TWiki Community Governance

The TWikiCommunity includes several structures to help it function effectively. Participation in every structure is open to members of the community. See also Relaunch TWiki.org Project and Introducing TWiki Governance for background.

TWiki.org's community governance structure is established with these goals in mind:

Fair and transparent decision making regarding TWiki features and TWiki community (discourage closed community within open source community).
Timely decisions, even when there is no clear consensus amongst the community.
Nurture a friendly and fun environment for existing as well as new contributors.
Offer sexy projects that attract developers.
Quality releases, fast paced bug fix releases.
Flat & scalable community through sense of ownership.

1. TWiki Task Teams -- responsible for key areas

A number of task teams exist that are responsible for different areas of TWiki, such as marketing, architecture and code, documentation, release management. See TWikiTaskTeams for information on current teams. The TWikiReleaseManagementProcess governs features and release management. If you have a particular interest in an area, please join that task team and contribute to their decisions. If you would like to set up a new team, please gather some like-minded people and propose for consideration by the TWikiCommunityCouncil .

2. Meet-up Teams -- fostering face-to-face TWiki user meetings

Local TWikiMeetUps teams organize TWiki user meetings, work with local interest groups, schools and municipalities to foster the use of TWiki and open source software. Meet-up teams gather regularly for a beer, open discussion and idea exchange. Meet-up team members visit conferences to speak, to teach, or debate and to represent TWiki as the leading open source Enterprise Web 2.0 platform.

3. Technical Board -- responsible for technical direction of TWiki

The TWikiTechnicalBoard is responsible for decisions over architecture, release process and tool infrastructure. The Technical Board works with the relevant Focus Team when taking such a decision, trying to find consensus with the team members responsible for the implementation of the decision. Technical Board members are appointed; in the future they may be elected when the community is ready.

4. TWiki Community Council -- responsible for the social structures and community processes

The TWikiCommunityCouncil approves the creation of a new Team or Project, and appointment of team leaders. The Community Council is also responsible for the TWikiCodeOfConduct and is responsible for dispute resolution, should it be required. Community Council members are appointed; in the future they may be elected when the community is ready.

5. Self Appointed BDFL -- spiritual leader of the TWiki project

The TWiki community tries to operate more on consensus than on votes, seeking agreement from the people who will have to do the work. Peter Thoeny, as Self Appointed BDFL, plays a happily undemocratic role as sponsor of the project. He has the ability, with regard to TWIKI.NET employees, to ask people to work on specific projects, features and bugs.

He also has a casting vote on the Technical Board and Community Council, should it come to a vote. The community functions best when it can reach broad consensus. Nevertheless, in open source circles there can be multiple good arguments, and no clear consensus. Those arguments may divide communities rather than enrich them. Often there is not just one "right" answer, and what is needed is a timely decision more than a debate. The BDFL should act to provide clear leadership on difficult issues, and set the pace for the project. The BDFL authority is used carefully, in the hope that it will create momentum in the best direction for the project.

6. TWiki Trademark

Peter Thoeny, the Founder of the project, and TWIKI.NET, collectively own the trademarks to the TWiki project, who have the sole discretion in decisions related to these matters.

-- Contributors: PeterThoeny - 27 Oct 2008