OW2 and OSA plan to join forces


         

 

Oct 01 2009

We announced our intention to merge at the Open World Forum in Paris on October 1. 

This is an unprecedented move in the open source world that will create unique global open source organization with prominent members in Europe, China, Brazil and North America dedicated to supporting research, development, distribution, and adoption of open source software at all levels of the information systems.

The merge was motivated by the strong complementarity between OSA and OW2 as illustrated by the expression "two puzzle pieces waiting to be put together", the most repeated comment in the press. Indeed, OW2 relative strengths lie in its governance, its technical infrastructure, its broad code base focusing on open source infrastructure software and its global membership in Europe, China and Brazil while OSA relative strengths are in marketing, commercial open source, its focus on open source applications and technology integration, and in its strong North-American membership.

The time is right, the software industry is changing, open source has grown globally and in all product categories. Vendors, systems integrators and end-users need an integrated platform where they can find reliable code, community and professional support to help implement their open source strategies. 

The merged entity will retain the OW2 governance structure and name. The OSA brand will be not disappear, it will be maintained and combined with the OW2 brand.  The merged organization will be called OW2, and OSA members will constitute the OW2' North American Chapter. The OSA members volunteered their extensive marketing and communication expertise to revive and lead the Ecosystem Council. 

The final details of the merger will be worked out by a Transition Operation Group (TOG) comprised of six members, three from each organization: Jean-Pierre Laisné (BULL), Gaël Blondelle (EBM WebSourcing) and Cedric Thomas for OW2 and Anthony Gold (Bluenog), Deb Woods (Ingres) and Nick Halsey (Jaspersoft) for OSA. We consider there is a transition period during which three OSA board members will be given seats on the OW2 board, until a new election takes place early in 2010. 

See the press release:

Introducing a Global Voice and Platform for Open Source

OW2 and OSA Plan to Join Forces to Unite Organizations Around the World and Up the Stack by Speaking with One Voice on Research, Technology, Business,and Policy Issues.

Read the Press Release in english.

Read the Press Release in french.

See the related videos, realized during the Open World Forum conference, Oct. 1-2, 2009. :
Interview of Cédric Thomas, CEO of OW2 Consortium (in French language).
Interview of Nick Halsey, Co-Founder of Open Solutions Alliance and VP of Marketing and Product Management at Jaspersoft (in English language).


View the Press Report:

Oct. 1 - Open source groups to merge, Tom Espiner, ZDNetUK

Oct. 1 - OW2 Consortium and Open Solutions Alliance to merge, David Neal, Personal Computer World

Oct. 1 - OW2 and OSA announce merger plans, Lisa Hoover, Ostatic (blog)

Oct. 1 - Open source organisations merge, Andrew Charlesworth, Computing

Oct. 1 - Open Solutions Alliance folds into new open source group, Internet News, Sean Michael Kerner

Oct. 2 - A Global Voice for Open Source, Information Management Online, Julie Langenkamp

Oct. 2 - Open World Forum: Open source consortia to merge

Oct. 2 - OW2 fusionne avec l'Open Source Alliance, où quand techno et approche marché se conjuguent, LeMagIT, Cyrille Chausson

Oct. 2 - Open World Forum : OW2 se rapproche de l'Américaine OSA, LeMondeInformatique, Olivier Rafal

Oct. 5 - OW2-Konsortium und Open Solutions Alliance schließen sich zusammen, Pro-Linux.de

Oct. 5 - Open Solutions Alliance acquired by Europeans, ZD Net Blogs, Dana Blankenhorn

Oct. 9 - Open Source: l'OW2 et l'OSA se fiancent, Channelnews.fr, Dirk Basyn