Personally, I'd like to see one or two quantitative rules (such as one
about independent committers to allow for vetoes) and then leave the rest
up to a voting body that will evaluate graduation against some general
guidelines. I also think the voting body should be the PPMC, which is
made up of the project's committers, the PMC members of the destination
TLP (or the Board if destined to be a TLP itself), and interested members
of the Incubator PMC. This means that after meeting some minimum
requirements, the project members along with experienced members of the
Apache community, who have been watching and participating in the
developing project, would evaluate the overall health of the community
and vote accordingly. Before Roy says anything ;-), I realize that the
PPMC isn't part of the Bylaws and therefore wouldn't mean anything
official on its own, but maybe that's where the Incubator PMC would
ratify the PPMC's decision with a vote in favor, assuming the basic
process was observed.
Not quite. The PPMC is a subgroup officially established by the incubator PMC, containing a named list of individuals who have agreed to participate on the PPMC. As such, they are covered by the PMC clauses of the bylaws as far as decision-making goes. The only difference is that the PPMC does not have the authority to release software on behalf of the ASF, whereas the PMC does. Other than that, we want the PPMC to make its own decisions, including when to recommend a snapshot release and when to request exit from the incubator. The incubator PMC makes its own decisions based on that input, which isn't the same as ratifying someone else's decision.
Before someone starts complaining about bureaucracy, please understand that the only reason a "corporation" differs from a sack of individuals, and thus individual liability, is because there is active group oversight of decisions made on behalf of the corporation for the sake of the corporation. That applies for a nonprofit even more so than a for-profit, since our process has to be valid for both the Delaware corporate laws and the IRS guidelines. The safest way to do that is to assign responsibilities to specific committees and keep records of their decisions (and how those decisions were reached).
Personally, the only quantitative rule I want to see is at least three independent committers capable and willing to become the destination PMC. The reason is because people tend to change jobs fairly frequently, especially when a new company decides they want to make a project part of their revenue stream *while* contributing to the open source side. Companies should not face artificial barriers against hiring the developers who work on our projects.
....Roy
--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
