---
title: Open Source Readiness - Weekly Update - 23 May 2023
description: Last week we had the FINOS Hackathon in New York (you can read about that elsewhere in the FINOS news) and some related Open Source Readiness events. 
---

[Community Blog](https://www.finos.org/blog)

# [Open Source Readiness - Weekly Update - 23 May 2023](https://www.finos.org/blog/open-source-readiness-weekly-update-23-may-2023)

 Written by [Rob Moffat](https://www.finos.org/blog/author/rob-moffat) | 5/23/23, 3:45 PM

This year at FINOS we are focusing on one of FINOS' key existing projects: [Open Source Readiness](https://www.finos.org/open-source-readiness). This is FINOS' term for helping the finance industry "do open source properly". 

Last week we had a lively Open Source Readiness meeting. Broadly, we were reviewing [this PR](https://github.com/finos/open-source-readiness/pull/135), which looks at how to [sell the idea of contributing to open source](https://deploy-preview-135--open-source-readiness.netlify.app/docs/bok/Activities/Level-3/Making-The-Case) and then how to [craft an open source policy from within your firm](https://deploy-preview-135--open-source-readiness.netlify.app/docs/bok/Activities/Level-3/Contribution-Compliance).

This [prompted all kinds of discussion](https://github.com/finos/open-source-readiness/issues/142) from the group.  

We talked about the intersection of open source with **social media policy:** which kinds of social media are allowed to be used for open source within a regulated financial firm? Should we only allow social media that can be tracked and recorded in a record-keeping system? Does record keeping even apply to open source work? Does it count as *bank business?*

We talked about **labour regulations**: Thomas Steenbergen raised the interesting point that if firms *don’t allow staff to contribute to open source* then often they just do it on their own time anyway (in the evening). This causes problems with the **EU Working Time regulations!** People are working too many hours!  What to do about that?

A further conundrum we discussed was **intellectual property law.** In most jurisdictions, any copyright material (such as code) you write is *owned by your employer*. This includes open source code you might write for your business… but also any personal projects too. This also creates a compliance issue for firms as Gil Yehuda pointed out - why does the firm now have pieces of its intellectual property on public websites? 

We also touched on **anti-trust law** (can open source help build a monopoly?) and **accounting laws** (can subsidiary companies “donate” open source to each other?)

… and all of these issues are up for further discussion [**in the next SIG meeting on 7th June**](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=NGNlZWtub2lpZWl1MGc5azZybWY0dDNuNDRfMjAyMzA2MDdUMTQwMDAwWiBmaW5vcy5vcmdfZmFjOG1vMXJmYzZlaHNjZzBkODBmaThqaWdAZw&tmsrc=finos.org_fac8mo1rfc6ehscg0d80fi8jig%40group.calendar.google.com). Hope to see you there!

… and finally it’s not too late (at the time of writing) to [sign up for the FINOS Open House & Member Meeting](https://www.finos.org/hosted-events/2023-06-14-member-meeting-and-open-house) on June 14th & 15th, where we’ll be getting into all of this stuff in even more detail! [View the full agenda here](https://finosopenhouseandmembermeet.sched.com/) (more to come). 

Author: Rob Moffat

 

**Interested in this FINOS open source project, or any of our other projects? Click the link below to see how to get involved in the FINOS Community.**

 

[View full post](https://www.finos.org/blog/open-source-readiness-weekly-update-23-may-2023)

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