Open Source software and the communities are distributed (participants are geographically dispersed), remote (development and support is not dependent on localized resources), and decentralized (authority is not confined to within one organization) communities of practice. Cultivating a environment for collaboration, contribution and co-creation is vital to a project's success: both the software's development and perhaps more importantly, the community of practice as well. Just as a project's code is managed to ensure the greatest return on investment of limited resources, reduced duplication and redundancy as well as modes for sharing information, status and knowledge, so must the community's.

The OSI does not need to be the central authority for, nor fulcrum of the the open source community. Rather the OSI should work with other, existing efforts to complement, not compete with tier work- toward our mission of building ties and opportunities between communities. As such the Collabinator will identify opportunities for the OSI to collaborate in various communities and community development efforts.

Duties

• Identify existing, relevant events and activities, e.g. conferences, meetings, etc. for the OSI contribute to and participate in.
• Promote OSI Board Directors and community members as topic experts for speaking and promotional opportunities.
• Develop and coordinate OSI regional events.
• Develop and distribute OSI collateral.
• Find and partner with like minded peers / communities of practice to extend the OSI mission.