Open-Source Governance
Resource: Open Source Governance from Open Source Toolkit
The phrase "open source governance" generally refers to the decision-making model or documented process for how an open source project makes decisions. Sustainable governance is essential if an open source project will last, especially if it involves multiple stakeholders and collaborators. But what governance models or frameworks are sustainable? What makes sense for your open source project? The answer is, it depends.
Documenting and defining a governance model for a project is a radical act of transparency. It is an advance commitment to deciding how decisions are made, who gets to have a say, and how community feedback is factored into the process. Sometimes governance models need to be changed in the future; this is normal. A good governance model captures the core values and beliefs of the project, and gives key stakeholders a voice in the future of the project. It also includes a process to adapt or change, to accommodate unexpected changes in society and norms over time.
In short, governance is the rules or customs by which projects decide who gets to do what or is supposed to do what, how they're supposed to do it, and when.
This definition of governance can prompt important questions for open source communities seeking to evolve their governance models. Let's explore how.
Although models and examples are included below, do not take them as an absolute truth. There is room for creativity and adaption; the right governance model for your project might be a combination of the models explained here.
When you define governance for a project, you need to identify the following five things: Josh Berkus, 2020, What is open source project governance?, https://opensource.com/article/20/5/open-source-governance
- What roles can contributors play in the project?
- What qualifications, duties, privileges, and authority are associated with each role?
- How do people get assigned to (and removed from) roles?
- How can role definitions be changed?
- What are the project's collected policies and procedures?
Additional questions for determining community governance structures: https://codebender.org/governance/#21
- Who gets a vote in your group?
- How are new people added to that pool?
- When and how do people lose their votes?
- Where and how do other people find out what has been decided and how it affects them?
- Where and how can non-voters raise issues?
Governance Models​
| Model | Description | Advantage(s) | Risk(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do-ocracy | Ignore formal and elaborate governance conventions – those who do the work are those who make the decisions. | Where participants who invest the most time, energy, and attention in specific aspects of the project have the most authority and influence over decisions in those areas of the project. | Claim to have no governance at all, and difficult or intimidating for newcomers to contribute. |
| Founder-leader | Most common with a small number of contributors - the individual or group who started the project also administers the project, establishes its vision, and controls permissions to merge code into it. | Lines of power and authority are typically clear; they radiate from founder-leaders, who are the final decision-makers for project matters. | Limitations become apparent as the project grows to a certain size, and leaders can become bottlenecks for project decision-making work. |
| Self-appointing council or board | Members of open source project appoint a number of leadership groups, like “steering committee”, “technical operating committee”, where they maintain their own decision-making. | Useful in cases where a project does not have a sponsoring foundation and establishing electoral mechanisms is prohibitively difficult. | Member-selection processes spawn self-reinforcing leadership cultures. This model may hinder community participation in leadership activities, where community members often feel like they must wait to be chosen. |
| Electoral | Conducting governance through elections, where people vote for candidates to fill various project roles. | Tends to lead to precise documentation of elected project roles, procedures, and participation guidelines. | Elections can have drawbacks when they become contentious, distracting and time-consuming for project members; elections do not necessarily guarantee leadership turnover. |
| Corporate-backed | Individual companies or industry consortia may choose to distribute software under terms of an open source license to reach potential developers and users. | This is used to accelerate adoption of their work, cultivating an external developer community and require a contributor agreement (CLA) to accept a contribution. | If a project claims to support an open community, but is in fact wholly controlled by a company or consortium, which can create mismatched expectations among adopters. |
| Foundation-backed | Non-corporate backed open source project, choose to be managed by a non-profit or trade association, so that it does not exert exclusive control of key project resources. | Projects seeking to establish legal relationships with third parties like conference venues or projects seeking to ensure successful leadership transitions following departure of key individuals. | Funding and legal requirements normally limit this model to larger open source projects. |
Open Source Governance Resources​
This section includes various resources and readings for you to continue your self-education about open source governance.
- Governance Readiness Checklist:: A lightweight framework to define the governance model in your software project. It is hard to know where to begin if you do not know the questions to ask. This quick checklist, created by the Sustain O.S.S. Governance Working Group, includes key questions and considerations for crafting a governance model for your open source project.
- FOSS Governance Collection: Comprehensive library of governance models used by real open source projects, foundations, non-profits, and more. Especially useful if you are looking for examples or inspiration to follow.
- Sustain O.S.S. Governance Working Group: A volunteer-driven Working Group of people interested in the governance of open source projects. This is a great place to ask questions and engage with a wider community of professionals about open source governance and best practices.
- Leadership and Governance: Growing open source projects can benefit from formal rules for making decisions. This guide from GitHub helps you understand governance for your growing project. opensource.guide
- Community Rule: A governance toolkit for great communities. The Community Rules booklet describes many community governance options.
- 3 models for open source governance: How to balance makers and takers to scale and sustain open source projects, companies, and ecosystems (part 4). infoworld.com
- What is open source project governance?: Clearly defining roles and responsibilities is essential to effective open source community management. Here are some ways to help you organize. opensource.com
- Understanding open source governance models: Open source projects usually operate according to rules, customs, and processes that determine which contributors have the authority to perform certain tasks. Understanding those rules can increase your chances of contributing successfully and positively to a project. This article provides six examples of common frameworks used for open source governance. redhat.com