The Open Cloud Initiative (OCI) has launched its official website (see below) and commenced a 30-day final comment period on the Open Cloud Principles (OCP), which are designed to ensure user freedoms without impeding the ability of providers to do business. They are focused on interoperability, avoiding barriers to entry or exit, ensuring technological neutrality and forbidding discrimination. They define the specific requirements for Open Standards and mandate their use for formats and interfaces, calling for “multiple full, faithful and interoperable implementations”, at least one of which being Open Source. “The primary purpose of the Open Cloud Initiative (OCI) is to define “Open Cloud” by way of community consensus and advocate for universal adoption of Open Standard formats and interfaces” said Sam Johnston, founder and president. “Inspired by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), we aim to find a balance between protecting important user freedoms and enabling providers to build successful businesses.” The Open Cloud Initiative (OCI) is governed by a Board of Directors comprising leaders from the cloud computing and Open Source industries, including Rick Clark, Marc Fleischmann, Sam Johnston, Shanley Kane, Noirin Plunkett, Evan Prodromou, Sam Ramji, Thomas Uhl, John Mark Walker and Simon Wardley. www.opencloudinitiative.org