[amsat-bb] AMSAT Open Source Policy

[Joseph Armbruster]

Bruce,

When you say "Development of Phase 4 continues at ORI".  What is Phase
4 development?  For how long has it been taking place and what does it
encompass?

Joseph Armbruster
KJ4JIO

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 9:25 PM Bruce Perens via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jul 15, 2020, 1:51 PM Stephen DeVience via AMSAT-BB <amsat-.
>
> > I can see negatives as well
> > 1) Manufacturers of space-rated hardware may want certain aspects kept
> > private, and it might not be possible to easily find or make an open-source
> > replacement. How extensive is the ITAR carve-out? If you use just one
> > proprietary component, does that take you out of the carve-out?
> >
>
> It depends. If it is a black box and you interface to it as an open
> protocol, you don't have proprietary data - which is the ITAR trigger. If
> you have to enter into NDAs, etc., you will need to establish an ITAR
> project within the larger ITAR-free organization. Frankly, I don't see that
> it will often be worthwhile to do this, simply because the administrative
> overhead is so much higher. However if it is very technically desirable,
> establishing a compartmentalised project is eminently possible.
>
> We did this for Phase 4. You remember that Bob McGwier and Michelle were
> major technical leads on Phase 4, and the original concepts of the project
> included things that I suggested to Rich Hambly in 2007. I remained a
> contributor to the project. The amateur part of satellite was an ITAR
> compartmentalized project, the ground station was Open Source.  My
> understanding is that FEMA got screwed over by a vendor, and then our
> friend the FEMA director left during and administration change or
> something, and we never got the satellite.
>
> Development of Phase 4 continues at ORI, with both sides Open Source. ORI
> is an AMSAT member organization. This is our band-aid for AMSAT being
> uncomfortable with Open Source and not yet having an appropriate policy.
>
> 2) It may force AMSAT to abandon long-standing relationships (whatever's in
> > those NDAs), which could greatly affect ongoing projects.
> >
>
> Keep the old stuff as ITAR compartmentalized until it's over, if that
> matters. The fact is we have not been launching all that much and it is
> hard to see from here where are those critical partnerships would be.
>
> This is not entirely an either-or situation. Nobody is asking AMSAT to jump
> off a cliff.
>
> Thanks
>
> Bruce
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