This is the organizational charter for the RO-Crate Organization (the "Organization"). RO-Crate is the short name for Research Object Crate, a specification for packaging data and metadata using linked-data principles. By requesting to add their name to the Steering Committee.md file, via a Github Pull Request Steering Committee members agree as follows.
The mission of the RO-Crate Organization is to write, maintain and release versions of the RO-Crate specification and associated website, as well as advocating RO-Crate use (e.g. training, co-authoring articles and conference presentations).
2.1 Purpose. The Steering Committee will be responsible for all editorial oversight, project approval and oversight, policy oversight management for the Organization.
2.2 Composition. The Steering Committee voting members are listed in the steering-committee.md file in the repository. Voting members may be added or removed by no less than 3/4 affirmative vote of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will appoint a Chair or Co-chairs responsible for organizing Steering Committee activity.
3.1. Decision Making. The Steering Committee will strive for all decisions to be made by consensus. While explicit agreement of the entire Steering Committee is preferred, it is not required for consensus. Rather, the Steering Committee will determine consensus based on their good faith consideration of a number of factors, including the dominant view of the Steering Committee and nature of support and objections. The Steering Committee will document evidence of consensus in accordance with these requirements. If consensus cannot be reached, the Steering Committee will make the decision by a vote.
3.2. Voting. The Steering Committee Chair will call a vote with reasonable notice to the Steering Committee, setting out a discussion period and a separate voting period. Any discussion may be conducted in person or electronically by text, voice, or video. The discussion will be open to the public. In any vote, each voting representative will have one vote. Except as specifically noted elsewhere in this Charter, decisions by vote require a simple majority vote of all voting members.
In addition to the method set out in section 2.2, the membership of a Steering Committee member will terminate if any of the following occur:
4.1 Resignation. Written notice of resignation to the Steering Committee.
4.2 Unreachable Member. If a member is unresponsive at its listed handle for more than three months the Steering Committee may vote to remove the member.
4.3 Committee Vote. A member may be removed by a committee vote, which may be requested by any committee member once adhering to the following process:
- A notice for a resolution to remove a member must be given to the committee and dispersed among the members at least 21 days before convening a meeting
- must give the member concerned a copy of the notice as soon as possible
- The member can give the committee a written statement and speak at the proposed meeting. The statement must be given to everyone entitled to notice of the meeting.
- Members shall vote on the proposed resolution
The Steering Committee is bound by the Organization's antitrust policy.
Information disclosed in connection with any of the Organization's activities, including but not limited to meetings, Contributions, and submissions, is not confidential, regardless of any markings or statements to the contrary.
In order to be eligible to be a Organization project, a project must:
- Be approved by the Steering Committee.
- Agree to follow the guidance and direction of the Steering Committee.
- Use only the following outbound licenses or agreements unless otherwise approved:
- For code, a license on the Open Source Initiative's list of Popular Licenses.
- For data, a license on the Open Knowledge Foundation's list of Recommended Conformant Licenses.
- For specifications, a community developed and maintained specification agreement, such the Open Web Foundation Agreements or Community Specification Agreement.
- Include and adhere to the Organization's policies, including the trademark policy, the antitrust policy, and the code of conduct.
Amendments to this charter, the antitrust policy, the trademark policy, or the code of conduct may only be made with at least a 3/4 affirmative vote of the Steering Committee.
This document was adapted from GitHub's Minimum Viable Governance.
Copyright The University of Manchester. Licensed under the CC-BY 4.0 License.