[OpenID board] [OpenID Foundation] December 2009 Board Member Election: Nominations Open

Don Thibeau (OIDF ED) don at oidf.org
Tue Nov 24 18:15:42 UTC 2009


Dear Professor Colin

 

Thank you for your interest in serving on the OpenID Board of Directors.
Allow me to use this response to answer yours and others questions about the
Board role. Let me first say these views are only mine.  

 

The OpenID Foundation is a very young organization (2+ years) -short on
precedents - long on global adoption issues.  Because ours is so young an
organization, we must rapidly evolve our governance, operations and
priorities to keep up with the widespread, albeit uneven, adoption of
OpenID.   In an organization like ours, leadership must come from all
quarters.  As an essentially volunteer run organization, change - whether to
a website page or working group - is in the hands of those motivated to act.
We have made great improvements with unheralded but necessary upgrades to
our infrastructure to move into the next phase of adoption. For example, we
now can and must do a better job of outreach and coordination with
international organizations of all kinds- OpenID chapters / affiliates,
academic / technology researchers and governmental groups interested in our
certification approach, 

 

The expected contribution from board members is indeed both time and
resources. There is an unspoken expectation that when an issue requires
domain knowledge, skill sets or particular expertise; board members commit
best efforts to make their own, their company’s and community’s resources
available. The current board has stepped up time and again to take time away
from their “day jobs” to contribute expertise, experience and energy.
Today’s board is professional, collegial and brings a wide range of
backgrounds, opinions and styles to our deliberations. We have disagreed but
rarely have had a contested vote.

 

OpenID Foundation Board members typically join telephone conference call
meetings at least twice a month. For every board call there are dozens of
email and subsequent calls exchanged to follow up on action items and
issues.  The new board –the 2010 version- will shape its own agenda, meeting
schedule and workload. I plan to propose more face to face board meetings in
conjunction with industry events like IIW.  All board members are
responsible for covering costs for participating in meetings. And in keeping
with our nonprofit status, board members cannot be paid for work on behalf
of the foundation. 

 

I am reminded by recent comments at
<mailto:openid-general at lists.openid.net> openid-general at lists.openid.net
that the foundation and board deliberations exist in an open source
ecosystem.  Our culture is a unique blend of technology, meritocracy and
transparency. Our current board has invested the kind of leadership that has
made 2009 successful and well prepared for more to come.  But leadership is
not without cost. I must point out that  OpenID board members may be subject
to questions and commentary that may be impolite, impolitic and ill
informed.  There are no “perks” no golf outings just a roll up the sleeves
approach to collaboration. Such is the price of leadership in as dynamic a
space as ours. 

 

Thank you (and others) for your consideration.

 

 

Don Thibeau

don at OIDF.org

Executive Director

The OpenID Foundation

http://openid.net

 

 

 

From: Jean-Noël Colin [mailto:jean-noel.colin at fundp.ac.be] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 3:08 AM
To: Don Thibeau (OIDF ED)
Subject: Fwd: [OpenID Foundation] December 2009 Board Member Election:
Nominations Open

 

Dear Don,

 

I reviewed the FAQ about the Board role, but could not find any information
about the concrete expected contribution in terms of time and resources,
frequency of meetings (virtual, physical, confcall), financial implications
(do I have to cover my costs for participating in meetings, for instance...)

 

Would you have some more information about that?

 

Best regards

 

---

Prof. Jean-Noël Colin

Faculty of Computer Science
Tel: +32 (0)81 725274

University of Namur
http://info.fundp.ac.be 

Rue Grandgagnage 21
Skype: jn.colin

5000 Namur

Belgium

 

Begin forwarded message:





From: help at oidf.org

Date: 23 Nov 2009 17:44:13 GMT+01:00

To: jn.colin at gmail.com

Subject: [OpenID Foundation] December 2009 Board Member Election:
Nominations Open

 

Hello Jean-Noel Colin,

Nominations have opened on the December 2009 OpenID board member election.
The nominating process will remain open until December  7, 2009.

The page below allows you to nominate yourself or second the nominations
other candidates. Thank you for your participation!

https://openid.net/foundation/members/elections/3

---
The OpenID Foundation
http://openid.net/foundation/

 

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