Josh Cohen is a software professional, gay activist and the Founder and Chairman of the Open Supporter Data Interface Project (OSDI). Josh was involved for 20 years in the corporate software industry with a concentration in Open Standards Wonkery. Josh has lead or participated in standards efforts for Microsoft , Netscape, and UPS, among others. He first cut his teeth in the IETF Working Group for HTTP. Later he was the Vice Chairman of the Board for DMTF.org and has participated in ISO in efforts including SOAP (At least is wasn’t CORBA), systems management, and Cloud Standards.
In 2012 Josh served as the Director of Technology for Washington United for Marriage, the 2012 campaign for Marriage Equality in Washington State. Since then he has provided technical consulting to a number of campaigns.
The OSDI effort seeks to define common API and data structures for interoperability among products in the progressive cause-based, campaign and non-profit marketplace. The existence of a common API will reduce customer costs related to moving data between different systems, lower integration costs and enhance the ability of innovators to create products for the marketplace.