The Codice mission

[andy.goodson]

In thinking about the CODICE mission statement it seems we have a few threads but might be well served to bring them together in a simple, yet descriptive sentence. To do so it may help to identify some key goals and intentions:

1. A licensing framework providing simple re-use for any purpose
   
2. Developer support –infrastructure tools
   
3. Support and foster growth of a large contributor base through open mantras
   
4. The legal protection of a corporation/3rd party entity.
   
5. Enable US Federal and State participation
   
6.  

Below are the two statements I pulled from the concept paper and Google Groups description that we currently have and some a third that I added as potential mission statements for comment:

1. The Codice Foundation is an industry-led, grass-roots (read technologists) effort to enable and support government contractors, or anyone, who wishes to (public) open source license copyrighted code for the sake of the community empowered innovation and growth.
   
2. Codice, the Public Code Conservancy, is an industry-led foundation aimed at supporting contractors, government agencies and individuals with their open source software requirements.
3. The Codice Foundation provides the technical and legal infrastructure for communities of developers to produce software that is open and free from limitations in its re-use by others.    
   
4. 
   

Thoughts? Comments?

[Kit Plummer]

Good start.

On Sep 27, 2012, at 9:59 AM, andy.goodson <andy.g...@gmail.com> wrote:

In thinking about the CODICE mission statement it seems we have a few threads but might be well served to bring them together in a simple, yet descriptive sentence. To do so it may help to identify some key goals and intentions:

1. A licensing framework providing simple re-use for any purpose
   
2. Developer support –infrastructure tools
   
3. Support and foster growth of a large contributor base through open mantras
   
4. The legal protection of a corporation/3rd party entity.
   
5. Enable US Federal and State participation

6. Facilitate "airgap" processes - flow SW from low <-> high environments

7. Legal and process guidance on all OSS matters

8. Standardize development and collaboration tooling on modern options

6.  

Below are the two statements I pulled from the concept paper and Google Groups description that we currently have and some a third that I added as potential mission statements for comment:

1. The Codice Foundation is an industry-led, grass-roots (read technologists) effort to enable and support government contractors, or anyone, who wishes to (public) open source license copyrighted code for the sake of the community empowered innovation and growth.
   
2. Codice, the Public Code Conservancy, is an industry-led foundation aimed at supporting contractors, government agencies and individuals with their open source software requirements.
3. The Codice Foundation provides the technical and legal infrastructure for communities of developers to produce software that is open and free from limitations in its re-use by others.    
   
4. 
   

Yeh, I started taking a whack at a one-liner.  I do think we need to incorporate a statement about ITAR-free - as to separate Codice from other activities in the space, and to highlight the need.

Thoughts? Comments?

--
 
 

[Kit Plummer]

Here's another attempt, following Andy's thoughts to incorporate some of the key attributes:

The Codice Foundation is an industry-led technical, process and legal guidance facility, providing infrastructure, support and education to communities of government-focused engineers and organizations producing open and ITAR-compliant wares.

Notes:

I don't want to specifically call out software, thinking that there's an opportunity to help the OSH (e.g. the SDR groups that have attended Mil-OSS in the past) community as well.  I'm split on the ITAR-compliant statement - though I do believe that's an important factor.  I feel like "industry-led" is really important here, but not sure if it is necessary in the mission statement.  

Thoughts?

Kit

[Andy Goodson]

Thanks Kit -and good points. Note that the below is for the purpose of discussion and i'm not head strong on any one thing in particular so open all the way around.

1. I'm not familiar with the OSH groups -is there something outside of software that Codice would be looking to support? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that for some reason. Is there an existing model to reference?
2. For discussion sake, why is it valuable to note that Codice is led by industry -i mean, other than the fact that it is :)   Are we excluding participation from govies? Also, the term *may* eventually impede our ability to attain 501(c)(3) status as it might look to an IRS reviewer to imply a commercial venture. 
3. I'm mildy concerned about stating that we will provide legal guidance. i think we need some legal guidance about wether or not we can claim that :)

Using your language below, another run at a sentence might be something like: 

"The Codice Foundation provides the infrastructure, processes, education, and export control advice in support of open source projects originating in the government space."

This may be too limiting in that it implies we only work with government founded projects, but at some point we have to clarify our niche, which really is just that -we support folks bringing products out of the government into the FOSS world.

--
 
 

[Kit Plummer]

Threaded below:

On Oct 2, 2012, at 6:20 AM, Andy Goodson <andy.g...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Kit -and good points. Note that the below is for the purpose of discussion and i'm not head strong on any one thing in particular so open all the way around.

1. I'm not familiar with the OSH groups -is there something outside of software that Codice would be looking to support? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that for some reason. Is there an existing model to reference?

Josh, John and I have been working with and around a handful of open source hardware (OSH) projects…who have the same kinds of needs as you.  Hardware, being physical, has a few unique requirements as well.  I just don't want to eschew this space's opportunity for Codice.  Obviously, it isn't something we need to solve immediately, but there may be a few other tendrils that can be leveraged by us (there's a project called VehicleForge which comes to mind) - and that would also in turn help the open source software side of the house.

2. For discussion sake, why is it valuable to note that Codice is led by industry -i mean, other than the fact that it is :)   Are we excluding participation from govies? Also, the term *may* eventually impede our ability to attain 501(c)(3) status as it might look to an IRS reviewer to imply a commercial venture. 

Aside from highlighting that this isn't a government activity (ala Forge.mil), I think it is important to the community and industry to understand that we're focusing on this with an industry perspective - rather than waiting for government to get it right and support our needs.  It isn't necessarily a negative indication, however I do believe we need to differentiate ourselves from gov-driven projects like DISA's Forge.mil, or the MACE.

3. I'm mildy concerned about stating that we will provide legal guidance. i think we need some legal guidance about wether or not we can claim that :)

Understood.  It's kind of like those places that do online incorporation…they aren't lawyers, they just provide guidance.  I didn't say "council' intentionally.  I do think 'guidance' is a critical service - around open source licenses,  copyright/intellectual property, and things like that.  I also believe we need to have an IP-lawyer on the board, or as an officer - who can provide 'guidance' and point to firms/experts on the subject.

Using your language below, another run at a sentence might be something like: 

"The Codice Foundation provides the infrastructure, processes, education, and export control advice in support of open source projects originating in the government space."

This is good, maybe just finish it off with who the projects serve (gov and industry)?  I'm going to stay strong, on the 'industry-led' aspect.  I believe it's critical in getting the message out to the people who would actually participate.

This may be too limiting in that it implies we only work with government founded projects, but at some point we have to clarify our niche, which really is just that -we support folks bringing products out of the government into the FOSS world.

Agree.

--
 
 

[John Scott III]

The Codice Foundation is an industry-led group providing infrastructure, support, education and export control advice to communities of government-focused developers, engineers and organizations producing open source projects.

?

--
 
 

-----------------------------------------------------------

John Scott

 240.401.6574

< jms...@gmail.com >

http://powdermonkey.blogs.com

@johnmscott

Have you joined MIL-OSS?: 

http://groups.google.com/group/mil-oss

http://mil-oss.org/

signup for:

http://mil-oss.org/wg4

4th military open source software working group conf in Rosslyn VA. Oct 15-17.

Keynotes: 

- (Ret) Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright (confirmed) 

- Dawn Meyerriecks, ODNI, ADNI for AT&F

- Arthur Herman (Author of Freedoms Forge)

Tutorials and sessions will cover:

Linux, Geospatial, LiDAR, Drupal, cloud, OSS policy and law, cyber, android and many other topics. 

+ the last day will a 1/2 day unconference for up and coming issues

Resister here: http://mil-oss.org/wg4-registration

(note 3rd party cookies has to be turned on)

[Kit Plummer]

I like it…but could probably swap out "group" for something else like consortium.

--
 
 

[John Scott III]

The Codice Foundation is an industry-led consortium providing infrastructure, support, education and export control advice to communities of government-focused developers, engineers and organizations producing open source projects.

[Kit Plummer]

+1

--
 
 

[Andy]

+1

-Andy

cell: 623.203.4726