NZOSS President Not Seeking Re-election at AGM

This is a repeat of my announcement to the NZOSS openchat email list:

I need to make an announcement before it becomes more widely published:

I will be standing down as President at the AGM. I have had pleasure of having the role for three years and enjoyed it immensely. It is hard not to stand again.

But it is certainly time for others to take up the reins and set a new tone and possibly priorities and I know some candidates are already girding their loins. So, in light of that here are some highlights of those three years.

A lot has happened. Take a look at the NZOSS website and go through the history of stories to see just how much the society and its members have been involved in a and achieved. This is a member driven organisation, the NZOSS can lend its name and support to your causes but it certainly needs individuals to lead the charge.

Looking back some of the FLOSS highlights include:

- Being part of the Standards NZ review of OOXML: Result - SNZ voted against OOXML. Their position very much vindicated today. This took up a lot of my time in the first year. Matthew Holloway being a legend in his detailed and intelligent technical analysis of the proposed standard.

- Software Freedom Day - the bar camps have really begun to elevate this FLOSS event to new heights. Thanks to Jayne Wallace and others for that.

- Patent challenges, the NZOSS continues to challenge another XML patent help by Microsoft that basically gives MS control of all its clients documents

- Related to the above, submissions over many years on the issue of software patents. This finally paid dividends with many New Zealand companies opposing s/w patents and the Commerce Select Committee recommending they be rejected. The National Government has confirmed this is their position as well. This is hugely significant for FLOSS.

- NZ Open Source Awards - two very successful events with NZOSS supporting the event and many members worthy recipients.

- Copyright issues. We continue to join with other groups, such as InternetNZ, the Creative Freedom Foundation and Techliberty, to express concerns about Copyright legislation and trade agreements such as ACTA and the TTP.

- Public Sector Remix. This project rose out of the ashes of the failed G2009 negotiations between Microsoft and the NZ Government. It continues today with 2 new agencies having recently joined the 14 founding agencies. There has been some interesting work, particularly in the policy arena which we have been able to publish on the NZOSS web site.

- Talking to politicians. We have been able access to talk to politicians on many sides of the political spectrum. We continue to get a good hearing although many in Government would like to sidestep FLOSS and move straight to the "cloud" with "open data" being their fig leaf. I think this will be an important challenge for the society going forward as the large proprietary vendors push the "next big thing".

- LCA came to Wellington. NZOSS didn't organise this event (thank goodness), but many of our members, lead by the Ruthvern wh?nau, did. A huge coup and success.

- Helped organise Richard Stallman's first trip to NZ, and many thanks to Brenda Chawner who hosted him for his second trip

- I have presented at GOVIS and many other conferences, workshops and seminars. I am particularly grateful to the NZCS who organised a audiences across New Zealand last year.

There is more, lots more, go and do some reading :-) /.

Equally, there are areas that need attention but that I and others simply have not had time for. The most important thing in need of attention is you, the members. We have been weak at organising events and seminars for NZOSS members. That reduces the incentives to get new paying members and for people to remember to renew their subs. More money in the bank would help us do so much more.

We have a good and growing support from NZ businesses, but again, we could do better.

We did some good strategy work last year in council. It has help guide us and refine our message we but have not taken that through to broader consultation and completion. Apologies for that, again, time...

I would like to thank council members for their work and support, contributors to this list and certain people who I have used as mentors in one way or another. They include, in no particular order:

- Mark Harris
- Peter Harrisson
- Dave Lane
- Brenda Chawner
- Colin Jackson
- Nat Torkington
- Alick Wilson
- Francois Marier
- John Rankin (last but by no means least)

Finally I need to acknowledge my Catalyst colleagues and also my fellow directors for their unstinting support, tolerance and generosity.

Oh, and like a bad smell, I intend to stick around.

Cheers
Don