The keynote at J and Beyond 2010 on Monday morning was done by Ryan Ozimek.
In the keynote he talked about the role of the OSM (Open Source Matters), board in the Joomla! project. He emphasized that the role of OSM should be to support the community.
After the keynote I had a short chat with Ryan.
You can see the video of the talk in this post.
A new OSM board with a new vision
I must say that the OSM board of 2010 shows a very different approach to things than the previous ones.
It seems they have realized that they need to be there for the community, and not just be some sort of «police» to make sure the trademark is not violated. That is important. However, communicating with and supporting the community is more important in my world.
Also, the OSM board should spend time creating awareness of the Joomla project outside the community. This is something they have done a lot of work on lately, much thanks to the efforts by Steve Burge. He has done a series of blog posts about large Joomla sites on joomla.org and is putting together a «Joomla in the press» section at Joomla.org, to mention some.
Transparency
Transparency is another area which was neglected in the past - I'm happy to see that the transparency is much better now. The OSM really seems very well connected both to the project and the community. And that's the point: The OSM needs to be seen as a part of the project. I noticed that Ryan placed OSM below the Joomla Development and Joomla Community leadership groups in his organizational chart. That sends a positive message.
The way the OSM board operates today is really going in the right direction and I hope they can continue the effort in the years to come.
Photo: Sören Eberhardt-Biermann
