Dear Professor Colin
Thank you for your interest in serving on the OpenID Board of Directors. Allow me to use this response to answer yours and others questions about the Board role. Let me first say these views are only mine. The OpenID Foundation is a very young organization (2+ years) -short on precedents - long on global adoption issues. Because ours is so young an organization, we must rapidly evolve our governance, operations and priorities to keep up with the widespread, albeit uneven, adoption of OpenID. In an organization like ours, leadership must come from all quarters. As an essentially volunteer run organization, change - whether to a website page or working group - is in the hands of those motivated to act. We have made great improvements with unheralded but necessary upgrades to our infrastructure to move into the next phase of adoption. For example, we now can and must do a better job of outreach and coordination with international organizations of all kinds- OpenID chapters / affiliates, academic / technology researchers and governmental groups interested in our certification approach, The expected contribution from board members is indeed both time and resources. There is an unspoken expectation that when an issue requires domain knowledge, skill sets or particular expertise; board members commit best efforts to make their own, their companys and communitys resources available. The current board has stepped up time and again to take time away from their day jobs to contribute expertise, experience and energy. Todays board is professional, collegial and brings a wide range of backgrounds, opinions and styles to our deliberations. We have disagreed but rarely have had a contested vote. OpenID Foundation Board members typically join telephone conference call meetings at least twice a month. For every board call there are dozens of email and subsequent calls exchanged to follow up on action items and issues. The new board the 2010 version- will shape its own agenda, meeting schedule and workload. I plan to propose more face to face board meetings in conjunction with industry events like IIW. All board members are responsible for covering costs for participating in meetings. And in keeping with our nonprofit status, board members cannot be paid for work on behalf of the foundation. I am reminded by recent comments at <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] that the foundation and board deliberations exist in an open source ecosystem. Our culture is a unique blend of technology, meritocracy and transparency. Our current board has invested the kind of leadership that has made 2009 successful and well prepared for more to come. But leadership is not without cost. I must point out that OpenID board members may be subject to questions and commentary that may be impolite, impolitic and ill informed. There are no perks no golf outings just a roll up the sleeves approach to collaboration. Such is the price of leadership in as dynamic a space as ours. Thank you (and others) for your consideration. Don Thibeau [email protected] Executive Director The OpenID Foundation http://openid.net From: Jean-Noël Colin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 3:08 AM To: Don Thibeau (OIDF ED) Subject: Fwd: [OpenID Foundation] December 2009 Board Member Election: Nominations Open Dear Don, I reviewed the FAQ about the Board role, but could not find any information about the concrete expected contribution in terms of time and resources, frequency of meetings (virtual, physical, confcall), financial implications (do I have to cover my costs for participating in meetings, for instance...) Would you have some more information about that? Best regards --- Prof. Jean-Noël Colin Faculty of Computer Science Tel: +32 (0)81 725274 University of Namur http://info.fundp.ac.be Rue Grandgagnage 21 Skype: jn.colin 5000 Namur Belgium Begin forwarded message: From: [email protected] Date: 23 Nov 2009 17:44:13 GMT+01:00 To: [email protected] Subject: [OpenID Foundation] December 2009 Board Member Election: Nominations Open Hello Jean-Noel Colin, Nominations have opened on the December 2009 OpenID board member election. The nominating process will remain open until December 7, 2009. The page below allows you to nominate yourself or second the nominations other candidates. Thank you for your participation! https://openid.net/foundation/members/elections/3 --- The OpenID Foundation http://openid.net/foundation/
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