Open Source Initiative


The Open Source Initiative is an American nonprofit organization that maintains The Open Source Definition, the predominant standard for open-source software. The organization was founded in February 1998 by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, part of a group inspired by the Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product. Later, in August 1998, the organization added a board of directors.
For most of its existence, the OSI's activities have been focused on the definition and certifying software licenses as compliant with it. OSI originally had a closed organizational model, but began to switch towards a membership organization in the 2010s to raise more money and expand its activities.

History

As a campaign of sorts, "open source" was launched in 1998 by Christine Peterson, Jon "maddog" Hall, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, and others.
The group adopted The Open Source Definition for open-source software, based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines. They also established the Open Source Initiative as a steward organization for the movement. However, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to secure a trademark for 'open source' to control the use of the term.
In 2012, under the leadership of OSI director and then-president Simon Phipps, the OSI began transitioning towards a membership-based governance structure. The OSI initiated an Affiliate Membership program for "government-recognized non-profit charitable and not-for-profit industry associations and academic institutions anywhere in the world". Subsequently, the OSI announced an Individual Membership program and listed a number of Corporate Sponsors.
On November 8, 2013, OSI appointed Patrick Masson as its general manager. From August 2020 to September 2021, Deb Nicholson was the interim general manager. During the OSI's March 2021 board election, the OSI discovered that at least one voter had exploited a security vulnerability to submit multiple votes; the election results were discarded and the OSI held the election again.
Co-founder Perens resigned from the OSI in January 2020 in response to the organization's then-impending approval of the Cryptographic Autonomy License. Prior to his departure, Perens wrote on the OSI mailing list that the license "isn't freedom respecting", and in a later interview with The Register, he expressed concern about license proliferation, stating that the AGPLv3, LGPLv3, and Apache 2.0 licenses were sufficient.
In November 2020, the board of directors announced a search for an executive director, which was concluded in September 2021 with the appointment of Stefano Maffulli. At the same time, the role of president of the board was abandoned in favor of chair of the board. Maffulli stepped down in September 2025. Deborah Bryant is serving as interim executive director.
In 2025, elections for the board of directors were criticized for many missteps.
These included a mistake in communicating the number of seats, which were corrected only after nominations had closed, and the exclusion of three candidates who didn't sign an agreement required after the vote took place and before the votes were counted.
Voters and other members of open source communities raised concerns about the lack of transparency and the fact that two of the excluded candidates had expressed opinion contrasting those of current directors, and asked to publish the complete tallies and to invalidate and repeat the election.
OSI declined such requests and hold the elections valid.
In January 2026, it was announced that the board of directors had voted to redesign the board member selection process and to suspend 2026 board elections until then.

Governance

The OSI is a California public-benefit nonprofit corporation, with 501 tax-exempt status. The organization is professionally overseen by an Executive Director and staff, and supported by its Board of Directors responsible for overseeing duty of care, fiduciary duty, and strategic alignment to mission.

License approval process

The OSI approves certain licenses as compatible with the definition, and maintains a list of compliant licenses. New licenses have to submit a formal proposal explaining the rationale for the license, comparison with existing approved licenses, and any legal analysis. The proposal is discussed on the OSI mailing list for at least 30 days before being brought to a vote and approved or rejected by the OSI board. Although the OSI has made an effort to have a transparent process, the approval process has been a source of controversy.
Seven approved licenses are particularly recommended by the OSI as "popular, widely used, or having strong communities":
  1. Apache License 2.0
  2. BSD 3-Clause and BSD 2-Clause Licenses
  3. All versions of the GPL
  4. All versions of the LGPL
  5. MIT License
  6. Mozilla Public License 2.0
  7. Common Development and Distribution License
  8. Eclipse Public License version 2.0