Brian Gupta wrote: > It has become increasingly apparent, that our sponsor, Sun > Microsystems, feels that it is vital to their business interests, that > they produce and support an Operating System named "OpenSolaris". I am > of the opinion that I agree with Sun's assessment of their situation. > > We (Sun and the community) are in a small predicament due to this > situation, as that particular trademark is already in use by this > community, to describe itself, and to describe the code base this > community manages. Since the founding goals of the community were not > to produce binaries, and were not to allow any distro to name itself > "OpenSolaris", we have recently seen much anguish in the community. > > I would like to offer a number of proposals, that would aim rectify > the situation of naming an open development community after our > sponsor's most dear assets. (Sun Microsystems' Solaris TM) > > Proposal #1 OGB should use Board Committees: > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > I propose that the OGB take advantage of "Board Committees" to take a > more active role in governing the community. Understanding that the > OGB has only so many hours, the instinct is to push decisions to a CG. > I feel that this is not always the best course of action. The OGB > should look at taking up some of these broader issues, and deal with > them through committees. This would allow the community as a whole to > govern itself more effectively, and allow the OGB to take on a newer > active role. > > >From the Constitution: > "6.12. Board Committees. The OGB may designate, by resolution adopted > by an affirmative vote of a majority of the OGB members, any number of > Board Committees, each consisting of at least one OGB member and > composed of persons appointed by the OGB from time to time. Each > committee, to the extent provided in such authorizing resolution, > shall have and may exercise all the power and authority of the OGB in > the management of the business and affairs of the OpenSolaris > Community within the limits imposed by the Charter." > Sure - what committees would you suggest having? > Proposal #3 OGB instantiate a "Trademark Committee" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > I feel the whole Naming issue is best handled by the OGB, vs. a single > CG. I propose that the OGB instantiates a Naming Board Committee. This > is especially needed since an appropriately scoped CG does not exist. > (If the OGB disagrees, I ask that the OGB instead state which CG it > feels is the appropriate CG to handle these issues. > There is a trademark-policy-dev list, while this hasn't been formalised into a committee, it could possibly be recognised as one by the OGB. > Proposal #3 OGB Investigate renaming the community to a name that does > not contain our Sponsor's Trademarks > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >
This has come up for discussion a few times but hasn't been formalised into a policy. I haven't had time to concretely write anything up, perhaps soon. cheers, steve -- stephen lau | stevel at opensolaris.org | www.whacked.net
