Newsletter – Issue 18 – October 2018
Context
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
October was an incredible month for the OpenChain Project. We had more outreach, more collaboration and more announcements than ever before. Key items include new membership from Toshiba, new conformance from SUSE, and the release of beta documents to help with initiating and tracking OpenChain Conformance.
New Member
The OpenChain Project, which builds trust in open source by making open source license compliance simpler and more consistent, announced Toshiba has become a Platinum Member. Toshiba has long been a driving force in the OpenChain Japan Work Group, and their new Platinum membership will enable the company to contribute even more to the global adoption of the OpenChain standard.
“OpenChain is not just a project for OSS license compliance, it also helps to improve mutual trust and effective communication between open source developers and users,” says Tetsuji Fukaya, Director of the Corporate Software Engineering and Technology Center of Toshiba Corporation. “Open source is publicly recognized as an essential part of digital transformation and widely used in numerous products. In order to use open source appropriately, we think that license compliance alone is not enough. Mutual trust between developers and users is also essential. OpenChain will be key to achieve both. For that reason, we feel proud of being part of the OpenChain Project.”
New Conformant Organization
The OpenChain Project announced it has welcomed SUSE to its community of conformance. Conformance with the OpenChain Specification confirms that an organization follows the key requirements of a quality open source compliance program, and builds trust between organizations in the supply chain. SUSE is the first enterprise Linux distributor to earn conformance with the OpenChain Project Specification.
“For more than 25 years, SUSE has created and engaged with open source communities as a foundation for its enterprise solutions,” said Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE CTO. “We always engage with the community to better meet customer needs, and our OpenChain certification is another indication to enterprises that we are committed to making their experience with open source software more reliable and cost effective.”
Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/23/suse-joins-the-openchain-community-of-conformance
Media
We began October with an interview from the EFY Group covering the key requirements of quaility open source compliance programs. Find out more here:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/01/interview-openchain-project-managing-open-source-compliance-across-the-software-supply-chain
We continued with a Flexera Webinar designed to highlight OpenChain as a great starting point for any organization seeking to adopt the key processes of a quality open source compliance program. Learn more here:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/02/openchain-explained-on-a-forthcoming-flexera-webinar
Events
The OpenChain Project announced a a Birds of a Feather (BoF) at 6pm on Monday the 22nd of October at Open Source Summit Europe. This BoF was designed to provide a “ground level” introduction to what we are doing, how we are doing it, and why you should be part of this. Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/16/openchain-bof-open-source-summit-europe-22nd-october
The OpenChain Project announced a workshop co-located with the Open Source Summit Europe in Edinburgh on the 23rd of October. This provided a deeper dive into OpenChain then the BoF held the previous day. Learn more here:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/10/openchain-workshop-open-source-summit-europe-23rd-october
The OpenChain Project was featured at the Software IP event hosted by IAM and located at Golden Gate Club at the Presidio, San Francisco on the 30th of October. The project was represented by Hung Chang, Senior Product Counsel at Workday, and one of the founders of the OpenChain Project. Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/30/openchain-featured-software-ip-an-iam-event
The OpenChain Japan Work Group held its sixth meeting on the 31st of October between 2pm and 4:45pm at Toshiba Smart Community Center in Kanazawa. As with the previous five OpenChain Japan Work Group meetings the discussion included a mix of structured reports, activity planning and case studies. Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/31/openchain-japan-work-group-meeting-6
It was announced that the OpenChain Project will be featured at a forthcoming Bird & Bird event on the 20th of November in Frankfurt, Germany. Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/10/openchain-bird-bird-event-20th-november
Emerging Internal Services
The OpenChain Project previously maintained a document for “manual OpenChain Conformance.” The idea was that companies could download, print and/or the document to suit workflows beyond our online conformance web app. You can find a version of that document here:
Gary O’Neall from our Conformance Work Team has been doing some exciting work to make it quicker and faster to create a manual conformance document. He is automating the creation from inside the conformance web app. Check it out here:
We also announced the public Beta of a new Web App for benchmarking OpenChain Conformance. The idea is to provide a quick, simple and attractive way for companies to check their status regarding meeting the OpenChain standard. This project is being managed by our good friends at Source Code Control. Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/04/new-in-beta-web-app-for-benchmarking-openchain-conformance
We are seeking feedback on the current offering regarding:
- Ease of use
- If it helps solves friction around conformance
- How complementary it is to our Conformance Web App
Emerging External Services
TÜV SÜD Japan have launched an OpenChain Certification Program. This is the first such program and foreshadows a series of announcements over the coming months. The core of the OpenChain Project is our specification (standard) and our simple, free process for self-certification. Commercial activities adjacent to this by TÜV SÜD Japan and other organizations are complementary, providing an avenue for verified/audited certification for entities that want to have this level of assurance. Learn more here:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/02/tuv-sud-japan-announces-openchain-certification-program
Project Collaboration
There is a lot of cross-pollination between Linux Foundation open source projects. The latest is a contribution from Fukuchi-San, a driving force in the OpenChain Japan WG, to SPDX. Motivated by a suggestion from Thomas Steenbergen at Open Source Summit Europe 2017 he has prepared a Japanese translation of the SPDX Specification. The draft document is available for comments, suggestions and improvements here:
Learn more:
https://www.openchainproject.org/news/2018/10/29/openchain-♥-spdx
Summary
This was easily our busiest month yet, with a rocket-ship launch into Q4, and providing a strong foundation for our next steps towards formal standardization in 2019/2020. Of particular note is that we are building out membership, conformance and awareness. This will continue through November and the end of the year. Watch this space!
License and Trademarks
Copyright 2018 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.
