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

Bylaws
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):

  • Technology Council (TC): Project leaders are in the TC. All technology decisions are made by the TC.    -  Operations Council (OC): admin, HR, finance, budget experts, here to check the house is kept in order.   -  Ecosystems Council (EC): This council should help with marcom but it is currently on hold for lack of marcom expertise available.

    The Board and the Councils and are meritocratic forums where every one can propose, comment and discuss.

    Oligarchy? Actually we are not fan of this word. No oligarchs at OW2 (not even the Strategic Members) but we do have an active and committed minority, call it the elite?, that expresses itself within the framework of a democratic system defined by the bylaws.

    Meritocracy and oligarchy are not defined in the bylaws. We would be happy NOT to deserve a full score here, hence our scoring: Open = 1, Meritocratic = .5, Oligarchy = .5

+2
Modern license Intellectual Property Rights Policy

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 Logo and Trademark usage 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)