Roy T. Fielding writes: > On Dec 12, 2007, at 11:45 AM, John Plocher wrote: > > > Ken Mays wrote: > >> I'm concerned as even though many of us may be deemed as > >> 'contributors' versus 'core contributors' > > > > Everyone who is a "contributer" should, if they feel motivated, > > send a request to > > their Community Group detailing their activities/accomplishments > > and asking that > > they be promoted to "core contributer". > > > > If you don't ask, the answer is always "no". > > That doesn't make any sense. It is the responsibility of the existing > core to nominate those who have earned it. If they don't, they are > not caring for the future of that community. At Apache, asking for > core or committer status is a cultural faux pas --- almost guaranteed > to delay the grant. Perhaps this is one of those areas where open > source cultural norms are different from solaris engineering norms > and we need to adjust habits.
Section 7.8 of the constitution gives the actual process, which involves having a nomination by an existing Core Contributor and then a consensus vote. It doesn't say you can't ask, and it doesn't say you have to. Whether asking for status is itself a faux pas seems to me to be a matter of local sensibilities and history, and not a matter of strict requirement in order to be considered "open source" or some sort of "Solaris engineering" matter. In fact, in other groups, I've seen both of these practices and other, completely different processes taking place, and yet none of them (as best I can recall) were disparaged for being too much unlike Apache. Currently, the way things seem to be operating is that if you want to have something happen, then you have to make it happen yourself and not just wait for someone else to see the obvious merit in it -- whether that "something" is nomination as a core contributor, or creation of a new project, or a change in the overall governance. I don't think that's necessarily a wrong thing, or something that must be "adjusted" in order to be genuine, honest-to-goodness open source. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com> Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
