Intake procedure

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Title

Intake procedure

DRACC

0012

Category

Regulatory

Scope

Global

Authors

Leenaars, M.A.G.J.; Šuklje, M.

Date

January 2017

Copyright

The Commons Conservancy

This document is part of the DRACC series, see DRACC "Introduction to DRACC Series" for an explanation. You can reuse it under a "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International" license.

Introduction

When a project has decided it would like to join [The Commons Conservancy], there are a number of steps it MUST take in order to be accepted as one of Programmes of [The Commons Conservancy].

Intake procedure

The project SHALL notify [The Commons Conservancy] of its intention to join [The Commons Conservancy] together with a written statement that the project is compatible with the mission of [The Commons Conservancy] (see DRACC 0001 "Mission"). If the project has a mission statement itself, it MUST also send its own mission statement in this first notification.

Unless the Board of [The Commons Conservancy] finds a mismatch in the missions, it SHALL notify the project that it is now deemed a candidate Programme and appoint a case officer to assist the candidate Programme in aligning the scope of the candidate Programme, selecting the most suitable governance model, as well as assisting it throughout the whole candidacy process.

At this stage the candidate Programme SHALL appoint a quartermaster to prepare for subsequent adoption of the candidate Programme by [The Commons Conservancy]. The role of the quartermaster is to be in charge of the following procedure and be the official contact for [The Commons Conservancy] during the Programme's candidacy.

The quartermaster SHALL send to the case officer an overview of all:

  • full list and audit of intangible assets -- such as copyright, trade marks, patents, databases, integrated circuit layout design and the like -- which includes code provenance as well as all rules and restrictions that pertain these assets -- such as inbound and outbound licenses, (re)licensing agreements, copyright assignments and any other relevant agreements;

  • other assets, such as domain names etc.

  • project's infrastructure (e.g. source code repositories, mailing lists, website, wiki, IRC channels, forums, backups, archives etc.) and access to it, including passwords, authentication and encryption keys;

  • contacts (preferably e-mail) to all its board members, preferably using their full names, but if there are specific concerns, a pseudonym MAY be used;

  • known stakeholders -- such as, any relevant grant making organisations, bigger clients, bigger up- and downstream projects;

The case officer assists the quartermaster with the above overview and, if needed, carries out an independent audit as well.

At this stage the candidate Programme SHALL create its statutes and regulations, including the rules pertaining inbound and outbound licensing. The case officer is at the candidate Programme's service to advise and assist to make sure that the candidate Programme's statutes and regulations are in line with the mission of [The Commons Conservancy].

The case officer SHALL audit the quartermaster's overview as well as the candidate Programme's statutes and regulations and report to the Board of [The Commons Conservancy].

If the case officer's audit and report are favourable, the Board of [The Commons Conservancy] SHOULD approve the project as a Programme of [The Commons Conservancy].

In case the Board does not approve the candidate to become a Programme, it SHALL remove any and all copies of authentication and encryption information it received from quartermaster pertaining the project.

Quartermaster

The Programme MAY change its quartermaster at any point, based on its own statutes and regulations, but at all times there SHOULD be at least one quartermaster in the Programme. After the Programme has joined [The Commons Conservancy], the quartermaster(s) SHALL keep the contacts and infrastructure details up-to-date.