[PROPOSAL] Guidelines for XMLBeans PPMC

[Cliff Schmidt <cl...@bea.com>]

There has been discussion on the incubator general list for a 
PPMC, which is similar to a PMC (such as the one for the XML
and Incubator projects), but is specific to the oversight of 
an incubated project, such as XMLBeans.

The following FAQ is my proposal for how this PPMC should be run.  
Please understand that this is a new concept that has not been 
completely ironed out yet.  Below is simply my understanding of 
the ideas behind a PPMC (after following several hundred emails
on the subject) and how it could apply to XMLBeans.

Note that I have already pre-subscribed XMLBeans committers and
members of the XML PMC.  For those not interested in being part 
of the PPMC, please accept my apologies for the inconvenience
and send mail to mailto:xmlbeans-ppmc-unsubscribe@incubator.apache.org.
Interested members of the Incubator PMC are also being invited 
to join this list.  

Cliff



Proposal/FAQ
------------
0. Why do we need this new PPMC thing anyway?

The big picture here is that the ASF is a corporation that makes
decisions through its board of directors and officers.  The 
officers delegate decisions through their respective PMCs.  All 
decisions impacting the ASF should be made within this structure.  
Another key thing to understand is that, officially, there is no 
such thing as a "subproject" entity.  Subprojects are just an 
ad hoc way that some large projects have organized, but there is 
no delegation of responsibility to subprojects; PMCs are just as 
responsible for all legal issues of their subprojects as a Top 
Level Project (TLP) PMC is for its code.  For this reason some 
PMCs are now factoring out some of their subprojects to become 
TLPs so that they can legally manage their own projects.  The
other option is to ensure that the PMC has sufficient oversight 
of the "subproject" by having enough of the subproject's 
committers as members of the PMC.

In either case, it is important for the ASF that any new code 
base have some means of official ASF oversight, whether it is 
through an existing PMC that is "importing" the code (into what 
may be referred to, informally, as a subproject) or through a 
new PMC for a project destined to become a TLP.

While in the Incubator, a PPMC serves as a way to get the right
people involved in oversight of the project.  The "right people"
should include the committers who know and work with the code 
on a daily basis, the PMC of the project that is importing the
code (if applicable), interested members of the Incubator PMC,
and, of course, the project mentor.  When the project leaves
incubation, the PPMC is dissolved, but the previous members of 
the PPMC will either a) form the new PMC for the project (if
it is a TLP), or b) become members of the importing project's
(sometimes called the landing project) PMC.  The PPMC will
therefore have served as a means of oversight during 
incubation, as well as a training for people destined to 
become members of a PMC.

For this reason, the first "P" in PPMC was originally intended
to stand for "Practice", but many people feel that this does
not completely represent the purpose of a PPMC, since the 
group performs an important function during incubation.


1. What is the purpose of a -ppmc list (see above for the 
purpose of the actual PPMC)?

This is the private mailing list used by members of the PPMC,
just as a PMC uses such a mailing list.  Subscription is 
limited to project committers, the mentor, and members of the 
Incubator PMC and the landing project's PMC (if applicable).  
The archive should be available to subscribers via ezmlm, but
will not be available on eyebrowse.  


2. What business should be conducted on this list instead of 
the -dev list?

This is a tricky issue.  On one hand, we want to minimize
private communication as much as possible, but on the other
hand, there may be some members of the PPMC who will want to
be aware of/involved in significant decisions, without 
having to closely monitor the -dev list (hopefully, most 
PPMC members will closely follow the -dev list).  As a 
compromise, I would suggest that any new proposals or votes 
be conducted on the public -dev list, with a forwarded mail 
to the -ppmc list (not cross-posted) to give a heads up to 
anyone interested in participating.  Quarterly reports 
should be discussed on the -dev list, but sent to the -ppmc 
list for approval.  There are potential issues (such as 
discussion of security problems) that may be more 
appropriate to keep private, but this should be the 
exception, rather than the rule.  


3. How does this affect voting?

All binding votes must be made by the PPMC, not the 
committers.  However, these votes should normally be 
discussed and conducted on the public -dev list.  The 
-ppmc list should still be given a notification of the 
start of voting and a final summary after the vote, but, 
for nearly all issues, the vote itself should be conducted
in public.  In order to confirm whether a vote is binding
(cast by a member of the PPMC), a list of all members of
the PPMC should be posted somewhere (? - not sure where
yet -- Web site or Wiki, or less-public place like
committer module in CVS?).


4. Will XMLBeans become a TLP, or is XMLBeans considered an 
imported code base for the XML project?

XMLBeans has always been destined for the XML project; 
however, recent proposals for reorganization within the
XML project may raise the question of whether the XMLBeans
project should actually become a TLP.  This issue should
resolved prior to the vote to leave incubation.  For now,
the membership of the PPMC assumes the initial plan.


5. Who votes on whether an incubated project is ready to 
leave the incubator?

The PPMC, which includes the committers in incubation, but
also includes the other applicable PMCs.  If there was 
consensus to make XMLBeans a TLP, instead of joining the
XML project, the ASF board would need to approve. (Should
the ASF board substitute for the XML PMC's vote? ...except 
that board approval is specifically required for the 
charter of a new TLP -- in contrast to members of the XML 
PMC only contributing to the total PPMC vote for exit from 
the incubator.)


6. Does the XMLBeans PPMC have a chair?  If so, who is it?

It probably should have a chair, although I don't recall
this being discussed yet.  It might be a good idea to try
to get a prior PMC member to volunteer to be the chair
(which would eliminate committers who are new to Apache).
The mentor would probably be an ideal choice (especially
our Mentor - Ted).


7. How much traffic should I expect on this list?

Based on the above, traffic should be very low (mainly 
notifications and results of topics discussed on the 
-dev list).


8. Where can I read more about the PPMC concept?

See the PPMC Proposal on the Wiki:
http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PpmcProposal

Or read the following threads on the incubator general list:
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/BrowseList?listName=general@incubator.apache.org&by=thread&from=549055&to=549055&first=1&count=36
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/BrowseList?listName=general@incubator.apache.org&by=thread&from=551172&to=551172&first=1&count=5
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/BrowseList?listName=general@incubator.apache.org&by=thread&from=571918&to=571918&first=1&count=54
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/BrowseList?listName=general@incubator.apache.org&by=thread&from=543022&to=543022&first=1&count=18



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