In newsletter dated 26 July 2006, executive director Steve Crumb writes:

On July 1, Open Grid Forum officially opened its doors and much has been accomplished in the last month. Over 1/3 of the former GGF and EGA organizational members have already committed to membership in OGF with more committing each week. Nine of these organizations have given written or verbal commitments to Platinum (highest) level membership. Several merger integration projects are in progress ranging from a website upgrade to the formation of the Technical Strategy Committee (TSC) to planning for our formal “launch” at the GridWorld/GGF18 event. Standards Area Directors are meeting today and tomorrow in London to discuss near-term direction and how to increase the momentum that has made GGF’s document series grow significantly in the last 12 months with high-quality specifications. Community leadership is refining its strategy for high-impact activities at GridWorld including a great community program as well as a new effort to engage grid vendors in the adoption of grid specifications. In short, OGF is continuing the good work GGF has done for the last several years and, with the infusion of EGA leadership, technical groups and enterprise focus, is becoming an organization that will deliver results faster, communicate more clearly, and enable better collaboration. Stay tuned for more updates in the near future.

Although these things take time, I’m not encouraged by the one-third commitment to OGF by organizations that were already members of GGF and/or EGA. This makes me wonder how much the membership was consulted prior to, and involved in, the merger of GGF and EGA.

Also, it’s unfortunate that interaction with other standards organizations isn’t top-of-mind for OGF. I believe that OGF needs to make this a priority. And as I wrote in GRIDtoday, the Web services area is key in this regard.