Wednesday, July 17, at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference in Portland, Oregon, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) announced a new initiative to open up the organization to individual members. Historically, the organization was open only to affiliate members, so this announcement marks a significant new direction for the open-source advocate. The shift represents a move from a governance model of volunteer and self-appointed directors to one driven by members.

The OSI's high-level objectives in making this change are to provide a broad meeting place for everyone who shares an interest in open-source software, with the continuing aim of strengthening the OSI so that it can fulfill its goals more effectively. These goals include safely maintaining the Open Source Definition, managing the approval of open-source licenses and publicly supporting the widespread adoption and use of open-source software.

The OSI believes that having a large global membership base is an excellent way to achieve those goals. It also believes that its individual members will be able to advocate for open source in their communities and organizations. Combining individual members with OSI Affiliate organizations, the OSI hopes this new focus will help make the OSI the strongest voice for open source around the world.

The new individual membership level is for people who want to support the mission of the OSI, which is to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the Open Source community. Anyone can join the OSI for $40; however, because the OSI is based in the US, it cannot accept contributions from certain countries where economic embargoes are in place. If you are in such a country, please contact the OSI, as it is willing to provide a complimentary membership. The OSI believes it is at a transformative stage in its history. In addition to supporting the OSI financially, individual members can help define the ways the OSI achieves its mission.

Here is the link to the join page: http://www.opensource.org/join.