Open Stack

Julia Kreger wrote:
> [...]
> I agree with the idea and everything said here so far. I believe it
> definitely provides an opportunity for institution outreach and
> visibility, at least terms permitting.
> 
> Of course, navigating the matter of visibility, and how it is
> conveyed, is a whole other question and I suspect other research
> institutions in the US would have similar constraints about
> perceptions of endorsement and related logo use. I guess the question
> this mentally leads *me* to is what does the institution gain by
> joining? What can they perceive as value from the relationship? Would
> we be building a special communication or feedback channel to help
> enable and provide that value perception?

That's a good point.

For the "non-profit organizations sustaining open infrastructure 
projects" associate members, the benefit for them is reciprocity, and 
access to our marketing channels and events.

For the "notable academic and public research institutions making 
extensive use of open infrastructure projects" associate members, the 
benefit for them is to be considered as a Foundation member and get 
membership benefits for free. We have a number of benefits directed to 
user members, and since this criteria requires that the institution 
makes direct use of open infra projects, they would qualify. This 
includes getting help from Foundation staff to navigate the open source 
project(s) they use, or getting warned when a community decision might 
adversely affect your deployment.

> I guess, the creation of the member class may also need the additional
> context of how precisely it will be used for the benefit of the
> proposed member class. I think such detail would be beneficial to the
> eventual legal reviews of members looking to join the membership
> class, since this would also not involve updating the bylaws, at least
> as discussed thus far.

We are planning to renew our membership program web pages in the coming 
months to make it clearer what benefits are tied to the various levels 
of membership. Hopefully this should all make it a lot clearer.

Cheers,

-- 
Thierry Carrez