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1. Attendance and Action Summary

Present:Phill Camp, Mike Banahan, Mike Fraser, Randy Metcalfe, John Norman, Sebastian Rahtz,

Apologies:Brian Kelly, Julian Bream, Paul David, Bill Olivier, Ann Borda

Chair: John Norman

Action Summary:
  • OSS Watch manager to invite new members to join committee (in conjunction with Chair).

2. Welcome and introductions

The Chair welcomed all present and thanked OSS Watch for hosting this meeting of the advisory committee.

3. Minutes from previous meeting

The minutes from the meeting of 12 September 2005 were reviewed and accepted.

3.1. Matters arising

Actions from the 12 September 2005 meeting:
  • review committee membership - done

4. Manager's Report

Randy Metcalfe presented the report of OSS Watch activities from the previous 6 months

4.1. Staff

The breakdown:
Sebastian Rahtz
Director (0.2 FTE)
Randy Metcalfe
Manager (1.0 FTE)
Rowan Wilson
Research officer (0.5 FTE)
Stuart Yeates
Research officer (0.5 FTE)
Barry Cornelius
Development Officer (0.5 FTE)
Judy McAuliffe
Administration
Sophie Wright
Events Management (0.3FTE)
Elena Blanco
Content Editor

Hannah Dunnington left OSS Watch and OUCS in December. Her role was filled by Sophie Wright.

4.2. Project plan

OSS Watch comprises the following workpackages:
  • Briefing material
  • Conferences
  • Evaluation
  • International conference
  • Project support
  • Reports to JISC
  • Collaboration
  • Demonstration software
  • Survey
  • Website
  • Workshops

4.3. Briefing material published

  • Open source project: criterion for success
  • Open source business: differentiation and success
  • LiveCDs as a forensic tool
  • Producing Open Source Software - review
  • OSS Watch KNOPPIX 4.02
  • Documentation issues in open source
  • LinuxWorld Expo, London, 6 October 2005 - report
  • OSS Watch Relicensing: the case for Creative Commons
  • The Apache License v2 - An Overview
  • The Mozilla Public License - An Overview
  • The Modified BSD License - An Overview
  • The GNU Lesser General Public License - An Overview
  • The GNU General Public License - An Overview
  • JISC open source policy
  • Why I Love My Mac

4.4. Examples: 5 licence documents and documentation issues

5 briefing notes providing an overview of some of the most popular open source licences were published in 2005. These materials
  • met a specific need
  • form the basis for future briefing materials
  • mark a step-change in OSS Watch's materials

Documentation issues in open source has been singled out on numerous blogs around the world as an excellent contribution to understanding this perplexing challenge.

4.5. Document rigour

All OSS Watch technical writing continued to be prepared in validated XML, and checked by two members of staff. There is a well-established formal process for the regular review of published documentation.

Overall, the quality of OSS Watch's content continued to rise.

4.6. IPR and licensing

OSS Watch's content is not limited to briefing materials. Thematic workshops address specific stakeholder groups such as
  • software developers who are supported by research grants
  • staff who handle the administration of research grants
  • staff who are responsible for the commercialisation of research outputs

The October workshop aimed at the Research Councils was a good example. It provided a primer in open source concepts, an explanation of the UK government's policy on open source and an overview of the function and application of the top five free and open source licences (GPL, LGPL, BSD, Apache 2, MPL).

4.7. Technology transfer

Increasingly tech transfer units at research institutions are becoming interested in open source exploitation routes. In December, OSS Watch was invited to run a seminar for the University of Oxford's technology transfer company Isis Innovation. This seminar included additional material on open source-related business models and open source projects that are currently being run as businesses by universities globally.

4.8. External evaluation

Between mid September and the end of October 2005, OSS Watch underwent an external evaluation. It was conducted by Professor Michael Kelleher of Cibit.

The evaluation was received very favourably by JISC.

Overall OSS Watch is perceived as providing a valuable and unique service to its target audience. The service is seen as timely and appropriate and it was felt that if it did not exist, something would have to be created to fill the need of the sector.

4.9. Website

The new-look OSS Watch website was launched in October 2005. It provided enhanced navigation to OSS Watch content (a point praised by our external evaluator), increased use of newsfeeds for dynamic content, full css control of layout, and (we think) a refreshing new look.

4.10. Wiki

OSS Watch's public wiki was launched in October 2005. It is increasingly becoming a repository of useful information. For example, when answering a query to info@oss-watch.ac.uk, OSS Watch staff now regularly also add the content of their response to the wiki, ready for a future enquiry and comments by others.

4.11. Presentations

  • October 3rd Licensing Workshop, Oxford
  • October 10th Joint Programme Meeting: Digital Preservation and Asset Management and Digital Repositories, Glasgow
  • October 12th NILTA Conference Keynote Speech, York
  • November 1st ICT Communites of Practice Event, Stirling
  • November 9th SocialSource, London
  • November 14th Open Source for Education in Europe, The Netherlands
  • November 21st Aslib Creative Commons Workshop, London
  • November 30 Online Educa Berlin, Berlin
  • December 6 Licensing and Business Model Seminar at Isis Innovation, Oxford
  • December 12th BCS Open Source SIG, London
  • December 14th, Open Source VLEs: the next Generation, York
  • February 3rd, Open source - what is it good for?, Oxford
  • February 13th, RSC Wales Moodle User Group, Cardiff
  • February 17th, Roads to Freedom: The making of the GNU General Public License Version 3, Oxford

4.12. OSS Watch plans and current projects March-September 2006

Key points for the immediate future of OSS Watch were listed:
  • funding for 2006-8
  • GPLv3 consultation process
  • national survey
  • sustainability conference
  • sustainability study

5. Discussion of report

Discussion of the managers report concentrated on three areas:
  1. The future of OSS Watch. Sebastian Rahtz and Randy Metcalfe explained that, after discussion with Nicole Harris, a bid for 2 more years of work had been prepared, and was now in the JISC committee system. It had been hoped to complete this by February, but it was now scheduled for the spring. The bid specified an increase in staff numbers and work being undertaken.
  2. Arrangements for the April conference on sustainability were discussed in some detail; there was plenty of interest, and a draft programme was circulated.
  3. Sustainability study. Randy outlined the state of work done so far.

6. Licencing and the GPL 3

Rowan Wilson gave a presentation about the discussions around GPL v3, and explained how OSS Watch was being involved.

7. Date of next meeting

It was agreed that the date of the next meeeting would be established by Meetomatic, once it was confirmed that OSS Watch would be continuing into 2006/7.

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 (first published January 2006)
Author: Sebastian Rahtz

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