Lex Pan Law this year became a supporting partner of the Open Source Initiative. Most of you who work in the Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) field are probably familiar with the OSI, its activities, and mission. OSI maintains a list of approved open source licenses, which much of the industry relies upon in deciding what license to choose when deciding to open source a piece of software (or in some cases, other technologies). It also has a process for review and approval of new licenses, where a number of very thoughtful reviewers and commentators express their opinions upon conformance of licenses with the open source philosophy as well as legal rigor. If these topics of interest to you, you should subscribe to their mailing lists and comment on issues you feel are important.
Last year, the OSI appointed its first Executive Director, which should help the OSI focus on pressing projects and garner more industry support (financial and otherwise).
Administration of the OSI is through an elected board, with board members serving fixed-length terms and with any OSI individual member being eligible to run (and all OSI members having an equal vote). This level of transparency and receptiveness to membership feedback is one that other similar organizations should follow (even if the results of the elections don't necessarily reflect one's own personal preferences).
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