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After almost two years of work involving over twenty different organization, the SPDX Workgroup has released SPDX 1.0.  The SPDX specification will help companies and communities better communicate and share information about free and open source licenses, thereby streamlining and improving compliance.  Read our announcement and statements of support. 

As we move forward, the SPDX workgroup will be working with companies and communities to adopt SPDX in their compliance efforts, and continuing to improve and enhance the specification.

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in helping to bring SPDX 1.0 to fruition.  Special thanks to my fellow team leaders, Phil Odence, Kate Stewart and Esteban Rockett for their extraordinary efforts as well as Karen Copenhaver for her sage advice.

SPDX Workgroup Releases Software Package Data Exchange Standard to Widespread Industry Support

Standard format for communicating open source license and
copyright information throughout supply chain ensures better, easier
compliance

LINUXCON, Vancouver, B.C., August 17, 2011 – The SPDX workgroup,
hosted by The Linux Foundation, today announced the release of version
1.0 of its Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX™) standard.

I’m not complaining, but any of us involved in SPDX have learned how long and time-consuming standards work can be. Luckily we’ve got a great team and the work does have its rewards. We’ll all pop the corks when Version 1 is finalized, but there’s reason for a little celebration now, as well: The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has just adopted the SPDX short form license names, yippee!

Paper by Kate, Esteban and Phil in IFOSSLR

http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr

As the SPDX group has evolved, it's been clear that the range of threads and moving parts are a lot for most participants. Three distinct work streams have emerged--technical, business and legal--and so we are evolving the organization in that direction with three different teams. 

Technical Team- Primarily responsible for drafting the specification and providing documentation, samples, templates and tools.

Business Team- Initially focused on making sure that SPDX is successfully rolled out and responsible for the beta program, outreach, training, and everything else that surrounds the spec and makes it useable. 

Legal Team- Responsible for the license list, coordinating with the Linux Foundation Member Counsel, trademarks and any other legal issues for SPDX.