Open Source Program Office Explained

An Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is a physical or virtual department formed by subject-matter experts involved in free- and open software and open standards management and operations in the organization.

Details

OSPOs are supported by numerous companies such as Yahoo!,^[1] Goldman Sachs,^[2] Bloomberg L.P., Comcast or Porsche,^[3] universities like Trinity College Dublin^[4] or the Johns Hopkins University.^[5]

The tasks of an OSPO include:

• Advocacy for free software within the organization.^[6]
  • Internal and external community management and support of the respective maintainer of the software projects.
  • Maintenance of public version controls.
• Release for use of free software.
  • Documentation of dependencies in used or included free software to prevent vulnerability or software license violations from third-party software.
  • Creation and monitoring of license compliance policies of free-software licenses in deployed applications or published products.^[7]
• Corporate communication the open source strategy inside and outside the organization and contact with other OSPOs.
• Development of Business models for open-source software.

References

1. Web site: The Open Source Program Office. Open Source Guide. 2023-05-17. 2023-05-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20230517165008/https://yahoo.github.io/oss-guide/docs/resources/the-ospo.html. live.
2. https://developer.gs.com/blog/posts/goldmansachs-ospo-one-year-in Goldman Sachs' Open Source Program Office, One Year In
3. Web site: The Evolution of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO). www.linuxfoundation.org. 2023-05-17. 2023-04-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20230429183954/https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/the-evolution-of-the-open-source-program-office-ospo. live.
4. Web site: Open Source Program Office - Trinity Innovation - Trinity College Dublin. www.tcd.ie.
5. Web site: Open Source Programs Office (OSPO). 2023-05-17. 2023-05-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20230529125348/https://drcc.library.jhu.edu/open-source-programs-office/. live.
6. Web site: Why have an open source program office?. www.redhat.com. 2023-05-17. 2023-05-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20230504233004/https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/open-source-program-office-brief. live.
7. https://github.com/todogroup/ospodefinition.org github.com/todogroup/ospodefinition.org

Web Links

• ospo-alliance.org Association of OSPOs, including the Eclipse Foundation
• todogroup.org OSPO community of practice formed by member organizations and individual contributors
• CURIOSS OSPO community for those working in University and Research Institution OSPOs
• opensource.com - A guide to setting up your Open Source Program Office (OSPO) for success
• joinup.ec.europa.eu - The Rise of the Open Source Program Offices (OSPO)