Notices by Bradley M. Kuhn (bkuhn@floss.social)

I appreciate @ed deleted post falsely claiming @richardfontana & I “refused to sign OSI's Code of Conduct” & that #OpenSource Initiative posted our privately negotiated correction for similar misstatements…
https://opensource.org/blog/announcing-the-new-directors-of-osi-board#:~:text=agreed%20to%20be%20held%20to%20the%20OSI%20Code%20of%20Conduct
… 'tho my gratitude is abated b/c despite weeks of bilateral negotiations by email, OSI tried to unilaterally change the agreed statement (screenshot).
https://floss.social/@bkuhn/114438544297568433 has more.

NB: the Candidate Agreement didn't exist until last week (a month after election).

Thanks for eventually correcting the misstatements. The public apology I asked for, though – 42 days ago – was an apology that @osi had *made* the statements, which you agree were incorrect.

After weeks of private negotiations where you made it clear an actual apology for the statements themselves was off the table, & today's new mistake, it seems you still aren't offering that apology?

No matter – all can be forgiven if you just do what so many people asked you to do:
https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025

Thanks @downey, for noting the dire need of/for @osuosl. #SoftwareFreedom @conservancy (where I work) helps #FOSS projects w/ nonprofit infrastructure. We don't need to offer server hosting *b/c* OSU OSL exists. SFC projects like @inkscape & others rely *every day* on @ramereth & his team.
What's more, Lance is training the next generation of FOSS system infrastructure engineers — slowly becoming a lost art to proprietariness since the knowledge is increasingly locked in big hosting companies.

If you are involved in any way (volunteer, donor, employee, leader, fan) of any of these #OSI Affiliate organizations…
https://opensource.org/affiliates
…please urge that organization to sign the petition to demand #OpenSource Initiative release the results of their recent election …
https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025

Please help with this even if you've already signed the petition individually. Since the Affiliates are a specific district of voters, the petition is substantially stronger if more Affiliates sign!

These Affiliate organizations face a larger political challenge in signing a petition than individuals do.
Typically, they have an internal process that needs to both prioritize an issue like this (& many may only vaguely care about #OpenSource Initiative at all). Then, the org must go through an approval process internally to sign.

Since these orgs often have their own members, donors, fans, & otherwise must interact with the #FOSS public, you can help that process along by contacting them

@dneary

That is truly the highest praise I've ever received possibly. Thank you so much for saying so.

Both @richardfontana & I went into this, perhaps naïvely, with the simple premise that #OpenSource Initiative had lost its way on a few things and we had the skills to help solve those.

That list started with two things on it, and by time campaigning began it had 4 things. But JUST 4 THINGS!

I am truly baffled why OSI can't accept any dissent anywhere.

Cc:
@kfogel @gamey @ed @purpleidea

@ocdtrekkie the OSI is likely going to ignore the petition until they can't, which means we need more people to sign. I truly don't know how many signatures it's going to take for them to take this situation seriously, so we gotta keep piling them on.

https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025

Cc: @richardfontana

It's very special to me reading this thread.

I spend a lot of time defending copyleft in venues where people hate copyleft, including with Musk fans & tech bros.

I get falsely accused of the worst imaginable.

But reading here just four or five people commenting who clearly believe copyleft is a core and important strategy for FOSS really makes today a better day for me. And good days are hard to come by in my part of the world these days.

Thank you all.

@dexter I didn't say that at all. I amazed you're trolling when I shared something heartfelt, but OK, I guess that's the world we live in now.

@kfogel's essay & his further comments …
https://kfogel.org/notice/AtP2KpuBUuXbbz8eFE
… share an important perspective. Karl'as been an #OpenSource Initiative Director, an #OSI volunteer, & an OSI contractor.
His key point is same as the petition (which Karl signed & I hope you will too): regardless of your views about candidates & their positions, the elections must be transparent & OSI has the right to not seat us even if we won, so why not be transparent?
Pls sign today:
https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025
#FreeSoftware

@dneary

I hope you'll sign the petition.

As @kfogel says, it's not an issue that the Board didn't seat me and @richardfontana , but that it continues to hide the results.

Every petition signature helps, even if you're disliked by #OpenSource Initiative.

It's now 49 sigs:
https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025

Paraphrasing (& mixing metaphors of ) Arlo Guthrie's *Alice's Restaurant*:

If 1 person signs, #OSI figures I'm a malcontent & won't seat me on the Board. If 2 people sign, they'll just seat neither of us.

But if FIFTY PEOPLE walk up to OSI, sing a bar of Alice's Restaurant, sign the petition, & walk out, they'll think it's a Movement.

Only 1 more sig 'til *A Movement*

Wow, everyone, response to the petition to #OpenSource Initiative seeking release of results of 2025 Board of Directors Election had quicker response than imagined, but it still needs more sigs:
https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025

I joked than per Arlo Guthrie's song, *Alice's Restaurant*, that it's officially a Movement (since Arlo says 50 people)…
https://floss.social/@bkuhn/114371121751860621
… But forgot to mention Arlo said “50 people a day”😛 — as such, I'd really appreciate if 50 more of you could sign. Could you please?

Tomorrow's 4 weeks since #OpenSource Initiative tampered w/ ballots to surreptitiously remove Bentley Hensel, @richardfontana, & me from already-cast votes to pretend like we never ran. The only time @osi will now even say our names is to spread false accusations.

According to the “results” announcement…
https://opensource.org/blog/announcing-the-new-directors-of-osi-board
…they've promised to publish a “retrospective” on their 2025 election by tomorrow. One wonders what they'll say to justify all this? 🤔

ICYMI: https://lwn.net/Articles/1014603/

The petition is for those *not* on #OpenSource Initiative's Board to sign.

A petition is an opportunity for the common people to have their voice heard by those in charge. As we believe in the USA (where #OSI, @dexter & I live):

> Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

@webmink: you, like me, have fame that grants you political safety to sign the petition. Will you sign it, or do you agree with the recent ballot tampering?

Oh, are contractors as required to sign the “code of silence” (i.e., the 19 words that Open Source Initiative considers sacrosanct):
> “Disagree during Board deliberation but support publicly all Board decisions, especially those that do not have unanimous consent.”
?

I've never heard of a 501(c)(3) charity (at least in FOSS) that forbids and/or curtails employees & contractors from expressing their public policy views. It'd be new to me to learn OSI has a gag order for its contractors.

… activists who are on Open Source initiative's radar have taken & will take more political hits for questioning this status quo & saying these emperors have no clothes. By signing the petition, every single individual in #OpenSource & #FreeSoftware communities can do a tiny bit to help those of us who face the constant onslaught in the political fray. I consider it my job to take the risk, but I ask you do something tiny to help make that work a bit easier.

Thank you for your consideration.

… disagreeing publicly w/ #OSI — who has a track record of seeking political retribution — is indeed risky!
Petitions beautifully grant “safety in numbers”: widely signed petitions create “herd immunity” for signers; More signers yield more political safety for each signer.
Petitions are also an easy, effective way for relatively “unknown” individuals to support famous activists. #OpenSource Initiative likely won't bother to seek political retribution against individuals they don't know well…

Some say they're afraid to sign #OpenSource initiative Election Results petition…
https://codeberg.org/OSI-Concerns/election-results-2025
…they correctly say (paraphrased):
> “you [bkuhn] faced — & will continue to face — political retribution from #OSI . You have privilege of notoriety to endure that; I don't.”

Herein, I respond: that view assumes a zero-sum game that doesn't exist.

Thesis: each person who signs has nominally less personal political risk *&* incrementally reduces risk for each past & future signer. HMO…

Circa 1993, I came back to my dorm room & one of my college roommates was watching CSPAN (yes, I lived exclusively with other geeks 😆). I ranted:
“Congress just talks and talks & nothing gets done. They should work faster & more efficiently”

My roommate said something I'll never forget: “You don't want to live in a country where laws change quickly. Laws should change slowly & rarely.”

At the time, I didn't agree but thought he had a good point. I recently decided he was unequivocally right