RFC 0: Project Steering Committee Guidelines¶

Author:	Stephan Meißl
Created:	2011-03-02
Last Edit:	2011-05-17
Status:	ACCEPTED
Discussion:	http://www.eoxserver.org/wiki/DiscussionRfc0

Overview¶

This RFC documents the EOxServer Project Steering Committee Guidelines.

(Credit: Inspired by the MapServer PSC guidelines at: http://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-23.html)

Introduction¶

This RFC describes how the EOxServer Project Steering Committee (PSC) handles membership and makes decisions on all aspects, technical and non-technical, of the EOxServer project.

The PSC duties include:

defining and deciding on the overall development road map
defining and deciding on technical standards and policies like file naming conventions, coding standards, etc.
establishing a regular release cycle
reviewing and voting on RFCs

The PSC members vote on proposals, RFCs, etc. via e-mail on the dev mailing list. Proposals shall be available for review for at least two days where a single veto delays the progress but at the end a majority of members may adopt a proposal.

Voting¶

Voting Procedure¶

The following steps shall be followed in any voting:

Any interested person may submit a proposal to the dev mailing list for discussion. Note that this is explicitly not limited to PSC members.
Voting on proposals shall not be closed earlier than two business days after the proposal has been submitted.
The following voting options shall be used:
- “+1” .. support willingness to support implementation
- “+0” .. low support
- “0” .. no opinion
- “-0” .. low disagreement
- “-1” .. veto
A veto shall include clear reasoning and alternative approaches to solve the problem at hand.
Any interested person may comment on proposals but only votes from PSC members will be counted.
A proposal may be declared accepted if it receives at least +2 and not vetoes (-1).
Vetoed proposals that cannot be revised to satisfy all PSC members may be submitted for an override vote. The proposal may be declared accepted if a simple majority of eligible voters votes in favor (+1). Eligible voters are all PSC members that have not been declared inactive. However, it is intended that in normal circumstances vetoers are convinced to withdraw their veto. We are trying to reach consensus.
Any eligible voter who has not cast a vote in the last two votes shall be considered inactive. Casting a vote immediately turns the status to active.
Upon completion of discussion and voting the author shall announce the new status of the proposal (accepted, withdrawn, rejected, postponed, obsolete).
The PSC Chair is responsible for keeping track of who is a member of the PSC Membership.
Addition and removal of members from the PSC, as well as selection of a Chair should be handled as a proposal to the PSC.
The PSC Chair adjudicates in cases of disputes about voting.

Voting is Required for¶

any change to committee membership (adding members, removing inactive members).
creating and dissolving of sub-committees (e.g. to manage conferences, documentation, or web sites).
changes to project infrastructure (e.g. tool, location, or substantive configuration).
anything that could cause backward compatibility issues.
adding substantial amounts of new code.
changing inter-subsystem APIs, or objects.
issues of procedure.
when releases should take place.
anything dealing with relationships with external entities such as MapServer or OSGeo.
anything that might be controversial.

PSC Membership¶

The PSC is made up of individuals consisting of technical contributors (e.g. developers) and prominent members of the EOxServer user community. There is no fixed number of members for the PSC.

Adding Members¶

Any member of the dev mailing list may nominate someone for committee membership at any time. Only existing PSC committee members may vote on new members. Nominees must receive a majority vote from existing members to be added to the PSC.

Stepping Down¶

If, for any reason, a PSC member is not able to fully participate then they certainly are free to step down. If a member is not active (e.g. no voting, no IRC, or e-mail participation) for a period of two months then the committee reserves the right to vote to cease membership. Should that person become active again then they are certainly welcome, but require a nomination.

Membership Responsibilities¶

Guiding Development¶

Members should take an active role guiding the development of new features they feel passionate about. Once a change request has been accepted and given a green light to proceed does not mean the members are free of their obligation. PSC members voting “+1” for a change request are expected to stay engaged and ensure the change is implemented and documented in a way that is most beneficial to users. Note that this applies not only to change requests that affect code, but also those that affect the web site, technical infrastructure, policies, and standards.

IRC Meeting Attendance¶

PSC members are expected to participate in pre-scheduled IRC development meetings. If known in advance that a member cannot attend a meeting, the member should let the meeting organizer know via e-mail.

Mailing List Participation¶

PSC members are expected to be active on both the users and dev mailing lists, subject to open source mailing list etiquette. Non-developer members of the PSC are not expected to respond to coding level questions on the developer mailing list, however they are expected to provide their thoughts and opinions on user level requirements and compatibility issues when RFC discussions take place.

List of Members¶

Charter members are (in alphabetical order):

Arndt Bonitz
Peter Baumann
Stephan Krause
Stephan Meißl
Milan Novacek
Martin Paces
Fabian Schindler

Stephan Meißl is declared initial Chair of the Project Steering Committee.

Voting History¶

Acceptance:	All charter members declared their availability via e-mail to the dev mailing list.

Traceability¶

Requirements:	N/A
Tickets:	N/A