[Linux-aus] Proposal: LA cooperation with Community Code

[Matthew Palmer]

I'm placing this proposal here on behalf of the members of the Community
Code mailing list, for discussion and general approval/disapproval by the
members and committee of Linux Australia.  For more information on Community
Code, see http://www.communitycode.org/wiki/moin.cgi

This proposal has been discussed amongst the members of the cc-talk mailing
list, and is our best consensus so far.

Proposal Summary

Detailed below is a proposal put to Linux Australia by an informal group of
individuals known as Community Code, and organised around
http://www.communitycode.org/, to perform activities under the auspices and
coverage of Linux Australia for an as-yet undetermined period of time.
Community Code wishes to remain a part of an established organisation until
such time as our activities are self-funding and sufficiently established
that we are confident we can sustain operations independently.

Definitions

 * Host -- Linux Australia;
 * CC -- Community Code;
 * FLOSS -- an acronym for Free (Libre) / Open Source Software, an
	all-encompassing term for the Free Software and Open Source movements;
 * Participant -- an individual undertaking to aid the FLOSS community by
	their labour;
 * Mentor -- an individual who has accepted the responsibility of overseeing
	and aiding one or more participants in their work with Community
	Code;
 * Community Code Members -- the collection of individuals subscribed
 	to the cc-talk at communitycode.org mailing list (or other mailing
 	list as specified) who are also members of the Host organisation.

Purpose

Community Code exists for the purpose of encouraging participation in the
FLOSS community by as many people from as many different and varied
backgrounds and reasons as possible. In particular, though not exclusively,
we wish to provide the necessary administrative framework in which people
can satisfy their Mutual Obligation requirements contributing to FLOSS
projects and the FLOSS community, and providing suitable references for
participants to enhance their employment prospects.

Examples:

 * Bob is studying an IT-related degree at University, but wants to
 	get a leg-up in his job seeking. He's heard a bit about Open Source
 	from his lecturers, but isn't entirely sure what it is or how great
 	it is. He finds	out about Community Code and gets in touch with us
 	via the mailing list.  After some brief discussions with a couple of
	members, Alice offers to be Bob's "official" mentor, and they work
	together getting Bob involved with creating free graphics and icons
	for the GNOME project, under Alice's general supervision. Three
	months after starting this work, Bob applies for a job at WidgetCo,
	and Alice provides a written reference regarding Bob's work on the
	GNOME art, and speaks with Bob's potential employer on the phone. As
	a result of this, Bob gets the job, has had exposure to Open Source
	and the benefits of this collaboration model, and continues to work
	with GNOME over the next few years.

Scope of Activities

CommunityCode intends to carry out the following activities:

 * Programming, documenting, and otherwise working with FLOSS projects by
 	means of the Internet;
 * Meetings between mentors and participants, and between mentors.
          
At present, we are willing to limit our activities to 15 Community
Code mentors and participants at a time.

Requirements from Host

The host organisation must be willing and able to provide public liability
insurance coverage of at least $5,000,000 to the operations of Community
Code, as well as provide some measure of oversight to the operations of CC.

Oversight

Two different models of oversight are proposed; the Host may choose
whichever of these models it feels most benefits itself and Community Code.

 1. The members of Community Code shall appoint amongst themselves, by their
 	own means, a representative to the executive committee of the Host
 	organisation, who shall act as a liaison between the executive
 	committee of the Host and CC, providing regular reports on the
 	activities of Community Code, and ensuring that any queries or
 	concerns of the executive committee of the Host organisation are
 	addressed by the members of Community Code;

 2. The executive committee of the Host organisation shall appoint a member
 	of it's organisation to act as the "chairperson" of the Community
 	Code members list, and shall act as a liaison between the members of
 	Community Code and the executive committee of the host organisation.

These two methods of oversight are largely identical except for who chooses
the individual to act as liaison between the two groups.

The liaison will ensure that regular meetings take place between members of
Community Code, and that the results of these meetings are communicated by a
mutually agreeable means to the executive committee of the host
organisation.
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