MOLE Open-Source Ecosystem Governance#
Table of Contents#
Statement of Purpose#
This document formalizes the description of the governing processes used by the MOLE Open-source Software Ecosystem (OSE) organization in the decision-making process involving ordinary and extraordinary operations in the sustainable development and maintenance of the MOLE Library, its software infrastructure and MOLE OSE organization. These processes and provisions also apply to all work with external collaborators from academia and industry. It also describes the procedures the MOLE OSE steering council uses for conflict resolution.
The ultimate goal of the governance definitions and processes is to promote a work environment that is collaborative, promotes openness and transparency, encourages software contributions to the MOLE library, and supports the advancement of multiple fields in computational sciences. This document is intended to be used in conjunction with the MOLE OSE Code of Conduct document, which outlines the rules of engagement between a multidisciplinary and diverse group of contributors and members of the MOLE Community.
MOLE OSE Governance#
First, we are obliged to state the scope of the software ecosystem for the MOLE Library to provide the context for all the kinds of operations, activities and interactions expected within and around the MOLE OSE organization, and this well-defined purpose guides MOLE’s rules of collaborative engagement (see the MOLE OSE Code of Conduct) and the decision-making governing processes.
MOLE is a high-order mimetic differential operators library for solving PDEs. The library is developed by a distributed group of contributors led by the MOLE leadership team. The MOLE leadership team is responsible for maintaining the cohesiveness, robustness, security, reliability, succession plans, integrity, and quality of the software library, and contributors are individuals who contribute algorithms, code design, code implementations, documentation, or user support to the MOLE library or the MOLE OSE organization. The role definitions for all the stakeholders in this organization are defined in the Community Roles page.
Anyone with an interest in mimetic methods and their use in the formulation of numerical solutions to computational problems can become a member of the MOLE community. Additionally, anyone with an interest in learning more about the MOLE library functionalities or mimetic discretizations and their wide-range of applicability is invited to join the MOLE community. Lastly, as an open-source software library, the MOLE community also welcomes participants interested in its financial sustainability.
Consensus-Based Decision-Making#
A thriving community is essential to the success and sustainability of the MOLE OSE organization. In fact, MOLE users, contributors and collaborators help make the library more high-quality, robust, relevant, and ready to tackle more problems in computational sciences. In turn, the MOLE OSE organization prioritizes the establishment of trust in the longevity and maintenance of the library. Users need assurance that the software ecosystem will not become obsolete or unsupported. Therefore, most decisions in the organization are made by consensus of the MOLE Community, allowing the MOLE OSE to leverage on the multidisciplinary expertise in the community.
Anyone in the MOLE community can provide feedback, participate in forums and software reviews, report issues, make suggestions and voice opinions on decisions.
The MOLE governance is organized in four functional circles and a steering council, as described in more detail in the MOLE OSE Organization page. The four governance circles are: community engagement, software engineering, computational sciences and mimetic methods. The steering council is responsible for stewarding project resources, and in some situations they may need to make project decisions whenever the normal decision-making process fails at reaching consensus by the community.
Most MOLE OSE organization decisions are made on consensus, and whenever a decision cannot be reached by consensus, a formal vote is called by the chairs of the corresponding governance circle. In the context of open-source software development, we use the definition of consensus from Chapter 4: Social and Political Infrastructure by Karl Fogel, and extracted from the book Producing Open Source Software, and we quote:
Consensus simply means an agreement that everyone is willing to live with. It is not an ambiguous state: a group has reached consensus on a given question when someone proposes that consensus has been reached and no one contradicts the assertion.
The Voting System#
Whenever a vote is called to resolve a conflict, there will be a deadline for responding to the vote. Note that not all members of the community are expected to vote on all decisions, and the voting time will not be delayed for anyone. In the best interest of timely and effectively resolving a conflict, the governance circle may choose to escalate a conflict to the MOLE Steering Council.
For full disclosure, the MOLE OSE organization also has these decisions that are not open to a vote by the MOLE community. These decisions are handled within a governance circle or the MOLE steering council:
Decisions that cannot be made by consensus will resolve with a binding decision through a simple majority vote of the active steering council members,
The onboarding and offboarding of members of the steering council will require a two-thirds majority vote of the active steering council members,
The onboarding and offboarding of members in a governance circle will require a simple majority vote of the active members in the circle,
The election of chairs and co-chairs of a governance circle are elected by a majority vote of active members of the steering council. All governance circle chairs and co-chairs are members of the steering council,
The removal of MOLE community members will require a two-thirds majority vote of the active steering council members,
Any changes to the MOLE OSE organization, its structure, governance composition will require a two-third majority of the active steering council members,
The outcome of any decision will be announced to the MOLE community. The MOLE community is encouraged to provide feedback and opinions on decisions made by any of the above voting scenarios.
Removal of Members from the Community#
In order to promote a welcoming, intellectually stimulating and productive work environment, the MOLE OSE organization has a set of guiding rules of engagement listed in the MOLE Code of Conduct document. If a member is in direct violation of any of these rules, a formal request for their removal from the MOLE community will be made to the steering committee. This also applies to any community members that enters in conflict of interest with the MOLE OSE organization.
Removal of Members from the Steering Council or A Governance Circle#
When members of the steering council or a governance circle become inactive, or are unable to participate in discussions and meetings, they will be removed from the steering council or a governance circle, requiring a two-thirds majority vote of the active steering council members or active members in a governance circle. Members can also be removed if there are any conflicts of interests or violations of the MOLE OSE Code of Conduct.
Conflicts of Interest#
Members of the steering council and governing circles will enter in conflict of interests with the MOLE OSE organization in one of the following scenarios;
Personal financial interests not directly connected with the MOLE OSE financial sustainability, that may influence their work on MOLE OSE organization.
Sell, partially or in full, any of the products in the MOLE OSE organization for personal gain.
All members of the steering council and governance circles must disclose to the rest of the steering council any conflict of interest they may have. Members with a conflict of interest in a particular issue may participate in council or governance circle discussions on that issue, but must recuse themselves from voting on the issue.
Conflict of interest forms will be signed on the yearly bases by all members of the steering council and governance circles.
Acknowledgement#
The rich community of Open Source Software has provided the knowledge and materials that we used while researching creating the MOLE OSE Governance model and its governing processes. Besides, Karl Fogel’s book, we would like to acknowledge the following OSEs:
and other OSE’s in the high performance E4S community.