Is open source under threat? Of course it is. It always has been and it always will be. Why should open source be any different from anything else on the planet? Everything is always under threat, especially concepts and ideas, which essentially is what open source is, because concepts and ideas are easily modified. It can be tempting, and pressure can be brought to bear, to make changes to how concepts such as open source are defined. But just because such pressure from some open source developers is currently very much in the news doesn't mean that open source is particularly "under threat." MongoDB attempting to convince Open Source Initiative to either officially redefine open source, or to shoehorn a license into open source approval, isn't much of a threat, it's pretty much business as usual. 

It's not a threat primarily because of OSI's commitment to its mandate to be the maintainer of the Open Source Definition and to the important roles of deciding whether a license fits that definition.

We are fortunate that OSI, this key organization in the open source ecosphere has maintained its integrity and independence while it continues to resist pressure from powerful and resourceful organizations who would be happy to decide what open source becomes going forward and whose only metric for measuring the worth of open source is dollars and cents. As members, it's up to us to assure that the integrity and independence of OSI continues to be maintained.

OSI is and should be business agnostic. Open source is not a business model, it's a software license. Big business is important to open source. Indeed, these days corporate users are by far the biggest users, developers, and maintainers of software released under open source licenses, and this is true because the value of sharing resources that open source brings has proved to be even more valuable to the enterprise, perhaps, than enterprise users are to open source. By protecting our open source licensing model with a firm hand, we are protecting a model that has served the business world well -- even if business doesn't always see it that way.

While we should continue to support and encourage business adoption of open source software, we should also be aware that the tremendous success of business-focused open source has had an unintended negative consequence on the open source community hat must be addressed. The consumers of software, the home user if you will, now represents a shrinking part of the open source community which now seems to be dominated by people who earn their living in IT.

A large portion of this drop is due to the overwhelming success of computer tech as a driving economic force, which has greatly increased the number of people whose first exposure to open source is job related. But there are other forces at work too. The technology underpinning consumer computers, from smart phones to desktops, no longer requires users to learn much about computers in order to effectively use them. In addition, consumers no longer need to directly purchase the software they use. Most devices come with much of the software they need preinstalled, and what additional software they need is either readily available as freeware for consumer use or as free, or practically free, SaaS. This has led to a situation where the average computer user only has a vague awareness of open source software, if they have any awareness at all.

And because of their shrinking proportionate size, what consumer open source advocates there are, are not being well represented by open source organizations.

This is an area where I would especially like to see OSI get more involved. From cell phones to traditional desktops, everyone is using computers these days, usually with little to no awareness about the source of the apps they download and install. I would like to see us looking for opportunities to be of service to these everyday computer users. I have some ideas, mainly centered around opening up educational channels to increase awareness of open source software and its importance, and if elected I will seek counsel from the people I know (and whom I will meet) at OSI on practical ways to serve garden variety computer users.

I bring to the table about twenty years experience as an open source user and advocate. I also have 47 years experience as a journalist, with the last least ten of those years spent exclusively writing about open source, and what I've generally come to call "free tech." Six of those years were spent covering free and open source software exclusively, including desktop Linux, for an audience that mainly consisted of Linux and open source enthusiasts and advocates.

For the last three years or so, I've been employed as a full time journalist writing for two online tech news sites targeting the enterprise ecosystem. At Data Center Knowledge, my beat is specifically "Open Source" (which includes so-called "open source hardware"). At IT Pro Today, my assigned beat includes Linux, containers, server virtualization, HCI, and HPC, which are all areas dominated by open source.