The purpose of this document is to formalize the governance process used by the project in both ordinary and extraordinary situations. It is also meant to clarify how decisions are made, where the decision making power lies, and the responsibilities of each role assigned to community members.
The Fatiando a Terra Project (The Project) is a community-driven project that
develops and maintains open-source software for geophysics.
Software repositories include those in the fatiando and
fatiando-data GitHub organizations.
They are developed openly and hosted on public repositories.
Software developed by The Project is released under the BSD 3-clause (or
similar) open source license.
The Project is developed by a distributed team of developers, called the Project Contributors (see below). The Project Community consists of all Contributors and users of The Project. Contributors work on behalf of and are responsible to the larger Project Community. We strive to keep the barrier between Contributors and users as low as possible.
This section describes the governance and leadership model of The Project.
These are the roles that can be assigned to The Project Community members:
- Steering Council Member
- Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL)
- Community Manager
- Package Maintainer
- Package Developer
Additionally, the following titles may also be assigned to people who have been involved in the project as a means of providing credit for their contributions (without the responsibilities that come with one of the roles above):
The individuals currently occupying each role will be listed on our website fatiando.org.
The overall role of the Steering Council is to ensure, through working with the BDFL and taking input from the Community, the long-term well-being of the project, both technically and as a community. It is expected that all communication between the Council will be carried out in the open through one of The Project's communication channels.
The Council is responsible for planning, organization, and direction of The Project's operations and programs. There is an expectation that Steering Council members will attend regular online meetings and invest effort in community and organizational strategy, as well as developing and acting on the long-term vision of The Project. The Steering Council may delegate their authority on a particular decision or set of decisions to any other Contributor at their discretion. The Project encourages others to fork the project if they disagree with the overall direction the Council is taking.
To become eligible for being a Steering Council Member, an individual must be a Project Contributor who has produced contributions that are substantial in quality and quantity, and sustained over at least one year. Contributions include, but are not limited to, code, code review, infrastructure work, community participation, community help/building, education and outreach, design work, etc. We want to encourage a diverse array of backgrounds, viewpoints, and talents in our team. Potential Council Members will be nominated by existing Council Members and voted upon by the existing Council. Based on a successful vote, the newly elected Member is invited to serve in that capacity. A newly elected Member will be mentored in their role by an existing Council Member (appointed by the Council) until they feel that the mentorship is no longer required.
The initial Steering Council was appointed by the BDFL (Leonardo Uieda) in 2022.
If a Council member becomes inactive in the project for a period of one year, they will be considered for removal from the Council. Before removal, the inactive Member will be approached by the BDFL to see if they plan on returning to active participation. If not, they will be removed immediately upon a Council vote. If they plan on returning to active participation, they will be given a grace period of one year. If they don't return to active participation within that time period, they will be removed by vote of the Council. Former Council members will be listed on the project website, acknowledging the period during which they were active in the Council.
The Council reserves the right to eject current Members if they are deemed to be actively harmful to the project's well-being, and attempts at communication and conflict resolution have failed.
The Project will have a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Life). The BDFL is chair of the Steering Council (see below) and has the same responsibilities of other Council members. In addition:
- As Dictator, they, have the authority to make all final decisions for The Project.
- As Benevolent, they, in practice, choose to defer that authority to the consensus of the Community and Steering Council.
It is expected that the BDFL will only rarely assert their final authority. Because it is rarely used, we refer to the BDFL's final authority as a "special" or "overriding" vote. When it does occur, the BDFL's override typically happens in situations where there is a deadlock in building consensus among the Community.
The BDFL can step down at any time, and acting in good faith, will also listen to serious calls to do so. The BDFL can appoint their successor, but it is expected that the Steering Council and the Community will be consulted on this decision. If the BDFL is unable to appoint a successor, the Steering Council will make this decision, preferably by consensus but, if needed, by a majority vote.
The main role of the Community Managers is to breath life into our Community. Community Managers are responsible for, among other things, promoting attendance at regular community calls, managing social media accounts, welcoming new people to the Community, approaching specific groups for engagement and partnership with The Project (e.g., Geolatinas, Earth Science Women's Network), putting together community events, running the user survey, etc. Of course, no single Community Manager will be responsible for all of these activities. Sub-committees can be formed at the discretion of the current Community Managers to delegate responsibility for certain activities to other Project Contributors. Community Managers are appointed by the Steering Council upon suggestion from the Community or self-nomination by potential candidates. A newly appointed Community Manager will be mentored in their role by an existing Community Manager and/or Steering Council Member until they feel that the mentorship is no longer required.
Community Managers will have administrative access to the accounts and repositories that are required to fulfil their roles. It is expected that they will employ standard IT safety procedures to secure passwords and account information (using a password manager, enabling two-factor authentication, avoiding duplication of passwords, etc).
The Package Maintainers oversee and manage the development, maintenance, goals, and scope of a particular software package. Each of the software packages developed by The Project will have a team of Package Maintainers. Their responsibilities are:
- Welcoming new contributors to the software.
- Reviewing contributions to the software in the form of pull requests, issues, and discussions.
- Maintaining the health and viability of the software.
- Leading discussions about the software goals, scope, design, and future directions.
- Managing the release of new versions of the software.
- Delegating responsibility for development and review to other Project Contributors.
- Recruiting and mentoring new Developers and Maintainers.
Package Maintainers are appointed by existing Package Maintainers for the particular software upon consultation with the Steering Council. To be eligible for appointment as a Package Maintainer, an individual must be a Project Contributor who has produced code contributions to the software that are substantial in quality and quantity, and sustained over at least one year. The Steering Council can also appoint a Package Maintainer in special circumstances, for example if a software has no currently acting Maintainer. Maintainers can step down from their role at any time. It is expected that they will notify the Steering Council and fellow Maintainers with at least one month notice so that a replacement can be appointed if required.
Package Maintainers will have administrative access to the software repository and package distribution services (PyPI, conda-forge) for which they are responsible. It is expected that they will employ standard IT safety procedures to secure shared passwords and their own accounts (using a password manager, enabling two-factor authentication, avoiding duplication of passwords, etc).
The Package Developers are the ones who regularly handle most of the code and documentation development for each package in The Project. Each of the software packages developed by The Project will have a team of Package Developers. Their responsibilities are:
- Welcoming new contributors to the software.
- Reviewing contributions to the software in the form of pull requests, issues, and discussions.
- Participating in discussions about the software goals, scope, design, and future directions.
- Taking an active role in the development of new features, bug fixes, and documentation.
- Mentoring new Package Developers.
Package Developers are appointed by existing Package Maintainers and Developers for the particular software at their discretion. To be eligible for appointment as a Package Developer, an individual must be a Project Contributor who has produced regular code or documentation contributions to the software. Developers can step down from their role at any time. It is expected that they will notify the Package Maintainers and fellow Developers promptly when deciding to step down. Package Developers who become inactive for a period of one year or more may be removed from their role by the Package Maintainers.
Package Developers will have write (git push) access to the software repository.
It is expected that they will employ standard IT safety procedures to secure
their own accounts (using a password manager, enabling two-factor authentication,
avoiding duplication of passwords, etc).
The Package Authors are the official authors and copyright holders for each
software package developed by The Project.
Package Authors are listed in the AUTHORS.md file of each software repository.
The processes and rules for becoming a Package Author are laid out in our
Authorship Guide.
The Project Contributors are anyone who has made a contribution to The Project. Contributions include, but are not limited to, code, code review, infrastructure work, community participation, community help/building, education and outreach, design work, etc. Anyone can be a Contributor and Contributors can be affiliated with any legal entity or none.
There are no responsibilities or powers assigned to Project Contributors. Candidates for the other roles in The Project governance are mostly recruited from the pool of Project Contributors.
The Project Founders are the people who played a role in the conceptualization of The Project. They hold no special authority in The Project and are included as an acknowledgement of their contribution.
We will hold an annual meeting dedicated to discussions of The Project governance. At these meetings, we will review governance documents, including this document, and the overall goals and direction of The Project. Anyone is welcome to join these meetings.
The authority to change the governance model is held by the Steering Council. Any changes to the governance model will be done in a consensus building process between the Steering Council, BDFL, Project Contributors and the Community.
Suggestions to governance processes can always be raised in the interim through one of our communication channels or directly to a member of the Steering Council.
Substantial portions of this document were adapted from:
- SimPEG governance document
- Jupyter/IPython project governance document
- NumPy governance document
- SciPy governance document
To the extent possible under law, the authors have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the Fatiando a Terra project governance document, as per the CC-0 public domain dedication / license.