How To Start a Project on OpenSolaris.org
This policy documents the process of OpenSolaris project creation. This policy may be adopted, amended, or discontinued by the affirmative vote of the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB).
For a definitions of terms used in this document, see the Glossary at the end of this document.
Note: The process described here applies only to those projects seeking recognition as OpenSolaris Community-sponsored work; any work which takes place outside the Community is not considered.
Starting Your Project
This section describes the following:
- Resources available to projects on OpenSolaris.org
- How to request your project
Resources Available to Projects
Projects which are sponsored by one or more Community Groups, as described in the OpenSolaris Constitution, are permitted to use Community-governed resources. Examples of resources which may be provided may include space for storing working or reference copies of Project artifacts, access to public and/or private communication channels such as mailing lists, and collaboration tools.
Note:Neither the OGB nor any other entity is obligated to provide any of these resources, but the same resources must be made available to all Project Teams as defined by this policy.
Requesting Your Project
This section describes details of the steps to request your project.
- Propose your project on a related Community Group discussion list.
- Community Group Core Contributors will vote on your project and provide feedback. Iterate on the proposal with Community Group leaders to ensure that the project doesn't duplicate other efforts and to ensure that the appropriate Community Group sponsors your project proposal.
- Send the final project proposal to project-setup@opensolaris.org.
A Project is instantiated at the request of one or more sponsoring Community Groups[3]. So, prospective Project Teams are required to engage with one or more appropriate Community Groups on the associated community group mailing list or lists to determine whether their proposed work is appropriate.
This is an opportunity for the team to learn about other relevant work, solicit assistance and additional members, and better understand the path to success. A prospective Project Team may request the sponsorship of any Group or Groups, but is expected to seek the sponsorship of those Groups most relevant to its proposal.
Conversely, a Group is expected to decline proposals substantially outside its area of expertise, and to direct prospective teams to more appropriate sponsors. Requests for sponsorship are opportunities for constructive engagement; they are not adversarial proceedings or formal reviews. The objective of discussion of a proposal is to achieve consensus, not to test or try the submittor(s).
Project Proposal Outline
The set of Community Groups wishing to initiate the Project shall, as a joint action, send the following information to the project-setup@opensolaris.org email alias:
- A short (one or a few words) synopsis of the Project's purpose, and an optional shortened or decorative name (see 4.1).
- A list of Community Groups sponsoring the Project.
- A list of Participants constituting the initial Project Team, including a single individual who will serve as the preferred point of contact for matters regarding the Project.
- A one-paragraph description of the Project, for an audience of Participants who may not be familiar with the area in which work is proposed. This should contain a brief description of the problem(s) the Project is expected to solve, and of the manner in which it will do so.
- A listing of related ongoing or proposed Projects, including information about any dependencies on or by this Project and any duplication of purpose or overlap with other ongoing work. This listing should also include the name of the consolidation the Project Team is targeting, if applicable.
- Optionally, additional information which may be of interest to prospective Project Team members and/or consumers of the Project's output.
The Project Herald at project-setup@opensolaris.org, upon receipt of the information described above in acceptable form, will work with you to get resources set up that you can access. Please refer to the Collective Lifecycle Instructions for additional details the Project Herald will use to set up your resources. When you have your web pages populated and you are ready to launch, the Project Herald shall announce publicly, via a channel dedicated to the purpose, the instantiation of the Project. The announcement must include substantially all of the information described in the request.
Note: Community Groups may choose to begin sponsoring, or cease sponsoring, any Project at any time before or after its instantiation. A Group shall indicate this choice to the OGB. Should all sponsoring Community Groups notify the OGB that they have revoked their sponsorship of a Project, the OGB, acting as Resource Administrator, shall revoke such privileges as may have been granted to the Project Team's members. Before doing so, the OGB may, at its discretion, provide the Project Team a grace period during which other Community Groups will have the opportunity to sponsor the Project, and the Project Team be permitted to retrieve any Project materials stored within Community-managed resources.
Glossary Definitions
This section defines the terms used in this document.
- Community Groups
This term has the definition provided in the Constitution[0]. The short form 'Groups' is used interchangeably in this document. - Participants
This term has the definition provided in the Constitution[1]. - Project
A collection of artifacts with a unifying purpose and coherent structure, sufficiently large or complex as to require at least informal organisation and collaboration. - Project Herald
An entity responsible for notifying interested participants of a Project's instantiation (see 2.3). - Project Team
One or more Participants collaborating to achieve a common goal, specifically the completion of a particular Project. - Resource Administrator
An entity responsible for managing allocation of Community-managed resources to Project Teams (see 2.4 and 2.6).