After an introduction to Open Invention Network by Meshed Insights Ltd, the fast-growing US open source professional services company Open Software Integrators llc have signed up as licensees to join the mesh of mutual patent defence OIN offers. Congratulations, and welcome!
Thinking Of Starting A Foundation?
Open source projects are increasingly opting to form an independent entity – a “Foundation” – to form the core of their community, rather than relying on goodwill or corporate oversight. Foundations often hold shared assets such as money, trademarks and copyrights, provide infrastructure, and sometimes employ staff.
The idea is seductive, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. A Foundation can’t solve your community problems; it can only make firm the solutions you devise, by providing a canvas on which to paint the trust and governance you have all agreed and to guarantee it for future generations of your community. You need to solve the problems first.
Migration Needs A Plan
Do open source mandates work? Plenty of entities have tried to apply an open source mandate, requiring use particularly of open source office suites like LibreOffice. But it takes more than just a decision or a mandate; to successfully gain the benefits of open source in the enterprise, you also need a thoughtful migration plan. Read about this in our article today at Linux Advocates.
OSCON Speaker
Simon has had a talk accepted once again at the iconic Open Source Convention, OSCON. He’s spoken there many times before, including twice as a keynote speaker and this year is sharing experiences of corporations engaging with open source communities – from both sides of the fence. His talk “Can Evil Corporations Embrace Open Source?“, is scheduled for the Thursday morning of OSCON.
Joining Open Invention Network
Open Invention Network is a novel company formed to operate patent defenses for open source developers. It owns a portfolio of patents relevant to key open source technologies, runs a defensive publication scheme and operates a patent cross-licensing network of well over 500 companies. I’m pleased to announce that Meshed Insights has joined the Open Invention Network as a licensee in that network. This move both demonstrates our commitment to minimising patent risks throughout the open source community and also offers us some protection against patent aggression.
We have also reached an agreement with OIN to represent them at mutually agreed events and to assist clients in themselves becoming Open Invention Network licensees. If you are interested in becoming a licensee, which you most likely will be able to do free of charge, please contact us.
Welcome!
Welcome to Meshed Insights! Founded in 2012 by Simon Phipps, we are a management consulting, community engagement and editorial content company focussing on Free and Open Source software. We help
- communities build and change governance and licensing;
- companies evolve their business strategy to responsibly benefit from open source;
- publications deliver insights on open source, open standards and digital rights to their audiences.
If you need any of these services, please do get in touch!
Meshed Insights Ltd 