Developers of the cryptographic library Openssl have recently announced a complete transformation in structures and methods of project management. To uphold project missions, two equal units have been established – the non-profit organization OpenSSL Foundation and the commercial company Openssl Corporation. Both entities operate independently with separate decision-making processes.
The project mission emphasizes values such as community importance, a development model based on open source code, adherence to confidentiality, and open and transparent management methods. The previously existing OpenSSL Management Committee (OMC) has been disbanded, and decision-making responsibilities have been shifted to a jointly elected board of directors in OpenSSL Foundation and Openssl Corporation, each consisting of 10 voting participants.
Furthermore, OpenSSL Foundation and Openssl Corporation have established supervisory committees – the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Business Advisory Committee (BAC) – which include community representatives and interested commercial companies. These committees have the authority to advocate for the community’s interests in the development of plans. The BAC committee is set to be formed by the end of October 2024, while the TAC will be established by the end of April 2025.
The project has expanded beyond just the OpenSSL library and is now welcoming other developments related to cryptography. The first two projects to join under the protection of OpenSSL Foundation and Openssl Corporation are Bouncy Castle (a crypto API for Java and C#) and Cryptlib (a high-level API for simplifying encryption and authentication in programs).