[OpenID board] OIDF Search/Hiring Committee update ...

Scott Kveton scott at kveton.com
Thu Jan 1 20:01:24 UTC 2009


The OpenID Foundation search committee has been working to hire an
executive director for some time now.  We have come very close at
times, even to the point of making an offer, only to have the
candidate pass on the opportunity.

As background, the OIDF BOD have agreed for some time that an ED will
be critical for the organization's success in 2009.  There were many
discussions on the general@ list about this during the election and I
believe the consensus remains that this is still a path we want to
head down.  The hiring criteria was to try and find someone that was
strong operationally and not necessarily so much of a technologist or
evangelist.  The thought was that we have plenty of evangelists; we
needed someone who could execute on programs that make membership
relevant and also to help drive OpenID adoption in the marketplace.

In November, the Search Committee agreed that there were several
things a full-time interim ED could be doing to help move the
organization forward while we search for a permanent candidate.  We
did not want to hire an interim or permanent candidate in the final
weeks of 2008 as we had the new BOD coming on-line in 2009.  Now that
elections are over, we can take a look at filling this gap.

The Search Committee agreed that the following short-term (3 months)
goals for the interim candidate:

* Drive the process to hire a full time ED
    - Review and refine the job description as necessary
    - Manage the process and recruiter (if we hire one)
    - Screen candidates, reference checks
    - Recommend a short list to the search committee

* Recruit 3 more corporate board members
    - The OIDF BOD voted to add 5 more corporate board seats (for a
total of 10) in November '08

* Develop Operating Plan goals for the OIDF for 2009 – should cover
some key topics
    - Revenue goals
    - Membership goals
    - OpenID adoption goals (RPs and active end users)
    - International plans (more proactive integrated plan to encompass
what Nat and Snorri have started)
    - Technology progress goals (usability, data management, security,
commerce, mobile, browser integration, etc.)

*Develop draft budget and Financial Plan (income statement, cash flow,
balance sheet) for 2009
    - Consistent with 2009 goals developed above
    - Detailed assumptions about both revenues and costs

* Develop a Revenue Plan
    - Detailed plan of how we're going to meet the income part of our
financial plan
    - Will include membership revenue, services revenue, and other
possible sources of income

* Develop comprehensive Membership Plan
    - Consistent with Operating and Financial plans
    - Should benchmark other comparable foundations/SIGs to determine
what tiers of membership/sponsorship we should have, what benefits are
for each tier, how much we charge for each tier, etc.  IMHO, the Linux
Foundation SIG is a good place to start as there are many similarities
in goals.  We should agree who we think the best organizations are to
benchmark

* Develop high level OpenID Technology Roadmap
    - Based on CRC findings and the long wish list at
http://wiki.openid.net/Strategy, pick the top 3 to 5 things that are
going to have the biggest impact on adoption and usage of OpenID and
value to the members, and come up with a detailed plan with specific
goals to share with members and the OpenID community

* Develop International Plan (ideally with help from our new
International board members)
    - Consistent with the Operating Plan goals, develop a detailed
plan to achieve our international goals

* Develop Adoption and Usage Plan
    - Consistent with the Operating Plan goals, develop a detailed
plan to achieve our international goals
    - Should be coordinated with Membership plan since membership
plans should also have adoption/usage related goals
    - May also include other areas such as business/legal framework,
Marcom plan, etc.

* Marcom plan
    - In support of membership and adoption and usage goals, develop a
comprehensive marcom plan

Brian Kissel has agreed to take on the task finding an interim ED
candidate for the OIDF while the Search Committee reconstitutes itself
as part of the new BOD.  The current members are:

Search/Hiring

* Raj Mata representing Yahoo!
* David Recordon
* Scott Kveton (chair)
* Johannes Ernst
* Brian Kissel

If you are interested in participating in this committee or have some
specific input on this process, by all means please let us know.

We should have an update on the hiring of an interim ED by the board
call next week.  I'll go ahead and add that to the agenda for our
first call.

- Scott



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