This is to announce the OpenID Foundation community board member election process and schedule for 2013. The Foundation plays an important role in the evolution of Internet identity technologies. Those elected will help determine what role the OIDF should play in helping facilitate faster and broader adoption of open standard identity systems.
Last year two community board members were elected to 2-year terms and so are not standing for election:
• Greg Keegstra
• Axel Nennker
Other current community board members may seek re-election. They are:
• Nat Sakimura
• Mike Jones
• John Bradley
• Kick Willemse
• George Fletcher
For the purposes of the 2013 election, there are 6 confirmed sustaining members: Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Ping Identity, Symantec, and Verizon. Thus, we will be electing 5 community members to the Board of Directors to bring the total number of community members to 7. To preserve the staggered election structure so that half of the community board members will be elected every year, the 4 candidates (half the number of community members, rounded up) receiving the most votes will be elected for 2-year terms and the candidate receiving the next amount of votes will be elected for a 1-year term, resulting in 3 board members being elected in the subsequent election given a stable number of sustaining members. In the case of a tie between the candidates receiving the 4th and 5th number of votes, both will receive 1-year terms. In order to be eligible for election, a candidate must be seconded by at least three other members.
The election will be conducted on the following schedule:
Nominations open: Monday, January 7, 2013
Nominations close: Monday, January 21, 2013
Election begins: Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Election ends: Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Results announced by: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
New board terms start: Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Times for all dates are Noon, U.S. Pacific Time.
All members of the OpenID Foundation are eligible to nominate themselves, second the nominations of others who self-nominated, and vote for candidates. If you’re not already a member of the OpenID Foundation, we encourage you to join now at https://openid.net/foundation/members/registration.
Voting and nominations are conducted using the OpenID you registered when you joined the Foundation. If you are already a member, you will receive an email from director@oidf.org advising you that the election is open and how to participate. You will need to log in with your OpenID membership credentials at https://openid.net/foundation/members/ to participate in the nomination and voting. If you experience problems participating in the election or joining the foundation, please send an email to help@oidf.org right away.
Board participation requires a substantial ongoing investment of time and energy. It is a volunteer effort that should not be undertaken lightly. Should you be elected, expect to be called upon to serve both on the board and on its committees where the work of the foundation is conducted. If you’re committed to OpenID and advancing open digital identity and are a person who works well with others, we encourage your candidacy. The OIDF’s Executive Committee has suggested a few questions candidates may want to publically address in their candidate statements:
1. What are the key opportunities you see for the OpenID Foundation in 2013?
2. How will you demonstrate your commitment to the work of the foundation in terms of resources, focus and leadership?
3. What would you like to see accomplished over the next year, and how do you personally plan to make these things happen?
4. What resources can you bring to the foundation to help the foundation attain its goals?
5. What current or past experiences, skills, or interests will inform your contributions and views?
Candidates can address these questions in their election statements on various community mailing lists, especially openid-general@lists.openid.net. Please forward questions, comments and suggestions to me at don@oidf.org
Regards,
Don Thibeau
Executive Director
The OpenID Foundation
P.S. Members should also know that the foundation will be holding a vote to approve a second set of Implementer’s Drafts of the OpenID Connect specifications soon. An Implementer’s Draft is a stable version of a specification providing intellectual property protections to implementers of the specification. We expect the candidate specifications to be ready for the 45 day public review period by the end of this month, meaning that the vote will occur in February. Watch the announcements at http://openid.net/ and your mailbox for announcements about this upcoming review and vote.