I was more than taken aback when I read this headline today – Oracle mulls vote on open source at upcoming shareholders meeting.
Apparently its not a joke. According to Matt Asay:
“What is the proposal? That Oracle adopt a resolution that the company consider the social and environmental impact of using open source. The underlying intention, I believe, is to nudge Oracle to take on a more protective approach to open source. Oracle wants the resolution axed.
The language of the shareholder proposal is fairly vague, which may be one reason it’s not getting much love from Oracle. However, as Jonas Kron, the attorney representing Lawrence Fahn (Oracle shareholder), told me, SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) rules significantly restrict what they can ask for in the proposal, forcing them to file a proposal that focused on social and environmental impacts – a very safe area within the SEC rules.”
Given that a group of us has begun to ask the question: What Is a Green API? this is really big news. Basically everything has an environmental impact, even open source. But I expected dorks to lead the conversation, not shareholder activists. We can surely expect similar resolutions to be put forward at other vendors, so this one promises to get more interesting over time. I will be tracking it. The velocity here is stunning. Anyone would think the planet had some problems needing to be dealt with or something. Let’s see what way the vote goes.