The idea of KIPs came up in a previous discussion but there was no real crisp definition of what they were. Here is an attempt at defining a process: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Kafka+Improvement+Proposals
The trick here is to have something light-weight enough that it isn't a hassle for small changes, but enough so that changes get the eyeballs of the committers and heavy users. Thoughts? -Jay
