On 30/06/11 14:19, Mike Chase wrote:
On 06/29/2011 09:21 PM, Justin Clark-Casey wrote:
Dear all,
As I'm sure everybody on these lists is aware, OpenSimulator currently has some
restrictions on who can contribute
code to the project (http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Contributions_Policy).
In order to grant a copyright license there needs to be a receiving entity. To
this end, we are in the process of
setting up an organisation known as the Overte Foundation. The Overte
Foundation will receive the copyright licenses
and become the official distributor of OpenSimulator rather than individual
core developers. This will put it in a
good position to deal with code origin or other issues, if any should ever
arise.
Once the CLA is complete, the current contribution restrictions to
OpenSimulator will be removed. It will be down to
each developer (including core developers) to affirm via the CLA that they have
the necessary rights over the code
that they are contributing.
One advantage of going down the foundation route is that it will also be able
to promote and support OpenSimulator in
other ways, quite possibly incorporating members of the community other than
just developers. The foundation could
also extend to cover other open-source virtual-environment/virtual-world
projects and components. In the short term,
though, we will be concentrating on establishing the CLA.
I will be acting as the first Overte Foundation president, with Diva as
treasurer, Melanie as secretary and Nebadon
and Ben as initial board members. The foundation itself will not directly
control OpenSimulator development - this
will remain with the OpenSimulator team and community as it does now.
Discussion about this is very welcome, whether supporting or critical. I'm
logging off now so will likely answer any
points tomorrow. Of course, other core developers are very welcome to chip in.
Best,
Justin and team, I think this is a great move and a good start. There are a
number of people who have been unable to
contribute to the project and hopefully this will address this abiliity.
Thanks for the encouragement from you and other folks. Organizing this kind of thing isn't easy but hopefully it will
pay off.
I would like to add that an excellent additional goal for the foundation would
be to produce and maintain a roadmap for
the elements under its care. Perhaps even a process for how a project is
included, how it moves between stages, etc.
For OpenSim itself I think the project has suffered a bit with the "perpetual
alpha" status and discussion towards and
the publishing of a roadmap that moves it out of that state and into some more
mature state would be welcome personally
by me. Of course the work is still done by volunteers but if this move
increases contribution level and the foundation
leadership shares vision in the form of a roadmap you may find these new
contributors willing to pitch in to make that
vision a reality.
Historically, I haven't been keen on a roadmap because there's nobody who can enforce that its goals will be met.
Everybody's interests are quite different and there's no single company employing developers. I think it's tricky to
set targets in that kind of environment, unless they're completely 'aspirational'.
Those kinds of things of course take time. But I'd hope they could be
considered. In the meantime congratulations on
what I see personally as an excellent first step!
Mike
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--
Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
http://justincc.org/blog
http://twitter.com/justincc
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