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Difference between revisions of "Governance/Foundation/TechnicalCommittee"

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__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
= Technical committee =
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= OpenStack Technical Committee =
  
Status: RFC
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The OpenStack Technical Committee is one of the governing bodies of the OpenStack project. It is an elected group that represents the contributors to the project, and has oversight on all technical matters.
  
=== Mission ===
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The Technical Committee is formally defined in the [http://www.openstack.org/legal/bylaws-of-the-openstack-foundation/ OpenStack Foundation bylaws] (in particular article 4.1(b), article 4.13 and Appendix 4) and further refined in the [https://governance.openstack.org/tc/reference/charter.html OpenStack Technical Committee Charter].
  
The Technical Committee ("TC") is tasked with providing the technical leadership for the OpenStack project as a whole. It enforces OpenStack core projects ideals (Openness, Transparency, Commonality, Integration, Quality...), decides on issues affecting multiple projects, and generally forms an ultimate appeals board for technical decisions.
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The TC governance website at https://governance.openstack.org/tc/ contains all reference documents and resolutions voted by the OpenStack Technical Committee (which are openly managed via [https://review.openstack.org/#/q/status:open+project:openstack/governance,n,z proposed changes] to the [http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/governance openstack/governance git repository]).
  
The TC has control over which projects are considered OpenStack projects, including those in core incubation status. It recommends projects for final OpenStack Core addition, combination, split or deletion to the Board of Directors, which has sole authority to approve them.
 
  
=== Members ===
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=== Current members ===
  
The TC is composed of 9 elected members. You can cumulate other roles (Project technical lead, Foundation board member...) with a TC seat. Note that Project technical leads no longer get appointed seats to the TC: they should run for election.
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You can find a list of the current Technical Committee members [https://governance.openstack.org/tc/ here].
  
=== Chair ===
 
  
After each election, the TC proposes one of its members to act as the TC chair. In case of multiple candidates, it may  use a single-winner election to decide the result. The Board of Directors has the authority to approve the TC chair and shall approve the proposition, unless otherwise justified by its bylaws. The TC chair is responsible for making sure meetings are held according to the rules described below, and for communicating the decisions taken during those meetings to the Board of Directors and the OpenStack community at large.
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=== Technical Committee Charter ===
  
=== Meeting ===
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You can find an up-to-date copy of the Technical Committee Charter [https://governance.openstack.org/tc/reference/charter.html here].
  
TC meetings happen publicly, weekly on IRC. The meeting time should be decided among TC members after each election. If there isn't consensus on a meeting time, the option of rotating the time weekly should be explored. The TC maintains an open agenda on the wiki. A TC meeting is called if anything is posted to that wiki at least one day before the meeting time. For a meeting to be actually held, at least two thirds of the members need to be present (6 people). Non-members, in particular unelected PTLs or release manager, are strongly encouraged to participate to the meeting and voice their opinion on subjects that affect them, though only elected TC members can ultimately cast a vote.
 
  
=== Motions ===
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=== Mailing-list ===
  
Before being put to a vote, motions presented before the TC should be discussed publicly on the mailing-list[1] for a minimum of 5 days to give a chance to the wider community to express their opinion. Members can vote positively, negatively, or abstain. Decisions need more positive votes than negative votes, and a minimum of 3 positive votes.
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The [http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-tc openstack-tc mailing-list] is used for communication within the Technical Committee. Posting is moderated for non-members.
  
=== Proxying ===
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[[Category:OpenStackFoundation]]
 
 
When a TC member is unable to make a meeting, he is encouraged to name a proxy that will represent his opinion and vote on his behalf during the meeting. Only members really present at the meeting (directly or proxied) can vote.
 
 
 
=== Election ===
 
 
 
The TC is renewed every 6 months using staggered elections: 5 seats are renewed every 6 months. In order to ensure fairness and representativity, the election is run on [http://www.cs.cornell.edu/w8/~andru/civs/ CIVS], using a Condorcet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method Schulze algorithm] with the [http://www.cs.cornell.edu/w8/~andru/civs/proportional.html proportional representation] option enabled. People ranking 1st to 4th get elected for a one-year term. The 5th person gets elected for a 6-month term.
 
 
 
=== Voters and Candidates ===
 
 
 
The voters are the Technical members[2] of the Foundation. Any Technical member can propose his candidacy for a TC seat.
 
 
 
=== Initial election ===
 
 
 
To initially populate the TC, all 9 seats are up for election. People ranking 1st to 4th get elected for one year. People ranking 5th to 9th get elected for 6 months[3].
 
 
 
=== Notes ===
 
 
 
# Could be the openstack ML or a specific TC ML. The idea is to avoid surprising the community with a decision, and avoid the usual kabbale critics.
 
# Two options here: make anyone who committed to one of the official OpenStack projects (core projects + docs + CI + ...) a Technical member of the Foundation, or set up a separate Technical Membership Committee to define rules and handle corner cases. In both cases we could require some currency in the contribution (for example you lose membership if you didn't commit anything over a year).
 
# We may want to re-align elections with release cycles. Example: If TC is created in July 2012, we may want to align elections with the next design summits, so the first term only be 2 months or 8 months.
 

Latest revision as of 14:19, 4 January 2017

OpenStack Technical Committee

The OpenStack Technical Committee is one of the governing bodies of the OpenStack project. It is an elected group that represents the contributors to the project, and has oversight on all technical matters.

The Technical Committee is formally defined in the OpenStack Foundation bylaws (in particular article 4.1(b), article 4.13 and Appendix 4) and further refined in the OpenStack Technical Committee Charter.

The TC governance website at https://governance.openstack.org/tc/ contains all reference documents and resolutions voted by the OpenStack Technical Committee (which are openly managed via proposed changes to the openstack/governance git repository).


Current members

You can find a list of the current Technical Committee members here.


Technical Committee Charter

You can find an up-to-date copy of the Technical Committee Charter here.


Mailing-list

The openstack-tc mailing-list is used for communication within the Technical Committee. Posting is moderated for non-members.