Dear Supporter,

Given the growing interest in the open reviews initiative we are proud to announce today the foundation of the Open Reviews Association (ORA). Our intention is to ensure that the Mangrove technology and dataset remain open and are maintained by the community.

ORA is an international not-for-profit organization established to build a global Open Data Ecosystem for online customer reviews. To achieve this goal, it supports the adoption, maintenance, and growth of the free and open-source Mangrove technology: a software infrastructure for reading/writing reviews in an open dataset that is freely accessible to anyone.

The association will fulfil the following key functions:

• As a Swiss-registered association, it acts as a legal entity for the Mangrove open-source technology, and is the custodian for the computer servers and services necessary to host the open dataset.
• It supports and communicates with the working groups, and the association board at times delegates various tasks to the working groups.
• It provides a vehicle for fund-raising to support the vision of the project.

ORA invites industry practitioners, researchers, entrepreneurs, developers, open data enthusiasts, and generally anyone interested in open reviews to join as members and support its cause.

As a valued member of our community, we invite you cordially to join ORA as a member of the association, and to participate in the working groups to continue your support of this movement.

Thank you again for your valued financial contribution via the Open Collective, and looking forward to welcoming you as a member of ORA soon.

Best,

Dina Carabas and Peter Czaban