[ogb-discuss] Community Group Guidelines, v0.2

[Glynn Foster]

Hey,

Bonnie provided some excellent feedback off-line (thanks heaps!) - mostly a lot
of corrections to clean up the language, but she also pointed out a few
deficiencies. Given our discussions about reviewing it during today's OGB call,
I figured I'd release a 0.3.

There's still quite a few outstanding issues, among others, I think that we may
want to address

	- Proposal of -user mailing lists, for user oriented discussion and/or
	  help (which nicely leads into today's discussion on list)
	- What happens when a Leader is unresponsive and doesn't take
	  contributions for updating websites (or adding people to do it)
	- Discussion related around what infrastructure people have access
	  to (in particular use of SCMs)
	- The role of the Facilitator in Community Groups, and an approachable
	  way of knowing who the Community Group Contributors and Core
	  Contributors are


Glynn

==

Guidelines for Community Groups, v0.3

1) Introduction

   Under the terms of the constitution, Community Groups have been set up
   to self-govern their own interests and activities, particularly around
   initiating and managing projects to accomplish those activies.

   1.1) Community Group Creation

        Community Group creation is set out in Article VII of the
        Constitution. A proposed Community Group should ideally not
        have conflicting goals with an existing Group, but exceptions
        can be made if needed.

        While the creation of Community Groups come with an added
        degree of responsibility in providing official voting rights, it
        may be appropriate to initially get an existing Community Group
        to endorse a Project instead, and work towards building and
        migrating to an official Community Group at a later stage.

2) Recommendations

   2.1) Grant Updates

        In Article III, Section 3.3 of the Constitution, a set of roles
        are mapped out for involvement in OpenSolaris. Among the roles
        to note for Community Groups are Contributors and Core
        Contributors.

        It is up to the Community Group to determine how it will recognize
        involvement and grant people the designation of Contributor or
        Core Contributor.

        For example, a Community Group may decide that three or more "+1"s
        are required from existing Core Contributors to designate an
        individual as either Contributor or Core Contributor. The may also
        decide to define what actions enable someone to move from Contributor
        to Core Contributor and how someone can request a particular status.
        Suggested voting procedures are detailed in Article VIII, Section
        8.3 and 8.4 of the Constitution in the event of conflicts of opinion.

        When a Community Group has determined a process for designating
        people Contributors and Core Contributors, a Member of the Community
        must send its list to ogb-discuss at opensolaris.org. The current OGB
        Secretary will record the information. The list of Core Contributors
        is used for voting, so any changes to the list must be sent when
        changes occur. You can check the current list of grant allocations
        on http://poll.opensolaris.org that the Secretary maintains.

        All Core Contributors should be strongly encouraged to be active
        and enthusiastic members of the Community Group and to help grow
        the Community Group through leadership, good communication and
        mentoring. They should be expected to subscribe to and participate
        on relevant mailing lists.

   2.2) Mailing Lists

        A Community Group may request one or more mailing lists for its
        needs as appropriate (details about how/where to make requests
        are at the end of this section). Mailing list names should
        indicate purpose and so should use one of the following suffices:

          -dev:     Developer dsicussion related to the topic
          -discuss: General discussion related to the topic
          -notify:  Notification alias for code putbacks related
                    to the topic

        It is up to the Community Group to decide whether a new project
        warrants a ne wmaling list or whether use of an existing mailing
        list is appropriate. It is often a good idea to watch traffic
        for some period of time before creating a new list that will
        separate discussion.

        Private mailing lists may be desired by the Community Group
        itself or by a Project endorsed by the Community Group if
        sensitive issues need to be discussed. However, private lists
        often prove harmful to the community and should be carefully
        considered. It is up to the Community Group to determine whether
        a private mailing list is required and how such a request for
        a list will be approved. In all cases, the Community Group should
        advertise that such a list exists and what conditions apply to
        its subscription.

        To request a new mailing list, or changes to existing ones, a
        Facilitator of the Community Group should mail
        website-discuss at opensolaris.org with details of their request.

   2.3) Web Page Maintenance

        Community Group and Project web pages can be edited by
        designated Leaders. Leaders are listed at the top of each
        Community Group and Project web page. Note that ability to
        edit pages does not correspond to OpenSolaris membership
        status (Contributor or Core Contributor).

        Designated Leaders can add people to the Leaders list, and
        encouraged to do so, as detailed in

        http://www.opensolaris.org/os/communities/lead_reference/

   2.4) Project Creation

        Project creation is dependent on the endorsement of a Community
        Group as detailed in

        http://opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/policies/project-instantiation.txt

        Essentially, people contributing to a Community Group ask Core
        Contributors of that Community Group to endorse creation of a
        new Project. The Community Group defines the process it will
        use to determine whether or not to endorse a Project.

        For example, a Community Group may decide that three or more +1's
        are required from Core Contributors within that community before
        a Project is endorsed.

        When a Project has officially been endorsed by a Community Group,
        a Facilitator from the Community Group must send an email to
        ogb-discuss announcing that fact. The following is an example
        of such a mail

        http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/ogb-discuss/2007-July/002110.html

        During this time, the Project may be granted web hosting facilities
        (web pages, mailing lists and source code repositories) by mailing
        website-discuss at opensolaris.org with the following information

            - Project Name, ascii only
                eg. nwam
                    (http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam)

            - Project Title, single line title
                eg. "Network Auto-Magic"

            - Project Description, short description
                eg. "A project for simplifying and automating network
                     configuration on Solaris"

        A mailing list may also be created using the guidelines detailed in
        section 2.2) Mailing Lists.

   2.4) Community Group Decisions

        It is the responsibility of each Community Group to manager its
        activities and decision-making. This management can be done by
        informal consensus or formal voting or a combination. All Community
        Groups and associated Core Contributors are encouraged to act
        responsibly and with the agreement of the Community Group members.
        While formal voting can help make decisions, the process can also
        alienate those who do not have a vote. Formal voting procedures
        are detailed in Article VIII, Section 8.3 and 8.4 of the Constitution.

   2.5) Code Review

        A code review/ site/tool is available for use.

          http://cr.opensolaris.org/

        Access to this site is allowed for people with Contributor
        or Core Contributor status within a Community Group. If someone
        without such status wants to post code for review, they should
        contact the Community Group sponsoring the associated Project
        and request Contributor grant status as detailed in Section
        2.1) Grant Updates.

3) Feedback

   If you have comments on or questions about these guidelines, please
   send email to ogb-discuss at opensolaris.org.