Dear OCP Community:
As you know, our mission is to apply the benefits of open source software practices to open hardware, and rapidly increase the pace of innovation in, near and around the data center. As an open and collaborative community, part of that evolution includes occasional changes to our structure and policies. I simply wanted to reach out to you personally and give you the highlights of the changes that our Board of Directors approved recently.
First of all, the purpose of the changes are to make it possible for more organizations to participate in not only our Solution and Component Provider Programs, but to increase the benefits to all members as well as protect and strengthen the OCP Brand. The changes we are announcing now center on Membership Requirements and Membership Benefits.
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We will no longer offer the ability to reach OCP Gold Level Tiered Membership through time and IP contribution only.
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All Tiered Membership Levels are now eligible to participate in the Solution/Component Provider Programs and the overall cost for these programs have been reduced as well.
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Community members can run for a project leadership position if their organization has contributed IP or its equivalent.
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Silver, Gold Platinum level members can submit a product to be considered for recognition as OCP-INSPIRED™. All Tiered Membership Levels can submit Specifications, Designs, Products and eventually Reference Architecture and Reference Implementation to be considered for OCP-ACCEPTED™.
We are also rolling out a searchable database to highlight what specifications and designs have been recognized as OCP-ACCEPTED™ as well as what products have been recognized as OCP-ACCEPTED™ or OCP-INSPIRED™ by the OCP Foundation.
You can see the detailed changes occurring in a recent blog post here.
An excellent way for you and your team to see firsthand the fruits of the labors of the community is to attend and sponsor our upcoming Summit, to be held 8 - 9 March, 2017 in Santa Clara, CA. You can learn more at http://opencompute.org/ocp-u.s.-summit-2017/
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to increasing our impact on the industry and your business in the coming months and years. And please feel free to reach out to us anytime at membership@opencompute.org.
Warmest regards,
Corey Bell
Chief Executive Officer
Open Compute Project Foundation