OGB 2008/010 membership

From Genunix

Contents 1 Roles 1.1 Participants 1.2 Contributor 1.3 Leader 2 Membership 2.1 Membership process 2.2 Implementation Notes 3 Open Questions

Roles

From 2008/010, there are 3 roles connected with a given User Group, Project or Community (called collectives).

• Participant
• Contributor
• Leader

Those roles are defined as follows:

Participants

Those who are registered on opensolaris.org are eligible to be Participants in a User Group, Project, or Community.

Contributor

A person that has been recognized as having substantially helped with the goals of a given collective. That person would have been allowed by the collective to edit web pages, commit code directly to a project gate, or help moderate a mailing list. Each User Group, Project and Community may have their own set of standards by which a person may get recognized as a Contributor.

Leader

A set of people who have the responsibility of leading a User Group, Project or Community - i.e. those that may have the final say in a set of discussions, or decide the technical direction of a given project. Leaders may appoint Participants to the level of Contributor. Leaders may also appoint Participants/Contributors to the level of Leader. Each User Group, Project and Community may have their own set of standards by which a person may get recognized as a Leader.

Membership

A fourth collective exists, called the Electorate. Participants, Contributors and Leaders (from existing User Groups/Projects/Communities) may become associated with the Electorate collective, and once included are collectively responsible for the global well-being of the OpenSolaris project.

Association with the Electorate is *opt-in*, and successful association is classified as becoming a *Member* of OpenSolaris. Only those who have substantially and verifiably contributed to an existing User Group, Project or Community may apply for OpenSolaris Membership.

The membership elect a set of Leaders for the community on an annual basis, to form the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB). The OGB acts as a mediator and bridge to corporate entities connected with the OpenSolaris project and acts as the final authority for the overall OpenSolaris community in cases of uncertainty or internal dispute.

Association with the Electorate collective has no bearing on your involvement in existing User Groups, Projects, or Communities.

Membership process

1. Go to http://membership.opensolaris.org/
2. Apply for membership with the following information
   1. Full Name
   2. OpenSolaris user id
   3. For each collective to which you substantially contribute:
      1. Identify the collective
      2. Identify which Leader in that collective can validate your claim of substantial contribution
      3. If you cannot identify a Leader, identify the user IDs of at least two existing Members of the Electorate who may vouch for your activity
3. Wait. As and when your application gets processed you will be notified.
   1. The Membership Committee is a Board Committee (chaired by an OGB member but open to any Member of the elctorate) and has been delegated by the OGB to determine who may and may not be granted Member status. They are responsible to the OGB for administering this process.
   2. The Leader(s) you identified above will be asked to verify your claim online. If they do so, your Member status will be granted automatically (or, if a "quiet period" before an election is in place, at the end of that period)
   3. If you did not identify any Leaders, the Members you identified will be asked to vouch for you online. The Membership Committee will then validate your request and in all but exceptional cases grant Member status.
   4. If your referees do not validate your claim within 30 days, your application will be rejected.

Qualification for Membership is for life. However, you need to renew every 2 years. If you don't renew, you are removed from the current list of voters, though a record of your previous membership is kept. You can reactivate your Membership up to 14 days after a community wide election is announced.

Implementation Notes

• Each User Group, Project and Community should have a membership liason to be able to confirm references on membership applications for their collective
• Each applicant must be *visibly* active within their associated collective - either by activity on mailing lists, public events, or putbacks to gates

Open Questions

1. Given our earlier discussions about cultural norms, should there also be a process for nominating a contributor for Electorate Member status?
2. We'll need some sort of statement by the Membership Committee indicating what the benchmark for "substantial contribution that merits Electorate Member status".
   1. [webmink] I'd assert this is a higher benchmark than gaining Contributor status in another collective since we want it to be easy for contributors to gain recognition and "grow".
   2. [webmink] I'd suggest the benchmark be something like "several contributions that clearly bring benefit to the collective"