Open Source Matters (OSM), is the non-profit organization that provides the Joomla project with financial and legal support.

It's a serious responsibility and one that is currently held by 14 board members who have long and successful track records as participants in the Joomla community.

We are always looking to improve and follow best practices for organizations like OSM. We recognize that the board would benefit from a widened scope of experience with other Open Source and non-profit projects.

To this end, we’re planning to create a group of advisors. The aim of this group is to provide:

• Advice based on their experience and success in the Open Source and business world.
• Connections to people who can help the Joomla project.
• A fresh, outsider's view on Joomla and its challenges.

However, we do want to make sure that the group is set up correctly. To that end, we approached two people with substantial experience at the highest levels of the Open Source world: Allen Gunn from Asipration Tech and Dan Lopez from the Linux Foundation. We have asked them, together with OSM, the Joomla leadership and the Joomla community to help create and define the structure for the group so that future members can be successfully brought on board.

Nothing is set in stone regarding this group, from the name to the members to the structure. Over the next few weeks, look for ways in which you can talk with the advisors, help form the group's structure and benefit from their advice.

Advisor Biographies

Allen Gunn: Allen has over twenty years of software development, senior management, and capacity building expertise, and has spent the last fifteen years exploring how technology can most effectively empower and support social justice causes. Drawing on engineering, teaching, and volunteer experiences, gunner is a skilled communicator and facilitator in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors who is passionate about helping nonprofits and NGOs make better use of software technology. He has been closely involved with the US and international technology activist communities; the Silicon Valley engineering and venture funding world; social justice organizations, and academic communities, and currently sits on the boards of The Ruckus Society, Global Exchange, and Idealware. He is a firm believer in melding hard work with serious fun. http://AspirationTech.org

Dan Lopez:  Dan Lopez is a highly creative Entrepreneur, Strategist, Enterprise Architect, Web Application Architect, Open Source Software expert, and trusted Advisor in a wide variety of business applications. With over a decade of experience, Dan has played a critical role as a leader, technology guru, and executive. He is uniquely qualified to lead change in a progressive or entrepreneurial organization. Dan is particularly interested in bleeding-edge web applications using Open Source technologies for online entertainment, social web, online communities, and immersive media projects, as well as working closely with organizations to achieve new business paradigms on the web. Dan currently serves as the Web Architect to the Linux Foundation. http://LinuxFoundation.org