Hi, Vincent Massol wrote: > Hi everyone (devs and users), > > While we have a clear governance for write access to our source > repository (http://dev.xwiki.org), we're missing a clear governance > for xwiki.org. The idea is to address mainly the following 2 questions: > 1) who "owns" it and thus "controls" (or rather provides direction > for) its content > 2) can it be used for business advertising (support, paid packages, > consulting services) > > Bit of History about XWiki SAS > ======================== > > - XWiki SAS (http://xwiki.com) is the company founded by Ludovic > Dubost the creator of XWiki (I'm the CTO of XWiki SAS in addition to > being a committer here). > - Most of the active contributors are also employed and paid by XWiki > SAS to develop the XWiki software. Today that's > -- 12.5 committers (developers) > -- 1 open source product manager (see > http://markmail.org/thread/ggaaw4u6yyci4oan > for its definition) > -- 1 designer > -- 1 tester/technical writer > - XWiki SAS sells services around the open source software, see > http://www.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Services/ > - XWiki SAS truly believes and understands open source, see > http://www.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/About/Values > -- I also wrote a blog post on this some time back: > http://massol.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Blog/XWikiSASAndOpenSource > - XWiki SAS has promised "not to do evil" ;), see its manifesto at > http://www.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/About/Manifesto > - XWiki SAS is paying for the servers and maintenance of xwiki.org, > myxwiki.org, the maven repo, the svn repo, the hudson build serversn > the free JUG farm, and more > > Issue at hand > =========== > > XWiki SAS would like to generate more revenue to be able to increase > the development pace of the XWiki software. We'd like to fund even > more the development of XWiki, so that it becomes an even better > product. We've asked you what you'd like to see in the future in XWiki > and you've answered on this survey result: > http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Blog/Features+Survey+Results > > We'd like to implement those features as fast as possible. > > For this we need to ensure that users interested in commercial > services find easily the way to http://xwiki.com, even when they > arrive on xwiki.org. > > This is true for XWiki SAS's services but also for any company willing > to offer services around the XWiki open source project. There's no > magic. Developers need to be paid when they work full time on some > project. We need a commercial ecosystem around XWiki for it to > progress as quickly as its competitors (the collaboration market). We > need to allow for commercial companies the ability to generate revenue > from their work on the XWiki open source project. However we also want > to continue ensuring that all the XWiki development is done in open > source, under a LGPL license. > > Governance Proposal > ================= > > 1) xwiki.org is controlled by the XWiki committers. This means that > important changes brought to it should be discussed/vote on the list, > using the same practices as for code commits > 2) xwiki.org stays open in edit mode to all external contributors (and > XWiki committers continue to monitor it to remove spam, etc)
> 3) we agree to start with 3 zones where companies can advertise their > commercial offers on top of the XWiki open source product: Maybe we should emphasize this: companies can advertise _only_ their commercial offers build on _top_ of the XWiki open source product. > -- On the download page (for business packages, subscriptions, hosting) > -- On the support page (for services: support, consulting) > -- (still to be defined) Possibly on a "Products" tab in the new > horizontal navigation. The idea would be to do as jboss.org is doing. > Projects are open source and community and Products are commercial > 4) the company offerings are listed by their amount of contributions > to the XWiki open source project. The company that contributes most > (XWiki SAS today) gets the best spots (top of the list, bigger space) > 5) Companies who want to be listed should provide some proof of their > contributions to the XWiki open source project > 6) XWiki SAS gets some acknowledgment for paying for the xwiki.org > server/maintenance of it. Probably somewhere in the footer of the site > or on side panel somewhere > 7) xwiki.org should always remain a site for the xwiki open source > community > > Conclusion > ========= > > We want to stress that this proposal is not about XWiki SAS making a > commercial takeover of the xwiki.org site. > > It's about recognizing that if the XWiki open source software > progresses quickly today, it's thanks to contributors but also for a > very large proportion to companies paying developers to work on it, > either directly (like XWiki SAS or other companies that have > developers contributing) or indirectly (by paying for example XWiki > SAS or other companies to work on specific features). > > It's also about recognizing that XWiki SAS is happy to see other > companies willing to contribute to the progress of the XWiki open > source project and thus to provide a place for these companies to be > visible too. > > I hope that all our contributors but also users of the XWiki Open > Source software will find this proposal acceptable and I welcome any > feedback on it. Sounds fair to me. Thanks, Marius Disclaimer: I'm a committer on the XWiki open source project and a full time employee of the XWiki SAS company. > > Thanks > -Vincent Massol > Hat 1: XWiki SAS CTO > Hat 2: XWiki committer > _______________________________________________ > devs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
