What this is
At FUDCon Tempe we (Fedora Board, FESCo, and other interested contributors) took a look at the ways that the Fedora Project is governed and how we could potentially resolve them. One of the things that came out of the meeting was a comparison between the main points in Debian's Charter; what the de facto, unwritten, Fedora Charter is; and what might be some ways to improve on this when creating a written Fedora Charter. These are the notes from that comparison.
Project Leader
- Appoint delegates with specific responsibilities
- Make decisions that require "urgent action"
- Make decisions for which no one else has responsibility, attempting to stay in line with contributor consensus
- Propose draft General Resolutions, amendments
- Choose lengths of vote discussion periods (within constitutional limits)
- Lead contributor discussions
- Add/remove organizations from the list of those trusted with the project's assets
- Offer formal advice
- Serve as chair of the Board
- Appointed by Red Hat
- Tally votes
- Publish vote totals after voting is complete
- Adjucate constitutional disputes
- Has the power to override any other group
Fedora Legal Committee (FeLCo)
- Legal spots and decides upon legal matters
- Ultimately authoritative in legal matters
- Has the power to override anyone else with respect to legal issues
- Appointed by Red Hat
Board
- Decide matters of policy
- Duties and responsibilites may be delegated from the Board to other groups by mutual agreement
- Any group may subdelegate responsibility
- Cannot override decisions made by delegates within their respective jurisdictions
- Decide on matters where contributors' jurisdictions overlap
- Make decisions within the Board's jurisdiction when asked
- Offer formal advice
- Remove members of itself (according to the Board Succession Plan)
- Makes decisions as a last resort
- Amend the Constitution
- The Project Leader's vote breaks ties
- Chooses its own method of adding and removing members
FESCo
- A committee whose power is delegated by the Board
- Decide matters of technical policy
- Decide on technical matters where contributors' jurisdictions overlap
- Make decisions when asked
- Overrule individual contributor decisions
- Offer formal technical advice
- Appoint or remove members of itself
- Appoint a Committee Chair
- Chooses its own method of adding and removing members
FAmSCo
- Mission: Promotes and markets Fedora worldwide
- A committee whose power is delegated by the Board
- Decide matters of community-related policy
- Decide on matters where multiple community groups conflict
- Make decisions when asked
- Overrule individual community groups' decisions
- Offer formal community advice
- Appoint a Committee Chair
- Chooses its own method of adding and removing members
Individual contributors
- Definition of individual contributor: cla_done
- Make autonomous decisions with regards to their own work
- Run for elected office
- Complies with applicable codes of conduct
- Complies with applicable rules and procedures
- Vote in applicable elections