There are a lot of recent opinions about what it means to have “governance,” but not a lot of practical, actionable how-to guidance yet. Good governance tries to answer some of the same questions as an adoption agency: will you take good care of my baby project? Or for indie efforts: how do I best raise this darn baby? A small, diverse panel of experienced community managers and compliance folks, from multiple dot.org hosts, will share thoughts on how to plan when assessing (or creating) project governance, and why people care.
• What it takes to maintain reasonable fairness and vendor-neutrality. Why it matters, and how to tell if it’s working.
• Making sure that your collective work, and reliable records of it, actually stick around and remain available to the world.
• What standards tribes and governments need -- like level playing fields and openness -- to confidently use your work and endorse it for broad adoption.
• What open source tribes and devs need -- like accessibility, finding tools, and non-devious use terms -- in order to confidently adopt and contribute to your work.
• Can you still roll your own indie group and do all that? (Yes, but you need a thoughtful to-do list.)
We're not planning to talk about existing foundations at all, but rather, about functional deliverables for good governance, with a few anecdotal examples. We'll likely reference some recent manifestos on these issues, including OW2's 2020 materials and some well-received EU and US government guides to open sourcing projects, but only as touchstones. Attendees should be able to come away with a short list of qualities and concrete strategies that projects may consider implementing.