A promised, here is a proposal for project creation policy. Comments
welcome.
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This policy documents the process of OpenSolaris project creation.
The process described here applies only to those projects seeking
recognition as OpenSolaris Community-sponsored work; any work which
takes place outside the Community is not considered.
This policy may be adopted, amended, or discontinued by the
affirmative vote of the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB).
1 Definitions
Community Groups
This term has the definition provided in the Constitution[0]. The
short form 'Groups' is used interchangeably in this document.
Participants
This term has the definition provided in the Constitution[1].
Project
A collection of artifacts with a unifying purpose and
coherent structure, sufficiently large or complex as to require at
least informal organisation and collaboration.
Project Team
One or more Participants collaborating to achieve a common goal,
specifically the completion of a particular Project.
2 Policy
2.1 Projects sponsored by one or more Community Groups, as described
in the OpenSolaris Constitution[2], are permitted to use
Community-governed resources. Examples of resources which may be
provided may include space for storing working or reference copies of
Project artifacts, access to public and/or private communication
channels such as mailing lists, and collaboration tools. Neither the
OGB nor any other entity is obligated to provide any of these
resources, but the same resources must be made available to all
Project Teams as defined by this policy.
2.2 A Project is instantiated at the request of one or more sponsoring
Community Groups[3]. The set of Community Groups wishing to initiate
the Project shall, as a joint action, provide to the OGB or its
designee all of the following information:
- The title of the Project, a short (one or a few words) synopsis
of the Project's purpose.
- A list of Community Groups sponsoring the Project.
- A list of Members constituting the initial Project Team.
- A one-paragraph description of the Project, for an audience of
Participants who may not be familiar with the area in which work
is proposed. This should contain a brief description of the
problem(s) the Project is expected to solve, and of the manner in
which it will do so.
- A listing of related ongoing or proposed Projects, including
information about any dependencies on or by this Project and any
duplication of purpose or overlap with other ongoing work. This
listing should also include the name of the consolidation the
Project Team is targeting, if applicable.
- Optionally, additional information which may be of interest to
prospective Project Team members and/or consumers of the Project's
output.
2.3 The OGB, upon receipt of the information described in 2.2 in
acceptable form, shall cause to be announced publicly, via a channel
dedicated to the purpose, the instantiation of the Project. The
announcement must include substantially all of the information
described in 2.2.
2.4 At the same time (or as close to it as practicable) as the
instantiation announcement is made as described in 2.3, the OGB shall
provide to the Project Team members such privileges, tokens, and other
necessary and appropriate information to allow their use of any
Community-managed resources allocated to the new Project.
2.5 Community Groups may choose to begin sponsoring, or cease
sponsoring, any Project at any time before or after its instantiation.
A Group shall indicate this choice to the OGB or its designate.
2.5 Should all sponsoring Community Groups notify the OGB that they
have revoked their sponsorship of a Project, the OGB shall revoke such
privileges as may have been granted to the Project Team's members as
described in 2.4. Before doing so, the OGB may, at its discretion,
provide the Project Team a grace period during which other Community
Groups will have the opportunity to sponsor the Project, and the
Project Team be permitted to retrieve any Project materials st ored
within Community-managed resources.
2.6 Because only Community Groups can instantiate Projects,
prospective Project Teams are required to engage with one or more
appropriate Community Groups to determine whether their proposed work
is appropriate. This is an opportunity for the team to learn about
other relevant work, solicit assistance and additional members, and
better understand the path to success. A prospective Project Team may
request the sponsorship of any Group or Groups, but is expected to
seek the sponsorship of those Groups most relevant to its proposal.
Conversely, a Group is expected to decline proposals substantially
outside its area of expertise, and to direct prospective teams to more
appropriate sponsors. Requests for sponsorship are opportunities for
constructive engagement; they are not adversarial proceedings or
formal reviews. The objective of discussion of a proposal is to
achieve consensus, not to test or try the submittor(s).
3 Implementation
The initial implementation of this process will utilise a mailing
list, designated project-announce at opensolaris.org, to receive
announcements of new Projects. Subscription to this list shall be
open to all Participants, but posting shall be prohibited except for
the announcements described in 2.3. Discussion of the announcement
should be directed to an appropriate mailing list created for the
Project's use, if one exists.
The OGB temporarily designates Eric Boutilier to perform the steps
required for project creation, as described in 2.3 and 2.4, but notes
that substantial advantage would be obtained by automating this
process.
The OGB designates the opensolaris.org web application to track each
Community Group's sponsorship or non-sponsorship of each Project, and
consents to accept notices of same from said application.
Community Groups are encouraged to adopt their own policies for
discussing and approving Project proposals, including timeout periods.
4 References
[0] http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/governance/, Article VII.
[1] Ibid., Sec. 3.3.
[2] Ibid., Sec. 7.1.
[3] Ibid., Sec. 8.4.
--
Keith M Wesolowski "Sir, we're surrounded!"
FishWorks "Excellent; we can attack in any direction!"
