MONTHS before Microsoft bought GitHub the Open Source Initiative (OSI) had announced outsourcing (or "crowdsourcing") things to Microsoft, including key operations. Months prior to that OSI also took a large bribe from Microsoft and leadership of the OSI began to change. It was a slow-motion change and it included Microsoft staff inside the Board of the OSI.

"Money was made by selling out the OSI, turning Open Source into Openwashing (a marketing slant for proprietary lock-in) in the same way the Linux Foundation turned the "Linux" brand into somewhat of a joke (synonymous not with freedom but a bunch of monopolies, riding a glorified brand)."2020 was an important year for the OSI; its two co-founders were gone and people could finally see what a sham OSI became. It now serves proprietary software agenda and diverts operational/financial resources towards monopolies. In a sense, today's OSI does the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do.

2020 is about to end, so I've opened a bunch of this year's articles (listed below) and commented on them, taking stock of their meaning in retrospect.

The OSI won't self-repair because such institutions are incapable of ousting corrupting influence (they become resistant to their original mission statement). This means that the OSI is basically defunct, void of permanent staff, lacking a real direction, and serving interests opposite of what one might expect from OSI. Members of the OSI who are not corporations are just a drop in the ocean in terms of their financial role/contribution and most of their money is (mis)used to bolster proprietary software monopolies (like GitHub) instead of software freedom or even Open Source (the very thing OSI is named after).

It's fair to say that 2020 is the year the OSI died. All it has left to brag about -- much like the Linux Foundation -- is a balance sheet. Money was made by selling out the OSI, turning Open Source into Openwashing (a marketing slant for proprietary lock-in) in the same way the Linux Foundation turned the "Linux" brand into somewhat of a joke (synonymous not with freedom but a bunch of monopolies, riding a glorified brand). ⬆

Stories from the video (roughly in order of appearance):

• Open Source Initiative (articles index)
• Response to Eric Raymond (ESR) on “Last Phase of the Desktop Wars”
• Open Source Initiative (OSI) Co-founder Bruce Perens: Open Invention Network (OIN) is Protecting the Software Patent System From Reform and OSI Approves Faux 'Open' Licences (Openwashing)
• 'It's Dead, Jim': OSI Controlled (Partly) by Microsoft and Promotes Microsoft Proprietary Software After Taking Microsoft Bribes
• Meet the People Behind ClearlyDefined (Mostly or Clearly 'Microsoft Proxy'), Where Most of the OSI's Budget Nowadays Goes and Flows
• ClearlyDefined is Just Microsoft Land Grab (Which the OSI Now Actively Participates in)
• OSI President: Most or Half of the OSI's Money (Even Individual Donors' Money) Goes to a Microsoft-Led Initiative
• Stick a Fork in the Open Source Initiative (OSI). OSI is Dead. Microsoft Bought OSI.
• Open Source Initiative (OSI) Adds More of Microsoft and Takes More Money From Interests Hostile Towards Open Source
• The Open Source Initiative Cannot Lecture People on Manners and Tolerance (and Probably Never Could)