OSS Watch Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes, 15 September 2004
by Randolph Metcalfe on 1 September 2004
Introduction
Attendance and Action Summary
Present: Paul David, Michael Fraser, Nicole Harris, Brian Kelly, Randy Metcalfe, John Norman, Sebastian Rahtz, Alan Robiette, Andrew Savory, Stephen Tanner, George Vernon
Apologies: Julian Bream, Paul Browning, Phill Camp, Ronnie Scott, Roger Whittaker
Chair: Mike Fraser, acting-Chair for first two agenda items; John Norman, Chair for remainder
Action Summary:
- explore with JISC Communications the possibility of authoring one of their senior management briefing papers
- develop 12 to 16 month communications plan
- circulate plans of software catalogue to committee for comment
- circulate revised policy document to committee for comment
Welcome and introductions
Members introduced themselves together with a short statement of their interests in Open Source. Brian Kelly was welcomed as the newest member of the committee. Paul Browning’s resignation as Chair of the committee was noted and the committee expressed its thanks for his efforts during the past year.
Election of Chair
John Norman was duly elected as Chair for the next 12 months.
Minutes from previous meeting
The minutes from the meeting of 25 February 2004 were accepted.
Matters arising
Actions from the 25 February meeting:
- produce a flyer - done
- questions for IPR workshop - done
- preview of software catalogue for comment - held over
- comments on the FE Roadshow proposal via email - done
- all to pass on opportunities to publicise OSS Watch - done and ongoing; thanks were expressed for Ronnie Scott arranging for an OSS Watch article in NILTA News.
- members invited to send substitutes - done
Manager’s Report
Discussion of the report was integrated into its presentation to the committee. Relevant actions arising have been noted.
Communications
The committee gave useful comments on the draft flyer including a recommendation that OSS Watch reconsider it’s standard description of neutral and authoritative guidance, neutral being perhaps too bland and authoritative perhaps need a gloss. Suggestions included unbiased and objective. There were suggestions for further briefing document topics including explaining what libre means and one on how dual-licensing works.
The committee encouraged OSS Watch to pursue the possibility of senior management briefing papers and guidance notes with JISC in order to help reach a key stakeholder group. It was thought that UCISA might also prove a useful route to help reach senior decision-makers.
It would be useful, especially with the expansion in the communications effort, if OSS Watch had a fully worked out communications plan for the next 12 to 16 months.
A concern was raised that some funding bodies were requiring the intellectual property rights for materials generated from their funding. However, this is not the case for OSS Watch. OSS Watch materials remain copyright University of Oxford and are published with the GNU Free Documenation License ensuring maximal ease of redistribution across UK higher and further education.
Action: explore with JISC Communications the possibility of authoring one of their senior management briefing papers.
Action: develop 12 to 16 month communications plan.
Presentations and Publications
It was suggested that it would be useful for smaller JISC services to arrange for a co-operative distribution of materials. OSS Watch has made joint presentations with Web Focus. This activity should continue in future.
Conferences and Workshops
The second OSS Watch conference, Support Models, was deemed a success. The first focused workshop, IPR and Licensing, was reported as having been useful both for OSS Watch and other participants such as the IT Innovation Centre at Southampton. Guidance materials from the workshop have been unavoidably delayed but their issuance is a high priority for the OSS Watch team. The next focused workshop, Migrating to Open Source: Interoperability Issues, will take place in October 2004. A December conference will explore National and International Frameworks for Open Source.
FE Roadshows
Additional funding from JISC allowed OSS Watch to conduct a short series of OSS Watch - RSC Roadshows. Three in total were held and these have formed a model for an ongoing series in OSS Watch’s forward planning.
Planning for 2004/5
OSS Watch’s planning for 2004/5 is conditional upon the success of a proposal which JISC requested exploring an expansion of the pilot service. Should the additional funding become available there will be a commitment to 10 FE Roadshows per year and one additional conference or focused workshop. OSS Watch will also develop printed materials including its popular OSS Watch Knoppix distribution - a version of the Linux operating system which runs from cd. An self-funding project in this proposal is for a substantial international conference towards the end of 2005 or early 2006.
Other priorities for the immediate future include a software catalogue of free and open source software currently in use in UK higher and further education. Delays in bringing this facility online were discussed. The committee urged OSS Watch to focus on software that is currently in use, rather than specifically upon JISC-funded developments. It was agreed that the catalogue should be an interactive or community building tool. The committee requested that a note be circulated on OSS Watch’s settled plans for comment prior to launching this service.
OSS Watch has drafted, at JISC’s request, an open source policy document. This forms part of a larger context in which JISC participates, including the developing e-gov policy and numerous European Union innitatives. The committee requested an opportunity to comment upon this policy document once current comments had been incorporated.
Action: circulate plans of software catalogue to committee for comment.
Action: circulate revised policy document to committee for comment.
AOB
There were no AOB items.
Date of next meeting
24 February 2005, Cambridge. 11:00 – 15:30 with lunch provided.