OpenNTF has received word
from the US Internal Revenue Service that its nonprofit corporate status
application has been approved. We requested, and were granted 501(c)(4)
status. A 501(c)(4) company is one that exists "for the promotion
of social welfare". In other words the IRS recognizes that we do good
stuff that benefits others.
The importance of this
is that it greatly simplifies the annual financial/tax reporting that we
need to do. Basically, we just have to file a simple annual on-line statement
as opposed to a full tax return. So, no accounting fees, no taxes, and
so we can use all our revenue (mostly from advertising) for contests, our
website, and other activities that our Board feels will benefit the community.
If anyone has any questions
about our legal status, or would like their companies to join OpenNTF -
feel free to get in touch with me at ip-manager@openntf.org.
Please join OpenNTF in welcoming Ukuvuma
as an OpenNTF Member Company.
John Jardin, Ukuvuma's Chief Technology
Officer said:
"While it's very rewarding to
provide video tutorials and help wherever possible for all things Lotus,
XPages and Web Development......my Team and I can offer much more to the
OpenNTF community. We plan on providing Custom Controls for XPages that
focus mainly on HTML5, JQuery, and CSS3."
Ukuvuma - A Xhosa word meaning, 'to be willing' or 'to agree' 'Ukuvuma'
forms the solid base from which all our methodologies are built, ensuring
long-term partnerships with our clients.
Mission Statement:
To build long term trust relationships with our customers and partners
by continuously delivering the best business focused Information and Communication
Technology:
The new Board of Directors of OpenNTF,
LLC is pleased to announce the honoring of three driving forces behind
OpenNTF.org. At the first meeting of the board last Thursday, it was unanimously
agreed that Bruce Elgort, Nathan Freeman, and Vince Schuurman were made
permanent Honorary Directors. All three are welcome at all Director meetings
when they do not have an elected position on the board. They will not have
any voting rights in this position unless otherwise elected to the board.
We invite them to participate as we plan for the future of the community
in whatever capacity they can provide.
With this newly elected board, both
Nathan and Vince have decided to take a break from the operations of OpenNTF
to focus on other things. The new Board of Directors wants to thank Nathan
and Vince for their many years of hard work and inspiration. We look forward
to your contributions to OpenNTF for years to come.
Please join OpenNTF in welcoming IBM
Business Partner e-office as an OpenNTF Member.
"e-office
is the first Lotus Business Partner in the Netherlands and offers solutions
for digital working environments which enables employees to work independent
of time and place. For our solutions, we use the latest IBM technology Despite the shift of market share
in the collaboration market, e-office still believes in the future of Lotus
Notes. And we will continue to be part of the IBM community! e-office want to be part of the future
of OpenNTF."
Please join OpenNTF in welcoming hedersoft
GmbH as an OpenNTF
Member Company. hedersoft is located
in Germany. hedersoft specializes in XPages development, Email management,
MaRisk and more.
"The heder soft GmbH believes
in the spirit of the open source movement. For this reason, we are part
of our software and open source solutions available. We are closely associated
with OpenNTF . OpenNTF has developed in recent years to the central platform
in the Lotus community, when it comes to open source.
We will provide some of our products
in a basic version for free for OpenNTF. In addition, we will provide solutions
and devices to the network which have helped us. The beginning, Lars Buntrock
"open database" is already done with the development of the dialogue
which has been submitted for the first XPages Development Contest, where
it has performed very successfully. Conversely, we also profiting from
the growing community that is involved in OpenNTF and then adjusts source
code freely available. It is a give and take!"
NOTE: If you are a Member Company and
want to have text and/or your logo changed please drop
me an email. If your company is
interested in becoming an OpenNTF Member please
contact Peter Tanner.
As there was a tie for third place in the
recent OpenNTF Contributor Director election, we held a Runoff vote. In
a closely fought ballot, Elijah Lapson managed to win over Frank van der
Linden.
Congratulations to Elijah on the victory,
and thanks to Frank for running.
So, the makeup of the new OpenNTF Board of
DIrectors is as follows:
Member Directors: Bruce
Elgort
Brent
Peters
Julian
Woodward
John
Head
Corey
Davis
Per Henrik
Lausten
Sean
Burgess
Justin
Hill
Stuart
McIntyre
The votes have been cast,
counted and audited, and the newly incorporated OpenNTF has a Board of
Directors.
But not quite! There
was a tie in the voting for the third Contributor Director position, so
we would like all Contributors to vote again – this time for either Elijah
Lapson or Frank van der Linden. Just send your choice to IP-Manager@openntf.org
by midnight Tuesday October 18.
In any case, we do have
the results for the nine Member Directors, and two of the three Contributor
Directors. Here they are:
Member Directors:
Elected for two years
– in order of number of votes received:
1. Bruce Elgort
2. Brent Peters
3. Julian Woodward
4. John Head
5. Corey Davis
Elected for one year –
in order of number of votes received:
6. Per Henrik Lausten
7 (tied) Sean Burgess
7 (tied) Justin Hill
7 (tied) Stuart McIntyre
Not elected – in alphabetical
order:
Serdar Basegmez
Michael Falstrup
Henning Schmidt
Chris Toohey
Contributor Directors:
Elected for one year –
in order of number of voted received:
Niklas Heidloff
Rene Winkelmeyer
Tied for third position,
subject to runoff election:
Elijah Lapson
Frank van der Linden
Congratulations to the
winners – and many thanks to all the candidates for their willingness
to be part of OpenNTF and for making this an exciting election.
Posted by Peter Tanner and Scott Johnsen At 11:57 AM Location | Permalink
| Comments (0)
10/11/2011
REMINDER: Vote for the Community Director or your choice
While most of the OpenNTF Members have
cast their ballots for their choice of Member Directors (which represent
the corporate members), very few Contributors have cast ballots for Contributor
Directors. he three Contributor Directors who are elected are those
who will represent OpenNTF Contributors on the OpenNTF Board. There
are four Contributors who are running:
Niklas Heidloff
Elijah Lapson
Frank van der Linden
Rene Winkelmeyer
To cast your vote simply send an email
with between one and three of these names to ip-manager@openntf.org.
Note that only Registered OpenNTF Contributors may vote.
To help you with your voting, each candidate
has prepared a statement:
Niklas Heidloff
Niklas Heidloff has delivered numerous
projects on OpenNTF including Mobile Controls, Social Enabler, XPages for
Connections, etc. He has also built the new OpenNTF web user interface
plus the XPages.info web site, he is continuously maintaining and updating
these sites, he has hosted the contests, ideajam etc. As IBM employee working
on OpenNTF almost full time Niklas wants to be able to help defining strategy
and direction of OpenNTF.
Elijah Lapson
As a Director of IT for a Global non-profit
organization I am constantly balancing requests for all type of technology
support. When I attempt to prioritize these requests for the organization
I look to see which technologies are most appropriate for the job and which
solutions will have the largest possible positive impact on our staff.
I would love to bring these skills which I have been developing over the
past 15 years to OpenNTF. All of those involved with using/developing/administrating
a Lotus Notes Domino infrastructure know that the key component of the
tools is the ability to get groups of people collaborating effectively
in a short period of time. I would like OpenNTF to become the go to place
for Developers and Administrators to get information and tools to help
their clients collaborate more effectively. I would like OpenNTF to be
the go to place to donate a piece of code, an administration tip, or a
full blown application to the community. I want OpenNTF with the backing
of IBM to be the place where non-Xpage/Domino developers can come and easily
get up and running the current Lotus/IBM platforms without a significant
time investment in proprietary technologies. Please consider me for a Contributor
Director position.
Frank van der Linden
As a OpenNTF contributer I have noticed
the growing role of OpenNTF in the IBM/Lotus community.
And as I strongly belief in the power
of OpenNTF as the main resource in the IBM/Lotus community, I will be part
of OpenNTF to help guiding in the good direction.
Rene Winkelmeyer
The platform of OpenNTF has always been
a very helpful and inspiring resource for Notes and Domino developers and
administrators around the world. The constitution of the new incorporated
OpenNTF is now the right step to evolve to the next level. As seen in the
last years more and more 'new' technologies like Plug-Ins, XPages and OSGi
haven been added to our most loved platform. As a Director my mission would
be to help OpenNTF to force the distribution of knowledge, information
and code for those cutting-edge technologies and to attract more (and new)
people for this great platform.
There are four candidates for the three
OpenNTF Contributor Director positions. So, if you are a registered
OpenNTF Contributor, you can help decide who will represent you on the
OpenNTF Board of Directors.
To vote, simply send an email to ip-manager@openntf.org
with between one and three of the following names before Friday, October
14.
Niklas Heidloff
Elijah Lapson
Frank van der Linden
Rene Winkelmeyer
To help with your decision, here are
the statements from the Candidates.
Niklas Heidloff Niklas Heidloff has delivered numerous
projects on OpenNTF including Mobile Controls, Social Enabler, XPages for
Connections, etc. He has also built the new OpenNTF web user interface
plus the XPages.info web site, he is continuously maintaining and updating
these sites, he has hosted the contests, ideajam etc. As IBM employee working
on OpenNTF almost full time Niklas wants to be able to help defining strategy
and direction of OpenNTF.
Elijah Lapson As a Director of IT for a Global non-profit
organization I am constantly balancing requests for all type of technology
support. When I attempt to prioritize these requests for the organization
I look to see which technologies are most appropriate for the job and which
solutions will have the largest possible positive impact on our staff.
I would love to bring these skills which I have been developing over the
past 15 years to OpenNTF. All of those involved with using/developing/administrating
a Lotus Notes Domino infrastructure know that the key component of the
tools is the ability to get groups of people collaborating effectively
in a short period of time. I would like OpenNTF to become the go to place
for Developers and Administrators to get information and tools to help
their clients collaborate more effectively. I would like OpenNTF to be
the go to place to donate a piece of code, an administration tip, or a
full blown application to the community. I want OpenNTF with the backing
of IBM to be the place where non-Xpage/Domino developers can come and easily
get up and running the current Lotus/IBM platforms without a significant
time investment in proprietary technologies. Please consider me for a Contributor
Director position.
Frank van der Linden As a OpenNTF contributer I have noticed
the growing role of OpenNTF in the IBM/Lotus community.
And as I strongly belief in the power
of OpenNTF as the main resource in the IBM/Lotus community, I will be part
of OpenNTF to help guiding in the good direction.
Rene Winkelmeyer The platform of OpenNTF has always been
a very helpful and inspiring resource for Notes and Domino developers and
administrators around the world. The constitution of the new incorporated
OpenNTF is now the right step to evolve to the next level. As seen in the
last years more and more 'new' technologies like Plug-Ins, XPages and OSGi
haven been added to our most loved platform. As a Director my mission would
be to help OpenNTF to force the distribution of knowledge, information
and code for those cutting-edge technologies and to attract more (and new)
people for this great platform.
Today's the deadline to throw your hat into the OpenNTF ring!
Member Directors – we have eleven
people nominated, for the nine positions. If your employer is an
OpenNTF Member – you could add your name to that list.
Contributor Directors – we have
four people nominated for the three positions. This is your chance
to help determine the direction of your organization. If you are
a Registered Contributor, then do consider running.
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 6:32 AM Location Boca Raton, FL | Permalink
| Comments (0)
10/05/2011
You too can be help direct the future of OpenNTF! But the deadline is Friday!
OK – you have seen that increased activity
of OpenNTF. More contributions, more downloads, more serious licensing
rules. OpenNTF is growing up. Things are happening. OpenNTF is now
incorporated as an independent nonprofit corporation.
Lets say that you are one of the nearly
450 people who have registered as an OpenNTF Contributor – you contribute
code, but you would like do more. Perhaps you would like to set up a cross-company
project, help with the infrastructure, help set the direction of where
OpenNTF is heading.
Well, if you send the IP-Manager
an email stating you are interested, by end of day Friday, October 7, you
too can run for one of the three Contributor Director positions of OpenNTF.
The Contributor Directors along with
the Member Directors are the ones who control OpenNTF. They set the
direction, and either directly, or through committees, run things like
the technical direction, the infrastructure, the contests. It's not a massive
call on your time – there is a one hour meting every two weeks – plus
your involvement in those aspects of OpenNTF that you are interested in.
Once we have all the nominations (by
Friday), we will post the statements of each nominee – and then during
the week, next week, all registered contributors can vote for up to three
Contributor Director Candidates.
Currently there are two candidates –
Niklas Heidloff and Rene Winkelmeyer. You can add your name to that list
and lets make it a real election.
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 10:33 AM Location Boca Raton, FL | Permalink
| Comments (0)
09/30/2011
Becoming an OpenNTF Director
We have been getting questions on how
to run to be an OpenNTF Director, and what does an OpenNTF Director do.
Basically, to run as a Director, you just need to send a note to IP-Manager@openntf.org,
asking to run, by October 7. There is no formal nomination process other
than this. You can run as a:
– Member Director – if your company
is a Member of OpenNTF. (Only one person per company can be a Member
Director).
Then, by October 7, you need to send
the IP Manager a one paragraph statement stating why you should be an OpenNTF
Director. The statements will be made available to the voters.
OpenNTF Directors set the direction
of OpenNTF. There is a conference call every two weeks in which the
Directors discuss the current issues, propose OpenNTF initiatives, and
set the policies of the corporation. Some Directors also participate further
by encouraging their colleagues in their company to contribute code to
OpenNTF, work on the OpenNTF infrastructure, or be involved in the IP issues
or technical directions of the group. This involvement depends on
the interests and available time of the Director.
As of early Friday morning (Sept 30),
we have 8 people in the running – with one week to go before nominations
close. If you have any questions on this - just let us know.
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 10:56 AM Location Vancouver, WA | Permalink
| Comments (0)
09/28/2011
What are Contributor Directors?
So what exactly are "Contributor
Directors"?
One of the comments we
receive regularly is why can't individuals be “Members” of OpenNTF. -
why is membership only open to companies. After all, it is individuals
who are the main contributors of code to OpenNTF – and code is the raison
d'etre of OpenNTF.
So, we checked around
to see what other open source organizations did. One solution that
was appealing (similar to what Eclipse does) is to include Contributor
representatives on the Board of Directors So, for the election of
the founding Board of OpenNTF, we are asking the Contributors to elect
three representatives.
So – how does this work:
Right now, nominations
are open. Any Contributor can send a note to the IP Manager to nominate
him/herself. Nominations close on October 7. We have two nominations
so far.
Each nominee must provide
us with a statement saying why they should be an OpenNTF Director. These
statements will be published in this blog. Then, during the week
of October 10, those people who are registered Contributors will be asked
to vote for up to three of the nominees.
We hope that having Contributor
Directors will make the Board more representative of the OpenNTF community.
Now that OpenNTF is incorporated
as a nonprofit, and 23 companies have signed up to be Members, we are now
ready to hold the election for the founding Board of Directors.
The OpenNTF Bylaws call
for two types of Directors:
- Member Directors:
Each of the 23 OpenNTF corporate Members may nominate someone for
the Board. If more than 9 people are nominated, there will be an
election – where each Member has one vote.
- Contributor Directors:
Since so much of the work of OpenNTF is carried out by individuals,
the registered contributors will be represented on the Board by 3 Contributor
Directors. Anyone who is a Registered OpenNTF Contributor (ie –
covered by an ICLA or CCLA) may be nominated. If more than 3 Contributors
are nominated, then there will be an election – where each registered
Contributor has one vote.
Nominations will close
on October 7. We will distribute statements from the nominees on
October 10, and voting will take place from October 13th to 17th.
We will be posting updates
on the elections over the next couple of weeks.
Posted by Bruce Elgort and Peter Tanner At 12:08 AM Location Vancouver, WA | Permalink
| Comments (0)
09/13/2011
Australian Premier IBM Business Partner ISW becomes an OpenNTF Member
Please join OpenNTF in welcoming Australian
IBM Business Partner ISW
as a new OpenNTF member. ISW are
the developers of the
popular and award winning WildFire Notes sidebar app.
We look forward to working with ISW and other OpenNTF
Members. I have personally known
and worked with ISW's Adam Brown and Mat Newman on many occasions and am
truly excited to have them on board.
IBM Business Partner Collaboration Matters becomes an OpenNTF Member
Please join OpenNTF in welcoming UK
IBM Business Partner Collaboration
Matters as a new OpenNTF member.
Collaboration Matters is owned by IBM Champion and This
Week in Lotus Co-Host Stuart McIntyre.
We look forward to working with Collaboration Matters and other OpenNTF
Members. I have personally know
and worked with Stuart on many occasions and am truly excited to have Collaboration
Matters on board.
"I believe in the strongly believe in the open source software movement
and want to make my support more visible to others inside the IBM Community
and to my customers"
IBM Business Partner Developi becomes an OpenNTF Member
Please join OpenNTF in welcoming Turkish
IBM Business Partner Developi as a new OpenNTF member.
Developi's Serdar Basegmez says:
"Developi is proud to be a member
of OpenNTF Alliance. So far, we were trying to support OpenNTF activities
at an individual level. Because we believe in open source communities leverage
the value of their software technologies. It's not only downloading sample
codes or ready-to-use projects; such an initiative bands passionate developers
together, improves communication and collaboration within a global community
and decreases knowledge barriers around the technology. Our OpenNTF is
9 years old today, and they have always been an integral part of the IBM
Lotus community. Therefore, for a company dedicated on IBM Lotus Software,
supporting OpenNTF in a corporate level, taking responsibility for a community
alliance and advocating this vision in our market should be seen as an
important investment to our technology, so our business."
Tomorrow we will announce another new
IBM Business Partner who has joined as a member.
Following up on Bruce's post
about OpenNTF's new status,
here is some information on how we plan to transition from being an un-incorporated
“Alliance” to being a nonprofit corporation, with a Board of Directors,
and all the advantages and responsibilities that go along with being incorporated.
There are two really important
things to note:
1. The new structure,
as defined in the Bylaws,
requires that the Contributors elect three Directors to the Board. There
had been complaints that individuals could not be “members” of OpenNTF.
So, while the “members” are still corporations, we have set up
a mechanism where leading individuals can participate and be elected to
the board. All Contributors who are covered by ICLAs or CCLAs are
eligible to vote for these Directors.
2. All members (ie companies/organizations)
need to sign new Membership
Agreement. We
would like to have as many companies as possible sign up before the end
of September, so that they can participate in the election of the Directors.
It doesn't matter whether you are currently a member or not. We
will elect nine Directors who will represent these corporate members of
OpenNTF.
During the next two months,
we will be encouraging all companies who are involved with OpenNTF software
to sign up – so that they can participate in the direction (technical
and otherwise) of the new organization.
The first week of October
will be the period for nominating both kinds of Directors – those representing
Contributors and those representing companies. Nominations will close
October 7.
Those nominated will then
be able to make their pitches – and voting will be from October 13-17.
The new Board of Directors
for OpenNTF Inc. will then take office on October 18, with the first Board
meeting scheduled, by teleconference, for October 20. It is likely
that at that time, the existing Alliance will disappear, and the responsibility
for the website and all other OpenNTF activities will be transferred to
the new nonprofit.
The signed agreements
should be faxed to +1 845-491-7347 or a scanned copy should be sent to
ipmanager@openntf.org
Posted by Peter Tanner At 10:36 AM Location Morpeth Ontario, Canada | Permalink
| Comments (0)
07/31/2011
Please Welcome OpenNTF, Inc.
On Thursday, July 21st, 2011
OpenNTF was incorporated in the state of Delaware and is now legally known
as OpenNTF, Inc. and is organized as a nonprofit corporation. All the activities
of The OpenNTF Alliance, that was formed in May 2009, will be moved over
to this newly formed corporation over the last several months. With the
incorporation comes many benefits including:
- Discounts on products
and services needed to support the open source community
- Allows OpenNTF to sign
legal contracts
- and puts us on the same
legal footing as most open source organizations such as Eclipse.
Over the next several
months OpenNTF will re-bootstrap - with a new Board of Directors that needs
to be elected. Member
Companies that were
part of the OpenNTF Alliance will need to sign new Membership Agreements
for OpenNTF Inc. and have already been contacted via email.
We will also be working
to expand Member Company participation through a membership drive which
will focus on recruiting IBM Business Partners to join OpenNTF, Inc.
Please join me in supporting
the newly formed OpenNTF, Inc. which will continue to serve the development
community with open source solutions.
