Hi all. Below is the revised version of madwifi.org's application as associated project. The only change is the correction of a wrong reference as pointed out by Joshua Drake.
=== pseudo-diff start === Software" movement (FOSS). Past claims that the project does not fully honour FOSS due to the support and use of the binary-only HAL in MadWifi -should have been voided by our explanation in [4]. +should have been voided by our explanation in [6]. === pseudo-diff stop === Who? ==== madwifi.org develops Linux kernel drivers for Wireless LAN devices with Atheros chipsets. Started in late 2003 by two developers, the project today has a total of 23 members. We currently provide two main drivers: MadWifi and ath5k. MadWifi has an established userbase and is one of the most advanced WLAN drivers available for Linux today. It's available in all major Linux distributions. It's embedded in products from companies such as FON [3] and Meraki [4] and is also used in many academic projects [5]. MadWifi itself is open source but depends on a proprietary Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) that is available in binary form only. This was one of the main reasons for the project to shift [6] our focus of development towards ath5k in September 2007. ath5k is a relatively new and emerging driver that does not depend on the HAL and thus is fully open-sourced. It is intended to exceed MadWifi feature-wise, is aimed to be added to the mainline kernel and finally will replace MadWifi in the long run. All "products" (code, documentation and thelike) of the project are offered according to the principles and ideas of the "Free and Open Software" movement (FOSS). Past claims that the project does not fully honour FOSS due to the support and use of the binary-only HAL in MadWifi should have been voided by our explanation in [6]. Why and What? ============= Our main motivation to get some backing of a non-profit entity is to be able to handle monetary donations from users in a clean way. So far, we are a bunch of interested and only loosely organised developers working on the driver. Legally there is no "the project", so it's not possible to set up a bank account for "the project". Accepting monetary donations would require at least one developer to munge a private bank account with funds received for the project. As this just calls for trouble we once decided against doing it this way. On the other hand we see a rising amount of users asking us how they can donate money to support the ongoing development of MadWifi and ath5k. The money would be a great help for covering costs for our server, for setting up a testbed installation, for providing developers with Atheros-based cards, and so on. In short: we'd highly appreciate SPIs support and assistance for handling all types of donations as well as material and immaterial assets on behalf of the project. How? ==== We are currently in the process of drafting a proper final charter. Until we come to a decision there we'd like [7] to start off with the following interim charter: === cut === The MadWifi project intends to join the SPI as member, basically to get the backing of a non-profit organization and for being able to handle monetary donations properly. The project is working on a full-fledged charter but will need more time to finish it. Until then the following minimalistic interim charter shall be in effect: 1. Michael Renzmann ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) acts as interim liaison for the SPI. He is authorized by the team to fulfill the tasks outlined by the SPI in [1], section "Your Project Liason". 2. The team may decide to replace the liaison with another member who in a vote has received more than 50% of all votes cast (simple majority). See also 4. 3. All decisions regarding the use of assets managed by the SPI on behalf of the project (such as donated funds) need to be authorized by an affirmative vote of 66% of all team members. See also 4. 4. The authoritative list of team members is available on [2], the liaison is responsible to keep it up-to-date. Eligible to vote are all current team members, each member has exactly one vote. Voting must take place on the publicly accessible mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Only those votes are taken into account that appear on the mentioned list. 5. The team should decide on a final charter until May 31, 2008. Once that has happened the interim liaison informs the SPI board about the result of the decision. At that point this interim charter will be replaced by the regular charter the team has agreed on, and a regular SPI liaison will be elected as specified in the regular charter. [1] http://www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/associated-project-howto.html [2] http://madwifi.org/wiki/TeamMembers === cut === Bye, Mike [1] http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-general/2007-September/002413.html [2] http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-general/2007-September/002413.html [3] http://www.fon.com [4] http://meraki.com/ [5] http://madwifi.org/wiki/Publicity [6] http://madwifi.org/wiki/news/20070920/madwifi-moves-away-from-binary-only-hal [7] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.drivers.madwifi.devel/5325/focus=5561 _______________________________________________ Spi-general mailing list [email protected] http://lists.spi-inc.org/listinfo/spi-general
