Open_By_Rule
How Open Is OW2
How open is OW2 for an open source organization? We like to think OW2 is an open organization. We filled-out the open-by-rule scorecard for OW2 and, after submiting it to the scrutiny of our Board and Technology Council (a rather open process BTW), we thought we deserved a score of 8 at least on a scale between -10 to +10.
The input is reproduced here along with the key links that support our claims.
Rule | Data | Evaluation | Score |
---|---|---|---|
Open, Meritocratic Oligarchy |
Board of Directors Technology Council Ecosystem Council Operations Council |
OW2 Bylaws state the openness of the organization. The
organization is to be driven by its members through the Board and its
Councils.
The Board of Directors reflects our three categories of Members:
Strategic, Corporate and Individual. Strategic Members have a seat by
right, they are balanced by the same number of seat for the Corporate
Members plus one seat for the Individual Members. Elections are held
each year.
The Councils prepare the decisions for the Board and the
Management Office (MO):
|
+2 |
Modern license | OW2 decided not to add to open source license proliferation and to accept OSI-recognised licences. When submitted, a project must document its choice of license and it can be challenged by the TC. . | +1 | |
Copyright accumulation | No copyright assignments at OW2. OW2 has no claim over contributions. | +1 | |
Trademark policy | The trademark policy protects the use of the name for the benefit of the members in general which are welcome to use OW2 names and logos. OW2 is a not-for-profit entity which has no commercial motive for the control or exploitation of any of its trademarks. | +1 | |
Roadmap | Open Source Cloudware initiative Business Intelligence initiative |
That is a tough one for an organization hosting over 80 projects. Such a diversified code base doesn't lend itself easily to a unified roadmap. We concentrate the roadmap effort into the “Initiatives”, see links. Projects are independent, they are however encouraged to publish their own roadmaps. | 0 or +.5 |
Multiple co-developers | OW2 Forge | A very diverse collection of entities (companies, academia, individuals) are involved in OW2 projects. Project team members are public on the OW2 forge. Currently working with an OW2 BI project to publish metrics. | +1 |
Forking feasible | There are no barriers, legal or otherwise, to forking. | +1 | |
Transparency | Board of Directors Technology Council |
At OW2, our moto is that everything is on the website. All documents, minutes and reports. Minutes are published. OW2 is a non-profit association regulated by French law that stipulates that a full report (including financial) be presented at the General Assembly of the members. This report is published on the web site. Download data are available to all members. Moreover, for example, this response was submitted to the Board and the TC from whom it received some input. | +1 |
Summary (scale -10 to +10) | +8 (or +8.5) |