| Linux Foundation courts individual members |
Sep. 22, 2008
 After announcing its first event for "end users," the Linux Foundation has begun to promote "individual memberships." Available now for $50 a year, memberships include a T-shirt, quarterly newsletter, and the "ability to run for and vote for a Linux Foundation board seat," says the organization.
The Linux Foundation was created in January of 2007, by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and Free Standards Group (FSG). It is best known for maintaining the Linux Standards Base, as well the Carrier Grade Linux specification. It also serves as the vendor-independent employer for Linus Torvalds and several other important Linux developers, keeps a collective legal defense fund, and works to promote Linux across various computing and technology markets.
So far, the Linux Foundation has been sustained primarily through corporate memberships. Priced from $5,000 to $500,000, Corporate membership levels range from Platinum, which comes with a board seat, to Gold, with Gold members controlling three board seats, to Silver, with members collectively controlling a single board seat.
Individual memberships, though long provided for in the organization's by-laws, have not been heavily promoted, in the past. Now, a series of new pages on the organization's website -- apparently developed using the interesting CiviCRM open source "constituent relationship management" software for non-profit oranizations -- tout the rights and benefits of joining, while a link to a secure order form lets would-be joiners pay the annual fees through PayPal.
 
With Linux, the software is free, but the T-shirts will cost you
(Click any shirt to enlarge)
The move appears to be part of an effort to broaden the organization's support base. The group also recently announced plans to hold a user event Oct. 13-14 in New York.
On signing up, individual members can align themselves with one of several "constituent groups," including:- End User
- Developer
- Vendor
- Community representative
- Press/analyst
According to the membership agreement, individual members are considered "affiliate members," rather than full members, and thus "shall not have any of the rights and privileges of 'voting statutory members.'" However, as with Silver corporate members, Affiliate members will apparently collectively control a single seat on the LF board of directors.
More details can be found on the Linux Foundation site, here, or in a well-done news story at LXer, here.
-- Henry Kingman
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