This governance policy describes how a new Collaboration Space can be established within the OpenJS Foundation, hereinafter referred to as the "Foundation", via the Collaboration Space Proposal Process.
It describes the Stages a collaboration space may be admitted under and what the criteria and expectations are for a given stage, as well as the acceptance criteria for a space to move from one stage to another.
The Cross Project Council (CPC) may formally delegate authority to a Collaboration Space, so that the Collaboration Space can make autonomous decisions with respect to the delegated scope.
Collaboration Spaces aim to expand the group of contributors to the OpenJS Foundation by enabling individuals outside of OpenJS Foundation projects to propose and collaborate on areas important to the JavaScript ecosystem.
Collaboration Spaces may graduate between levels as outlined in this document.
Collaboration Space applications must include the champions who will lead the effort and the credentials of the champion and those initially involved will be a key part of the evaluation process to ensure that the work of the spaces is aligned/respectful of the foundation vision and expectations.
Collaboration space progression - movement from one stage to another - allows spaces to participate at the level that is most appropriate for them given where they are in their lifecycle. Regardless of stage, all Foundation spaces benefit from access to some level of mentorship, support, and foundation resources.
This governance policy sets forth the proposal process for collaboration spaces to be accepted into the Foundation.
The proposal to form a new collaboration space in the OpenJS Foundation can be made via an email to operations@openjsf.org with a filled out Collaboration Space Application Template. The initial application will have a silent period for internal only discussion. If your application is denied during this phase you will be notified privately. If there are no objections to the application, the space will given an incubation status and begin the onboarding process. Note the incubation status is temporary as we determine if the space is a good fit. At any time during the incubation process a space can withdraw either voluntarily or at the request of the CPC.
Individual or group who submits the application on behalf of a collaboration space to join the OpenJS Foundation.
The Application Champion is a member of the CPC or Foundation staff who commits to do the following:
- Work with the applicant to complete the on-boarding process
- Be available to answer questions from the Applicant.
- Advocate on behalf of the new collaboration space.
- Help to explain why the collaboration space is a good fit.
- Be available as a primary point of contact through the incubation period if reached.
- Initial email sent to operations@openjsf.org with filled out Collaboration Space Application Template
- Silent period. Internal only discussion.
- Initial acceptance as Incubating Collaboration Space.
- An acknowledgement is sent to the applicant by Foundation staff within 48 hours (striving to reply within 24 hours when possible).
- Silent period. Internal only discussion. The content of these discussions along with the content of the application itself are kept confidential.
- Initial acceptance as an Incubating Collaboration Space. Before public announcement there will be:
- Private email to the CPC members which asks for +1 or objections to the application becoming public. This email will include:
- The name of the application champion for the application
- Completed application
- Completed Initial-fit checklist.
- Confirmation that the Foundation Executive Director has received an FYI and there were no objections.
- Confirmation that there are no existing objections from CPC members. This is not a formal vote just the process to ensure we have regular CPC consensus to move forward.
- If there is agreement to move forward:
- Confirmation to the applicant that they are ready to have their application become public.
- If lack of consensus to move forward:
- Correspondence from foundation staff to applicant about non-acceptance.
- Discussion/agreement between applicant, application manager and Foundation media team to agree on announce date. (If appropriate)
- Private email to the CPC members which asks for +1 or objections to the application becoming public. This email will include:
- Project goes through process of adhering to collaboration space on-boarding checklist.
- Project presents to CPC for final acceptance via 2/3 supermajority vote and appropriate initial stage is determined.
- Are the existing members/space leaders agreed to managing the space under open governance?
- Have the existing members/space leaders agreed that all work will happen under the OpenJS Foundation IP Policy? The IP policy permits projects to use a variety of licenses, including MIT, BSD-2, BSD-3, and Apache 2.0. Where there is no preference otherwise, the Foundation recommends that new work/artifacts be licensed Apache 2.0 due to its explicitly defined rights and responsibilities.
- Have the existing members/space leaders agreed that the collaboration space will adopt the OpenJS CoC?
- Are licenses for any existing material that will be added to the collaboration space repo compatible with Foundation requirements?
- Fit with OpenJS Foundation (not all of these need to be met, but provide different ways of assessing strategic fit).
- Impact on JavaScript Community.
- How much and how broad of importance is the topic for the JavaScript Community.
- Expected level of activity and progress within the space.
- Synergy or overlap with existing projects and collaboration spaces in the Foundation.
- Level of comfort that collaboration space will be successful.
This is an informational checklist to help start up a collaboration space into the OpenJS Foundation - tasks we will complete together after your proposed collaboration space has been accepted into the incubation process. If you have any questions or need help, the OpenJS Foundation CPC is available to assist.
- Adopt the OpenJS Foundation Code of Conduct
- If choosing to use a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) or Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO), make selection and implement appropriate tool
- Confirm required files in place (
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md,LICENSE.md,Overview.md,Governance.md) and approved by the CPC. - Publish Collaboration Space Overview on Foundation Website
- Document initial space
Leaders.
At Large collaboration spaces cover topics which the CPC believes are, or have the potential to be, important to the JS ecosystem as a whole. They may be just getting started, or they may bring together long-established groups with minimal resource needs. The At Large stage provides a beneficial, neutral home for collaboration in order to foster collaborative development and provide a path to deeper alignment with other Foundation projects and collaboration spaces via the graduation process.
At Large collaboration spaces are expected to operate with little support from the CPC and the foundation. They will have access to the following resources:
- A repository under the open-js foundation gihub organization.
- Support/mentoring from the CPC with respect to setting up appropriate governance.
- Use of the Foundation Zoom and Youtube streaming
- A slack channel within the Foundation Slack organization
- Up to 2 mailing lists managed by the Foundation
- Use of meeting generation tools as may made available by the foundation
- 2 re-tweets from the OpenJS Foundation twitter account per month. These will be requested through DM.
An at Large collaboration space must have at least one active 'Space Leader' leading the activities of the space. All activities of the collaboration space must conform to the Foundation's Code-of-Conduct and the Space Leader must agree to participate in any escalations made to the Foundation Code of Conduct Panel.
To be considered for the At Large Stage, the project must meet the following requirements:
- An identified
Space Leader - 1 CPC sponsor to champion the application and provide mentorship as needed
- A presentation to at the meeting of the CPC
- a 2/3 vote from the CPC.
The Core Stage is for collaboration spaces that have demonstrated that there is sustained level of interest and participation in the area of collaboration and wish to work more closely with the Cross Project Council and Foundation.
Core collaboration spaces are expected to have regular meetings, activity and demonstrable forward progress in their area of collaboration. In addition it should be well documented how the results of the collaboration are benefitting the JavaScript ecosystem, the Foundation projects, or the activities of other collaboration spaces.
In addition to the resources made available to At large collaboration spaces they will have access to:
- The OpenJS travel fund.
- Help from Foundation marketing in publishing 1 blog post per quarter.
- 4 re-tweets from the OpenJS Foundation twitter account per month. These will be requested through DM.
To be considered for Core Stage, the Collaboration space must meet the At Large requirements as well as the following:
- Demonstrate a substantial ongoing level of collaboration and at least 10 active members
- 2 CPC sponsor to champion the application and provide mentorship as needed
- a 2/3 vote from the CPC.
Emeritus spaces are collaboration spaces which have reached or are nearing end-of-life.
Collaborations spaces in this stage are no longer active. The associated repository will be archived. Emeritus collaboration spaces should clearly state their status. The Foundation will continue to hold the IP that was created while the collaboration space was active.
Collaboration spaces may be granted Emeritus status via a 2/3 vote from the CPC.
Incubating spaces are collaboration spaces that are in the process of completing their onboarding checklist to join the foundation.
It is expected that incubating collaboration spaces will make an active effort to work through the onboarding process in a reasonable timeframe. They will be offered foundation support to help do so.
- consensus within private mailing list to move into incubation process
- Completion of the onboarding checklist
- 2/3 vote from the CPC to accept project
- Completion of the entrance criteria for desired stage
The CPC shall develop an annual review process to determine whether projects are in the stage that accurately reflects their needs and goals.