[Osia-members] OSIA May update

[Jack Burton]

Afternoon all.

It's been a busy month at OSIA, with progress being made in a number of
areas:

Sponsorship
-----------

Red Hat have renewed their Gold sponsorship of OSIA.

OSIA thanks Red Hat and all other OSIA sponsors for their ongoing
support.

Strategic plan
--------------
[Supporting Strategy 4]

The consultation period on the draft strategic plan has now closed. As
no negative comments were received on the draft, it has now been adopted
as OSIA's plan for 2013 to 2018.

The Board is now in the process of aligning all OSIA activities to the
Plan.

OSIA survey
-----------
[Supporting Strategy 2]

The OSIA survey is now closed and the results are in the process of
being analysed.

A big thankyou to all who responded.

One clear result that emerged early was that a substantial number of
non-members wanted to know more about OSIA. Any such interested persons
are encouraged to contact OSIA Secretary Paul Gampe
<secretary at osia.com.au>.

Progress of Trans-Pacific Partnership
-------------------------------------
[Strategy 2.4]

The OSIA TPP Committee has met twice since the April update and will
meet once more before the end of May.

Significant progress has been made towards preparing an OSIA submission
to DFAT on the TPP, and we're still tracking to the target of lodging in
advance of the 18th round of TPP negotiations (date/venue TBA; 17th
round is just concluding now).

Several OSIA representatives will attend DFAT briefings on the outcomes
of the 17th round between now and the end of June.

Federal election: Call for volunteers
-------------------------------------
[Strategy 2.5]

The longest election campaign Australia has ever seen presents an
unusual opportunity to influence the platforms of major & minor
political parties for the benefit of the industry.

At present, the Board & existing committees are fully committed on other
OSIA initiatives.

Accordingly, the Board has asked me to call for volunteers to engage
with federal political parties regarding the following desired policy
outcomes:

[1] Expressing a preference for open source software in Government
procurement policies;

[2] Mandating the use of formats/protocols defined by open standards for
the storage and transfer of all Government data; and/or

[3] (after the release of the OSIA submission) Adopting OSIA's position
on TPP.

Interested members should contact OSIA Director (Public Policy) Carl
Holden <ch at hdix.com>.

Membership renewals
-------------------

Yes, it's almost that time of year again.

No need to do anything quite yet, but just a quick reminder to expect a
renewal notice next month, for FY2013/14.

Board meetings & new Director
-----------------------------

The Board met by teleconference on 17 May and will meet again by
teleconference on 5 July.

Please join me in welcoming Mr Mike Hideo (of OSIA member & Gold sponsor
Red Hat), who the Board elected as a Director at its 17 May meeting, to
fill the casual vacancy left by the resignation of former OSIA Secretary
Bob Birchall earlier in the year.

Mike will take on the Domestic Markets portfolio.

As always, if members have any issues they feel need to be brought to
the Board's attention, please raise them on this list, or email me
directly.

Regards,



-- 
Jack Burton MACS CP
<jack at saosce.com.au>
--
Director, Saosce Pty Ltd
Chairman, Open Source Industry Australia Ltd
Immediate Past Chairman (SA), Australian Computer Society Inc.
--