When Federico Musto engineered a takeover of Arduino, open source hardware fans were nonplussed, and not least because Musto was caught lying about having received advanced degrees from MIT and NYU.
To reassure its community, Arduino created an arms-length foundation to managed the open development process. Now it turns out that this, too, will be run by Musto.
In Make Magazine, publisher Dale Dougherty rails against Musto’s role in the foundation: “Musto has shown us that he cannot be trusted. It is bad enough that he has gained control of Arduino Holding. We must not allow him to control the foundation.”
The Arduino team and Arduino Holding need to show us that the Arduino Foundation has been formed as an independent and open organization. The Arduino Foundation must
*
define its mission to protect and promote the interests of the Arduino community;*
determine a board of independent directors who are not chosen by Arduino Holding; are not limited to the existing Arduino team; and excludes Federico Musto.*
operate in an open and transparent manner.*
Have visibility into the business of Arduino Holdings to hold it accountable as a watchdog.Perhaps it should be called The Free Arduino Foundation. Free as in Freedom. Free to operate on its own. Free to represent a commitment to the mutual interests of the Arduino community.
Free Arduino
[Dale Dougherty/Make]
(Thanks, pt and Limor!)
(Image: R.hampl, CC-BY-SA)
