First pass at new mission statement

[Mark W.]

Greetings everyone,

Over the last few meetings, we've been working towards aligning the messaging and communications of the Foundation around what we are actually doing. We've taken a first pass at expressing this in a revised mission statement. Because I'll be updating the by-laws etc. for the next board meeting, I wanted to post the first pass that Jason and I came up with . Please let us know your thoughts!

Thanks!

Believing that people are the bond of interactions on the Web, the mission of the OpenSocial Foundation is resolved to fundamentally changing and advancing the social Web.  We aim to foster a dynamic, participatory ecosystem that is open to all, ensuring the free and transparent development of a diverse set of community driven specifications and an honest and open exchange of ideas.

[rbaxter85]

For the most part it sounds good to me. I have a slight problem with
the first sentence...

>Believing that people are the bond of interactions on the Web, the mission of the OpenSocial Foundation is resolved to fundamentally changing and
>advancing the social Web.

Do we want to limit OpenSocial's mission to only encompassing the
"web"? At IBM we are leveraging OpenSocial inside of desktop
applications.

[Mark W.]

Good point. Let me see if there's a way I can make it include that thought.

[Paul Lindner]

So, I think this mission statement is trying too hard and is too broad.  I've pulled together a few things from other orgs that I think might meet our needs and split it into discrete components.  WDYT?

Core Value: The board/foundation, with honesty and integrity, collectively and individually, is committed to fostering a dynamic, participatory ecosystem that is open to all ensuring the free and transparent development of a diverse set of community driven specifications and an honest and open exchange of ideas. 

Mission: The Opensocial Foundation mission is make social software on the Internet work better by producing high quality, relevant technical specifications for protocols that influence the way people design and implement social protocols.

Vision: Interoperability of Social Data on the Internet is the norm, not the exception.

Strategy: 

Provide a means for all parties to come to consensus on the best way to make social data exchange possible.

Strategic Objectives

TBD?

Document and standardize defacto standards?

Work closely with adjacent groups (IETF? W3C? Apache?)

Provide legal cover for indie web and developing standards.

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[Jason Roy Gary]

Ryan,

I hear what you are saying but I have a different slant on "web" than
perhaps you do. By "web" Mark and I were referring to "web"
technologies which clearly is true for OpenSocial regardless of client
platform. We tried computing but it sounds a bit lame. I am more than
open to other terms than "web" if you have one.

Regardless, I don't want the mission statement to favor any client
technology or platform. Let me play around with it.

[Jason Roy Gary]

Paul,

Actually Mark and I were trying to be broad in the mission statement.
One of the things we would like to see is a "bigger tent" for OS so we
can get a increase diversity and motivation on the board and in the
foundation membership. If you have another point-of-view let me know
and we can find some common ground.

But you make some good points. I really like the inclusion of social
software and interop / data exchange. I also like the concept of
mission and core having their own section in the overall statement.

How about this as a merge of the two viewpoints:

Believing that people and communities are the bond of interactions in
computing, the mission of the OpenSocial Foundation is to
fundamentally change and advance social software and the social Web;
to make social software better by producing leading specifications,
and working externally with other groups, influencing the way software
is designed, interacts, and social data is exchanged. At our core the
foundation aims to foster a dynamic, participatory ecosystem that is

open to all, ensuring the free and transparent development of a
diverse set of community driven specifications and an honest and open
exchange of ideas.

> Paul Lindner -- lind...@inuus.com -- linkedin.com/in/plindner

[rbaxter85]

I like the terminology "social software" in the revised statement.

[Mark W.]

Jason,

I like the way you've incorporated some of Paul's ideas.

Paul, 

What do you think?

[Paul Lindner]

First off, apologies for the delayed response.  Code freeze for the year just passed and I wanted my features to ship.

Jason, thanks for taking a stab at it, but I think phrasing it this way only further muddles the situation.

The OSF writes specs for social software and provides organizational cover so our members can implement them without legal liability.

Anything beyond that is not a mission -- it's core values or strategy or even tactics.

For the record here are some mission statements to consider from standards orgs:

The W3C mission is to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of the Web. 

The mission of the IETF is to make the Internet work better by producing high quality, relevant technical documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet.

ETSI is the leading standardization organization for high quality and innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) standards fullfilling the various global and European market needs

and maybe more appropriately these industry consortium:

The Ethernet Alliance is dedicated to promoting industry awareness, acceptance, and advancement of technology and products based on existing and emerging IEEE 802® Ethernet standards.

The USB-IF was formed to provide a support organization and forum for the advancement and adoption of Universal Serial Bus technology. The Forum facilitates the development of high-quality compatible USB peripherals (devices), and promotes the benefits of USB and the quality of products that have passed compliance testing.

Or this just for fun:

Effectively invest and leverage soybean checkoff resources to maximize profit opportunities for U.S. soybean farmers.

On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Jason Roy Gary <jason...@us.ibm.com> wrote:

Believing that people and communities are the bond of interactions in
computing, the mission of the OpenSocial Foundation is to
fundamentally change and advance social software and the social Web;
to make social software better by producing leading specifications,
and working externally with other groups, influencing the way software
is designed, interacts, and social data is exchanged. At our core the
foundation aims to foster a dynamic, participatory ecosystem that is

open to all, ensuring the free and transparent development of a
diverse set of community driven specifications and an honest and open
exchange of ideas.