can learn more about our partner program on this dedicated page.

“Welcoming metaeffekt fits neatly in this moment of evolution for our project,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “It simultaneously expands our geographical coverage in Germany and increases our breadth of expertise around tooling automation. These two topics are behind recent growth and activity in OpenChain. We expect to see increasing engagement in the German automotive sector beyond our recent addition of Hella Aglaia to the community of conformance. We also have growing interest in open source tooling for open source compliance, and a growing collaboration between Siemens, Bosch, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi and others in this area. I believe great things are to come from our expanded relationship with Karsten and the rest of his team at metaeffekt.”

About {metæffekt}

{metæffekt} is a consultancy company located in Heidelberg, Germany providing services in the context of Software Architecture and Continuous Software Development with a very strong, vendor-neutral devotion to automation. One core vision of {metæffekt} is to automate the creation of consistent, comprehensive, high-quality release documentation in compliance to legal boundary condition, regulatory requirements, contract/license terms, and individual company policies. {metæffekt} does not provide any legal advice but connects with partners in a strong network of other disciplines to cover all required aspects.
http://www.metaeffekt.com/

OpenChain @ Events

OpenChain Featured at CC Global Summit 2019

The OpenChain Project was featured by Haggen So at the Creative Commons Global Summit 2019. He used the project as an example of “Made with Creative Commons” to show how businesses are using open licensing to share information and improve their competitiveness.

The OpenChain Project uses CC-0 licensing for all its reference material. It uses the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0) license for our specification.

OpenChain at the Asian Legal Network, Shanghai

The OpenChain Project took center stage at the Asian Legal Network study dinner in Shanghai on the 17th of May. This event was focused on the Chinese financial sector with representatives from companies such as Union Pay and AliPay.

The Asian Legal Network events are kindly sponsored by Open Invention Network and provide an opportunity for stakeholders across Asia to network, share information and build new avenues of collaboration.

OpenChain joins Toyota, OIN and Unified Patents on an American Intellectual Property Law Association Webinar

The OpenChain Project is recording an American Intellectual Property Law Association webinar alongside Toyota, OIN and Unified Patents this evening in Tokyo. The core focus of the event will be on open source and defensive patent strategies, and OpenChain’s coverage of adjacent copyright concerns will provide broader context for viewers.

The webinar is provisionally scheduled to air in June as part of the AIPLA regular schedule.

Learn More About AIPLA Webinars

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.

OpenChain Newsletter #24

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 24 – April 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

OpenChain Supplier Education – Massive Step Forward in Japanese and soon in English

OpenChain has a very active Work Group in Japan. One of the sub-groups, focused on creating a supplier education leaflet, has released the finished document in Japanese. You can get it below.

The English version is coming in May. It will be distributed online and through events like Open Source Summit Japan.

As always, OpenChain is going deeper and deeper into the supply chain. Great thanks to Ueda San from Sony for leading this initiative.

Get the Japanese leaflet

OpenChain @ Specification 2.0

OpenChain Specification 2.0 – Final Call for Comments

The OpenChain Specification version 2.0 is nearly ready as we enter the last 5 days of the 14 day freeze period. This period provides everyone the chance to review the final draft – where we can accept minor changes (e.g., typos, minor wording adjustments, formatting, …). Any material changes/suggestions would be queued for consideration in the next version.

The current draft can be found here:

https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/_media/openchain/openchainspec-2.0.draft.pdf

A marked up version can be found here:

https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/_media/openchain/OpenChainSpec-2.0.draft.MarkUp.pdf

You can send feedback via:

·       the Mailing list: Openchain-specification@lists.linuxfoundation.org;

·       the issues wiki: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Specification/issues; or

·       replying to Mark Gisi directly if you wish to remain anonymous (mark.gisi@windiver.com)

Request for Comments: OpenChain Specification 2.0 in Japanese

Shoken Kim from OptiNet has begun translation work for the OpenChain Specification 2.0 in Japanese. This translation is nearly complete and simply requires review to ensure accuracy. If you can lend a hand that would be great. If we finish before April 28th it can be formally released alongside the English version of OpenChain Specification 2.0.

Review the Document

OpenChain Specification 2.0 Out Now

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that version 2.0 of our specification for open source compliance in the supply chain is now available. This is the culmination of many months of work by over a hundred contributors. Special thanks are due to Mark Gisi, chair of the Specification Work Team and Gary O’Neall, Lead Developer for the Online Self-Certification Questionnaire. They went above and beyond to provide a document and an online service that incorporate a year of evolution guided by practical real world deployment.

We are especially glad to announce that the English version of the OpenChain Specification is accompanied by the Traditional Chinese translation. This marks the first time we have had a simultaneous release of the Specification in two languages. Thanks are due to S.Z. Lin and Lucien C.H. Lin for this outstanding accomplishment.

We will shortly announce official translations in Simplified Chinese and Japanese. Watch this space!

Self-Certify or do a private “Health Check”

Read the Specification in English

Read the Specification in Traditional Chinese

Get Help

Read the FAQ

OpenChain @ Partners

OpenChain Announces Partner in India

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce our first law firm partner in India. From today you will be able to obtain legal advice about OpenChain Conformance and other OpenChain matters from Mishi Choudhary & Associates LLP. We look forward to building a long-term relationship with Mishi Choudhary and her team.

Learn More About Mishi Choudhary & Associates LLP

OpenChain Announces Partner in Italy

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce our first law firm partner in Italy. From today you will be able to obtain legal advice about OpenChain Conformance and other OpenChain matters from Studio Legale. We look forward to building a long-term relationship with Marco Ciurcina and his team.

Learn More About Studio Legale

OpenChain @ Reference Material

Request for Comment: OpenChain One Slide Overview

The OpenChain Project is continually updating material to introduce individuals and companies to our industry standard, our reference material, and our various free support services such as online self-certification. Our most recent addition is a one slide overview of the OpenChain Project. We are accepting comments and suggestions for this slide via our bi-weekly calls and our mailing list. You can also comment on GitHub.

Review the Slides:

OpenChain Overview Slides Updated

Great Open Source Compliance for Everyone’ provides an overview of the OpenChain Project and our standard for open source compliance in the supply chain. Version 7 has updated visuals around the key process points for great compliance. You can download the PPTX version to get speaker notes and do your own presentations.

OpenChain: Great Open Source Compliance for Everyone (Version 7) from Shane Coughlan

OpenChain @ Events

OpenChain @ Scania

Shane Coughlan represented the OpenChain Project in a meeting held at Scania in Sweden on the 9th of April. This meeting included various parties engaging with open source throughout the VW Group and provided an informal forum for digging into the latest developments in automotive open source compliance.

Our work with Scania has provided a useful two-way flow of information throughout the last twelve months. One highlight was Scania’s announcement of OpenChain Conformance late last year, We look forward to building on our relationship with Scania and with the broader VW Group.

OpenChain and Automotive @ Legal Workshop in Barcelona

‘Automotive Processes and Open Source’ is an OpenChain Project workshop hosted by Endo San of Toyota at the FSFE Legal and Licensing Workshop in Barcelona on the 10th of April 2019. It brings together a diverse group of representatives from automotive companies such as Scania and Bosch to discuss common challenges.

Get the Overview Slides

Workshop: Automotive Processes and Open Source from Shane Coughlan

OpenChain + TODO @ Legal Workshop in Barcelona

‘OpenChain + TODO @ Legal Workshop in Barcelona’ is an OpenChain Project workshop hosted by Shane Coughlan at the FSFE Legal and Licensing Workshop in Barcelona on the morning of 11th April 2019. It will cover how open source program offices can address supply chain challenges.

OpenChain @ IP Conference in Russia – 11-12 April 2019

Denis Dorotenko at Yandex will be delivering a speech at the 3rd International Conference «PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS» in St Petersburg. This speech will be the first time the OpenChain Project is highlighted in Russia. We look forward to building new relationships and collaboration in this tremendous, vibrant technology market.

Learn More About The Event

OpenChain @ Grey Matter ISV Partner Day 2019

Martin Callinan from Source Code Control represented the OpenChain Project at the recent Grey Matter ISV Partner Day 2019 in the UK. He was joined on stage by Ed Thompson from Microsoft to discuss ‘OpenChain: Why is Microsoft a Platinum Sponsor?’

As always, we appreciate the dedication of our members, our partners and our community in spreading the word about why open source compliance in the supply chain is so important and how OpenChain accomplishes this for companies of all sizes.

OpenChain @ Japan OSS Promotion Forum 2019

Masahiro Date from Linux Foundation delivered a speech at the Japan OSS Promotion Forum 2019 on the 17th of April that covered OpenChain’s place in enterprise open source usage. This speech is a great example of OpenChain being shared with an increasingly diverse audience.

A History of Enterprises with OSS from Shane Coughlan

Learn More

OpenChain @ Localization

OpenChain @ Japan Work Group #9

The OpenChain Japan Work Group held its ninth “all member” meeting at DensoTen on the 18th of April. The event opened with a short presentation from Shane Coughlan covering some of the largest developments around the OpenChain global community. The slides have been made publicly available.

This meeting covered a wide range of topics related to open source compliance. One highlight were the reports from the seven sub-groups of the Japanese community, covering a diverse range of topics from education to Bill of Materials to automation. As always, conversation was informal and open, allowing all participants to add their view during and after each presentation, and to network freely during the coffee breaks.

Join the Community

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.

OpenChain Newsletter #23

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 23 – March 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

Collaboration is Key for Open Source Compliance at NHS

One of the powerful things about open source is the way it allows various organizations and stakeholders come together to achieve common objectives. Open source projects play a critical role by providing a common platform that can integrate with new and existing systems. This is even more apparent when discussing open source compliance and aligning the various stakeholders in an open source supply chain.

A great example of this is a recent NHS case study published on openchainproject.org. NHS England is the public health services provider in England that treats more than 1.4 million patients every 24 hours. The organization needed a way to manage and leverage their open source assets across the organization without vendor lock in. Our partners at Source Code Control proposed the OpenChain Specification and brought us in to work with the Apperta Foundation, Code4Health initiative, OpenEyes, and AB EHR Digital for a training and pilot program.

The result enabled the project participants to meet open source industry best practices. It also helped NHS take the first step in a broader deployment plan across multiple projects and providers in the coming months and years. Thank you to all of our partners and we look forward to future collaboration in healthcare, automotive, and many more industries as they increasingly adopt open source. Read the NHS case study.

OpenChain @ Outreach

Open Source is Eating the Startup Ecosystem: A Guide for Assessing the Value Creation of Startups

In the last few years we have witnessed the unprecedented growth of open source in all industries—from the increased adoption of open source software in products and services, to the extensive growth in open source contributions and the releasing of proprietary technologies under an open source license. It has been an incredible experience to be a part of.

As many have stated, Open Source is the New Normal, Open Source is Eating the World, Open Source is Eating Software, etc. all of which are true statements. To that extent, I’d like to add one more maxim: Open Source is Eating the Startup Ecosystem. It is almost impossible to find a technology startup today that does not rely in one shape or form on open source software to boot up its operation and develop its product offering. As a result, we are operating in a space where open source due diligence is now a mandatory exercise in every M&A transaction. These exercises evaluate the open source practices of an organization and scope out all open source software used in product(s)/service(s) and how it interacts with proprietary components—all of which is necessary to assess the value creation of the company in relation to open source software.

Being intimately involved in this space has allowed me observe, learn, and apply many open source best practices. I decided to chronicle these learnings in an ebook as contribution to the OpenChain projectAssessment of Open Source Practices as part of Due Diligence in Merger and Acquisition Transactions. This ebook addresses the basic question of: How does one evaluate open source practices in a given organization that is an acquisition target? We address this question by offering a path to evaluate these practices along with appropriate checklists for reference. Essentially, it explains how the aquirerer and the target company can prepare for this due diligence, offers an explanation of the audit process, and provides general recommended practices for ensuring open source compliance.

If is important to note that not every organization will see a need to implement every practice we recommend. Some organizations will find alternative practices or implementation approaches to achieve the same results. Appropriately, an organization will adapt its open source approach based upon the nature and amount of the open source it uses, the licenses that apply to open source it uses, the kinds of products it distributes or services it offers, and the design of the products or services themselves

If you are involved in assessing the open source and compliance practices of organizations, or involved in an M&A transaction focusing on open source due diligence, or simply want to have a deeper level of understanding of defining, implementing, and improving open source compliance programs within your organizations—this ebook is a must read. Download the Brief.

OpenChain @ Announcements

OpenChain Project Adds Fujitsu as Platinum Member

Leading Japanese information and communication technology company to support industry’s only open source compliance standard for collaboration across supply chains

SAN FRANCISCO & HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – OPEN SOURCE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT –  March 13, 2019 — The OpenChain Project, which builds trust in open source by making open source license compliance simpler and more consistent, announced today at Linux Foundation’s Open Source Leadership Summit (OSLS), that Fujitsu has joined as a Platinum member.

Fujitsu joins other recent Platinum member additions including Bosch, Microsoft, Uber, Google and Facebook. OpenChain provides a specification as well as overarching processes, policies and training that companies need to be successful in managing open source license compliance so that it becomes more efficient, understandable and predictable for participants of the software supply chain.

As code flows between companies that consume billions of lines of open source software through their supply chains to build new products and services, a key challenge is ensuring the relevant license requirements are met in a timely and effective manner. The OpenChain Project provides a consistent way to address that and other challenges. Conformance with the OpenChain Specificationshows that an organization follows the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program, and builds trust between organizations in the supply chain. It makes procurement easier for purchasers and preferred status easier for suppliers.

“Fujitsu has been a long supporter of open source communities and the Linux Foundation;  we believe open source compliance is crucial factor for open source collaborations,” said Kaneshige Kenji Vice President, and Head of the Linux Development Division, Platform Software Business unit of Fujitsu. “We’re excited to join the OpenChain project to foster trust in open source supply chain and encourage greater compliance for open source software rapidly increasing in our society.”

“We are delighted to have Fujitsu join the OpenChain Project as a platinum member,” said Shane Coughlan,  General Manager, OpenChain. “Their expertise and support will be crucial as we continue to build our industry standard for open source compliance in the supply chain. I am particularly excited to gain access to the substantial knowledge Fujitsu possesses in areas like IoT and cloud technology.”

As a Platinum member, a representative from Fujitsu will join the OpenChain Governing Board. Other Platinum members of the OpenChain project include Adobe, Arm Holdings, Bosch, Cisco, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Harman International, Hitachi, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Siemens, Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Uber, and Western Digital.

Additional Resources

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

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more.  The Linux Foundation’s methodology 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 atlinuxfoundation.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.

Contact

Jill Lovato

The Linux Foundation

jlovato@linuxfoundation.org

OpenChain @ Reference Material

Updated Intro Slides – OpenChain – Great Open Source Compliance For Everyone

The latest version of the OpenChain Project introduction slides are available. These slides can help bring anyone interested in our standard and supporting material up-to-speed. Full speaker notes included on the downloadable version.

Get the Slides

Reference Open Source Policy Template in Japanese

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that our reference open source policy template is now available in Japanese. This document helps the open source program office or legal team (or individual responsible) in any company to formulate great open source policies to suit their needs.

This document, as with all reference documentation published by the OpenChain Project, is available under CC-0 licensing terms. This means it is effectively public domain and you can use it for any purpose.

Get the Open Source Policy Template

Announcing OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Simplified Chinese

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the immediate availability of the OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Simplified Chinese. This translation is the work of dedicated volunteers, on this occasion lead by  Tan Zhongyi (Jerry) from Baidu along with his colleague Zhang Weiling along with Li Jingze (Jane) from Tilburg University. Our endless thanks!

With this release the OpenChain Project can offer access to the latest version of our specification to companies across the greater China region. We launched this document at the Asian Legal Network on March 22nd, which also marked the beginning of our OpenChain China Work Group. The future is bright.

Get the OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Simplified Chinese

Get other OpenChain translations

OpenChain @ Localization

Sony, Program Offices and OpenChain – from Asian Legal Network Shenzhen

‘The Tools of Governance – Program Offices and Collaboration between Companies’ is a talk delivered by Fukuchi San and Kobota San from Sony at the March 22nd Asian Legal Network event in Shenzhen, China. This talk explains how Sony engages with and supports a vibrant collaborative community in Japan through the OpenChain Project.

Get the Slides

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.

OpenChain Newsletter #22

By Monthly Newsletter, News

Newsletter – Issue 22 – February 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

Building trust in open source: a look inside the OpenChain Project

Open source software provides businesses with a number of benefits including cost, flexibility and freedom. This freely distributed software can also be easily altered by any business that is familiar with its source code.

Read more in TechRadar.

OpenChain @ Announcements

Microsoft joins OpenChain platform

As part of its continued efforts to support open source software, Microsoft has announced that it has joined the OpenChain Project as its latest platinum member.

The company joins the likes of Uber, Google and Facebook, who joined OpenChain last month as well as GitHub which the software giant acquired last year.

Read more in TechRadar.

Microsoft joins OpenChain open-source compliance group

OpenChain is the most important open-source project you’ve never heard of before. This Linux Foundation consortium provides an industry standard for open-source supply chain license compliance. And now, Microsoft has joined the the OpenChain Project.

Read more at ZDNet.

Microsoft joins the OpenChain Project to push open-source software licensing standards

Microsoft Corp. wants to support more standardization of open-source software licensing, so today it’s putting its weight behind the OpenChain Project as its latest platinum member.

Microsoft joins other platinum members that include Google LLC, Arm Holdings Ltd. and Facebook Inc., as well as GitHub Inc., which Microsoft acquired last year.

The OpenChain Project was set up to bring more clarity to the world of open-source software licenses. Open-source software has revolutionized the way in which companies build the technology they need to run their businesses, but licensing issues remain a big headache for their legal teams. In a constant state of panic over potential litigation issues, businesses need assurances that the open source they use is in compliance with whatever rules govern its use.

Read more in Silicon Angle.

Microsoft joins open-source foundation that is trying to simplify the software supply chain

The OpenChain Project, which is attempting to bring a little more clarity to the turbulent world of modern open-source licensing, is the latest beneficiary of Microsoft’s open-source redemption tour.

Read more in GeekWire.

Microsoft Joins OpenChain Project to Help Standardize Open Source Licensing

Microsoft has announced it is joining the OpenChain Project in another move that furthers the company’s embracing of the open source community. In a post this week, Microsoft says it is joining the OpenChain Project goal to standardize open source licensing.

Read more in WinBuzzer.

OpenChain Project Announces Bosch as Platinum Member

SAN FRANCISCO –  February 28, 2019 — The OpenChain Project, which builds trust in open source by making open source license compliance simpler and more consistent, announced today that Bosch has joined as a platinum member. Membership momentum continues to grow for the project, as Microsoft joined just a few weeks ago as well as other large companies including Uber, Google and Facebook in December. OpenChain provides a specification as well as overarching processes, policies and training that companies need to be successful in managing open source license compliance so that it becomes more efficient, understandable and predictable for participants of the software supply chain.

As code flows between companies that consume billions of lines of open source software through their supply chains to build new products and services, a key challenge is ensuring the relevant license requirements are met in a timely and effective manner. The OpenChain Project provides a consistent way to address that and other challenges. Conformance with the OpenChain Specification shows that an organization follows the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program, and builds trust between organizations in the supply chain. It makes procurement easier for purchasers and preferred status easier for suppliers.

Over the last 15 years, Bosch has embraced open source software starting with consuming open source tooling in automotive using the Eclipse IDE, embedding Linux into Bosch products, and co-innovation of software in public funded projects. Bosch is now leading more than a dozen open source projects and actively driving its open platform strategy for the Bosch IoT Suite at Eclipse IoT with over 1.5 million contributed lines of code. Therefore, it has a special interest in increasing the number of collaborating companies using mature open source management processes. Bosch believes OpenChain is a great platform to share good practices and improve the open source management systems and processes, so other companies can join open source communities.

The OpenChain Specification is the only standard for open source compliance in the supply chain and has major interest from automotive companies. Toyota is currently a platinum member and Scania recently became OpenChain conformant. Also, companies like Panasonic and Renesas are active in the community work groups.

“An open source management system standard will be key for successful collaboration on open source management infrastructure and services,” said Hans Malte Kern, Head of the Center of Competence Open Source, Bosch. “We’re excited to join the OpenChain project, as it reflects the importance of compliant open source usage, distribution, and contribution. Instead of negotiating the open source requirements with all our partners and suppliers, Bosch will leverage OpenChain as an open standard that provides common approaches and understanding for open source collaborations – not only in the automotive industry but also the connected world of IoT. We are convinced the OpenChain standard will replace bilateral negotiations, educations, and open source risk mitigation discussions.”

“It is terrific to have Bosch join other automotive companies such as Toyota as a platinum Member,” said Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Bosch is no stranger to the OpenChain Project and has a long history of contributing  to open source compliance activities. We are thrilled to have them participate in the Governing Board, Steering and Outreach Committees, as well as the work team calls and meetings to help drive this community forward.”

As a platinum member, a representative from Bosch will join the OpenChain Governing Board. Other platinum members of the OpenChain project include Adobe, ARM Holdings, Cisco, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Harman International, Hitachi, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Siemens, Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Uber and Western Digital.

OpenChain @ Reference Material

The recently released OpenChain M&A Checklist has inspired discussion and further contribution to the project. Ibrahim Haddad has just announced a new draft M&A White Paper discussing open source processes in detail. At this time we are seeking review and comments ahead of a projected March release.

Review the Draft Text

OpenChain Specification 2.0 – Comment Now

It is official – we are now seeking broader public comments for version 2.0 of the Specification. This is one of the last major steps in the spec development cycle which is described here:
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/openchain/openchain-specification-wiki-page?&#specification_developmentrelease_process

We will continue to collection feedback from the OpenChain community through the public comments stage as well which concludes on March 22nd.

The current draft is available at:
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/_media/openchain/openchainspec-2.0.draft.pdf

Past readers of the spec might find the marked up version useful: https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/_media/openchain/OpenChainSpec-2.0.draft.MarkUp.pdf

You can send feedback via:
the Mailing list: Openchain-specification@lists.linuxfoundation.org
the issues wiki: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Specification/issues;
or·
replying to Mark Gisi directly if you wish to remain anonymous (mark.gisi@windiver.com)

Updated Intro Slides – OpenChain – Great Open Source Compliance For Everyone

The latest version of the OpenChain Project introduction slides are available. These slides can help bring anyone interested in our standard and supporting material up-to-speed. Full speaker notes included on the downloadable version:
https://www.slideshare.net/ShaneCoughlan3/great-open-source-compliance-for-everyone-version-5

OpenChain @ Localization

OpenChain Japan Planning Subgroup報告 (2018年12月~2019年2月活動分)

‘OpenChain Japan Planning Subgroup報告 (2018年12月~2019年2月活動分)’ is a presentation outlining the activities of the OpenChain Japan Work Group with respect to dedicated sub-groups. This is a record showing how a purely volunteer group has built a strong community focused on real solutions for real businesses.

View the Slides

OpenChain Japan Planning Subgroup報告(2018年12月~2019年2月活動分)from Shane Coughlan

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.