February 20, 2018

MJ: Jake, Vidya, and MJ will go to Gavi on 26 Mar 2018 to do a demo of OpenLMIS to Gavi and plan on conducting side meetings while there.

Would like to hear from Governance members on additional meetings that may be good people or organizations to meet with? 

Current planned side meetings:
GF, WHO, UNICEF (Supply Chain Division), MSF, Red Cross

Carl: Status of demo data from TZ?  

Jake: Had a good conversation over email with the Tanzania team - may not be possible to get access to the data in the timeline we need it, but pushing forward to see if we can access it. Creating demo data is really time consuming and not as good as real data. 

Naomi: Did the request actually go over yet? Biggest concern was that it has to go to the PS. Approval process doesn't move very quickly here. 

MJ: Sent the draft out - haven't seen an email go over (unless it happened without the group being updated) 

Naomi: Would make the most sense if it came from the OpenLMIS Community. I will follow up with Alfred and make sure that it is submitted. Is there a backup plan? 

Chris: Is the VIMS training instance populated with sufficient data to make that useful? 

Ashraf: A couple months old sync with the production instance. Could use that to get a sense of what the production instance looks like. 

Carl: May need the same approval? If it's based on production data. 

Chris: Could talk about what the system does and then demo from the training instance? 

MJ: We have a demo built and will base it off of Mozambique data since it's the most comprehensive. We have a good backup plan in place to be able to populate and demo DISC indicators. 

Chris: MJ would you send a copy of the letter to me? May be able to have a country program manager endorse it. 

Kaleb: Also speaking about Tanzania on Thursday as well. BID Initiative has done some releases of data to do some deeper analytics and insights - may be potential to utilize the vaccine data for this or a future presentation. 

Naomi: Alfred, Naomi, Jake, MJ - quick conversation on who is actually submitting the request so we are very transparent. If there are follow up questions, want to be sure that the right person can respond. 

OpenMRS Logo & Trademark Policy 

• https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RES/OpenMRS+Logo+Policy
• https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RES/OpenMRS+Trademark+Policy

Software Freedom Conservancy (neutral stewardship)

Michael

The Community is on the right track and you're not the first organization to work through these questions. 

• Copyright is about those who create and "own" the code, relating to contracts and organizations. Collectively the copyright is owned by several people and organizations. The larger project itself could be the entity that owns the copyright. Typically in open source software it is collective work. 
• Makes licensing and distribution of the code tricky 
• OpenLMIS is working more on the ownership of the name OpenLMIS. A "spectre" of enforcement can be presented - muscle behind the trademark. 
• There is a benefit for registering the trademark, to back up claims that this is something we have worked on
• DIAL is partnership with OpenLMIS (GSoC and Outreachy). Something we offer our partners is to trademark your product name and registering those with a neutral third party with and at the direction of the OpenLMIS Governance body. 
• Short term: Easy to do, process is in the document above. SFC is known as a neutral third party management body for open source projects. Could be helpful for OpenLMIS to build up our trademark and ecosystem. 
• Ultimately keep in mind with open source software people can strip out those requirements. But it's a good idea to include and to represent the brand. 

Carl: Understanding that SFC can hold the trademark on behalf of OpenLMIS. That would help resolve any issues about ownership of the trademark.

Michael: They would be holding it on behalf of the Governance board. That same group could pull it back and assign it to a partner in the organization, or set up a standalone nonprofit. Could look for a comprehensive fiscal sponsor to act as the project's sponsor. 

Carl: Is there any cost associated with this? 

Michael: There is a cost with trademarking but SFC is offering this as a starter kit and DIAL is offering this free of charge for the time being. 

Carl: To the community, is this something we feel is worth pursuing? 

Jake: From the VR side, I have been talking with some attorneys to see what it would take for OpenLMIS to spin out into its own entity. It would likely be a C-Corp. First step is to establish deeds, etc. That was a longer term sustainability play, but now that Digital Square is up and running, not sure what the path forward is. 

Edward: To establish OpenLMIS as a nonprofit would be a long term goal (establishing business model). In terms of trademark - JSI doesn't see any reason not to trademark. Any implementation of OpenLMIS in theory would contain that trademark reference. 

Carl: Yes, and also opens the door for certified implementers of OpenLMIS. They would then be able to use the trademark. 

Michael: One thing a trademark can't do is stop someone from taking OpenLMIS code, ripping your name off and putting another name on it and using or distributing it. 

Matt: We're seeing this with OpenSRP but they're not part of the community and not using a real version of the software. 

Kaleb: Building on the points around what Jake said and the long term options, I would like us to add that to an agenda and have some structure about exploring pathways and what the long term pathways look like. It would be good to have structure and use the next call to define those pathways 

Jake: As a C-Corp it would have its own board. Once these initiatives are up and going it would be ideal to set it off on its own. Lately we've been getting inquiries from NGOs on how they might use their own software. These requests are beyond the narrow purview of how we manage health commodities. Could be extended into agriculture - might be better suited to be managed by a separate entity.