Simon Phipps (Candidate Statement)

Last modified by Simon Phipps on 2017/02/28 13:08

I'm honoured to have been nominated by the Mozilla Foundation as their candidate in the 2017 Board elections. During 2016, I worked in part for the Foundation as a contractor researching the future options for the Thunderbird project.

My support for open source software and the software freedom philosophy started at around the same time as OSI in the late 90s, when I was part of IBM's Java and XML team. From 2000 I worked at Sun Microsystems for a decade, strongly advocating for open source and playing an instrumental role in making the Java platform and the rest of Sun's software portfolio open source. After Sun I joined the OSI Board and played a key role in the transformation that led to OSI hiring a General Manager and the Board becoming an elected body. I served for three years as OSI President until the term limits I advocated ensured I spent a year off the Board.

While sequestered I've been contributing with mailing list moderation and with occasional articles and statements requested by OSI. I am now keen to return and continue the transformation.

  • I believe we need to see OSI stand up for genuine open source software under OSI-approved licenses and challenge abuse of the term "open source" in public. 
  • I believe OSI should continue to build bridges across the open source communities -- especially Affiliates -- helping users, developers and advocates unite in the cause of software freedom.
  • I believe OSI needs to increasingly mentor and resource community-led projects that advance its mission, through a well-promoted and well-supported incubator programme.

In addition to running my own consulting company in the UK, Meshed Insights Ltd, I am also a director at the Open Rights Group (the UK's equivalent of the EFF) and at  OSI Affiliate The Document Foundation (the charity behind LibreOffice). I speak at many conferences globally and write occasionally for InfoWorld and for OpenSource.com. There's much more about me on my personal web site, Wild Webmink, including a longer bio and a detailed declaration of interests.