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@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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