Voting Process
From MapbenderWiki
The Mapbender Development sometimes requires official decisions. These are taken by voting on a request.
The following voting process has not been officially adopted yet!
Contents |
Voting Levels
There are three sets of elective bodies controlling the Mapbender Project at different levels. If you are not satisfied with the way that the Mapbender PSC runs things then ask to change it. Yes, we aspire at being Free and Open. Tell us if you think we are not.
OSGeo Board of Directors
The OSGeo Board of Directors is the top level decision body in case the project goes astray. The Board of Directors can reject the incubation or later retire the whole project from OSGeo terminating development infrastructure, test environments, etc. The Mapbender source code itself is protected by the GNU GPL license and is not affected by this kind of decision.
Mapbender Project Steering Committtee
The Mapbender PSC is the day to day activity decision body. Mapbender Code Repository commit and Wiki Editor privileges can only be granted and revoked by the Mapbender PSC. This allows for quick action and is required to manage (operate, run, foster) the project. The inner circle comprises Mapbender developers and contributors (initially this was the CCGIS core development team). The Mapbender PSC is voted by Contributing Members.
Contributing Member
Contributing Members have Wiki edit privileges and can change any page in the Wiki (except for protected pages with stable, approved legal content). Major changes in the code base affecting downward compatibility, operation of services and strategic decisions require a plenary voting process to be approved and stable.
Request For Change
Write an email describing the request foir change (RFC). Take your time and be precise so that the answer to the question ideally is a simple "Yes" or "No". If the answer potentially could be a "Yes, but..." then break it down further until it really can be answered with separate "Yesses" and "Noses". The better prepared the question is - the easier and faster it will be to nmake a decision by a vote.
Voting
Once the question or proposal is formulated it has to be accepted as an official request by at least one member of the PSC who posts an email to the corresponding Mailing List. This opens the voting period for the corresponding elective bodies. Depending on the type of question voting can be open up to a maximum of 7 days (168 hours). Usually voting will occur faster.
Votes
There are three possible votes, +1, 0 and -1
- +1 means positive, go ahead
- 0 means unsure but not against
- -1 means negative and is counted as a veto
Be sure to use -1 only in cases when you really want to prevent something from happening. Even if 29 out of 30 votes are +1 and there is only one veto (-1) the request cannot pass. During the voting period it is possible to amend a vote. So if you want to block a decision do so early in the voting process and open discussion. Whenever a veto is declared a good reason has to be sumitted explaning why. Is no explanation given the veto is null.
A veto can be voted down by a simple (3/4?) majority of the PSC.
