New CodePlex Foundation Board by Mid-January

In a press release, the CodePlex Foundation's interim President, Sam Ramji, has said that the foundation expects to announce a full and permanent board by the middle of January "with signifigant changes to participants". The appointment of a permanent board was one of the "100 day goals" of the foundation, which was launched on September 10th 2009. Ramji says that three of the positions are already filled and "final discussions are taking place with the remaining candidates, who are well-known in the open source community". Despite missing this 100 day goal, Ramji points to the establishment of a source code contribution agreement and a project acceptance process, along with the creation of the first "technology gallery" and donated projects, as early accomplishments of the Foundation.

The currently Microsoft-only sponsored CodePlex Foundation, still lacks a Foundation Charter, but Ramji says this task should be taken up by the new board of directors and permanent staff (who are also still being recruited by the organisation). Ramji says that he sees "more opportunity to evolve our mission and to continue our legal innovations, making membership in the Foundation more attractive for more corporate sponsors, and proving our value to community projects.".

Andy Updegrove, specialist in Standards and Standard setting, who has been critical of the process of creating the Foundation, says in a posting on consortiuminfo.org that so far the organisation has scored a B-, but if everything goes ahead as Ramji promises, then he'd score them B+. Updegrove says that what happens in the next three to six months is crucial. "If they blast out of the blocks and demonstrate (with their decisions, and not just their words) a true commitment to independence and transparency, then I think that the Foundation can become a valuable contributor to the evolving F/OSS landscape". If, on the other hand the board "just muddles along" then it will "have a tough time earning the 'real player' reputation".

(djwm)