GOVERNANCE.md
OpenRefine is a free, open-source, powerful tool for working with messy data. OpenRefine has a plugin architecture and is distributed under the new BSD license allowing modification, distribution and name changes.
OpenRefine is a meritocratic, consensus-based community project based on the Apache Decision Making process.
In so far that is possible, decision-making is done based on user consensus following open discussion (i.e., using OpenRefine's discussion forum and issue list). No major decisions about the project’s direction, bug fixes, or features should be made in private without community involvement and participation. Discussions must begin at the earliest possible point on a topic; the community’s participation is vital during the entire decision-making process.
All project participants abide by the Code of Conduct.
Users are community members who have a need for the project. Through their usage, they give the project a purpose. Users are encouraged to participate in the project life by providing feedback on how their needs are satisfied.
Users can help the project by:
How to become an OpenRefine user? Download OpenRefine and start refining!
Contributors are users getting involved in the project more closely. Contributions can take many forms:
How to become an OpenRefine contributor? You will find more details in our contributing guideline
If you make regular contributions to OpenRefine, you will most likely become a Committer.
Committers have earned enough trust from the community to
How to become a Committer?: Committers are voting-binding members; they select and elect new members through a voting process. Nominations should be submitted to the developer section of the forum, where contributors can nominate themselves or other contributors. See the Member Election section below for more details.
Current list of Committers: The list is available here: https://github.com/orgs/OpenRefine/people.
Also referred to as Core Dev. The Core Developer Group are trusted developers who
How to join the Core Dev Group?. To be eligible to serve on the Core Developers, individuals must first be Committers of the project. Core Dev Group members are voting-binding members; they select and elect new members through a voting process. Nominations should be submitted to the developer discussion list, where committers can nominate themselves or other committers. See the Member Election section below for more details.
Current list of Core Developers:
The Release Manager is responsible to
The current Release Manager is Rory Sawyer.
The Code of Conduct Committee is responsible for responding to all Code of Conduct reports, as well as managing and maintaining the Code of Conduct policy document.
How to join the Code of Conduct Committee?. Committers are voting-binding members; they select and elect new members through a voting process. Nominations should be submitted to the developer discussion list, where contributors can nominate themselves or other contributors. See the Member Election section below for more details.
The Advisory Committee runs the administrative aspect of the project on a regular basis with the support of Code for Science and Society (CS&S). Its members are bound by the fiscal sponsorship agreement with Code for Science and Society. They meet once per month with Code for Science and Society.
How to join the Advisory Committee? Members of the Advisory Committee publish an announcement on the blog when searching for a new member. The Advisory Committee selects new committee members through consensus-driven discussions among current members.
Current list of Advisory Committee members
OpenRefine's Project Manager (paid position) works closely with OpenRefine's Advisory Committee, Core Dev Group, and OpenRefine users and contributors.
The Project Manager:
The current Project Manager is Martin Magdinier @magdmartin and on the forum.
When voting for new Committers, Core Developer Group or Code of Conduct Committee members, start a new thread with a subject line starting with [VOTE] to indicate that a formal vote has been requested on the developer discussion list and use the election tag. In your message, indicate
See, for example this message
Voting is open for seven days to provide an opportunity for all concerned persons to participate, regardless of their geographic location.
Only eligible voters have a binding vote. Votes are expressed as
The results must be positive for the person to be elected.
This section does NOT cover OpenRefine project governance. It is currently maintained in this GOVERNANCE.md file temporarily until another document or location can hold this information and make it transparent to the community.
The Code of Conduct Committee, Advisory Committee, and Core Developer Group hold greater authority within the OpenRefine project, with the ability to represent and make commitments on its behalf. To maintain the community’s trust, these groups are held to a higher standard of transparency and accountability in their decision-making processes. This includes transparent and open practices for:
OpenRefine welcomes and encourages contributions and fundraising efforts from individuals and organizations. However, committees with additional authority over the project; namely the Core Dev Group, Advisory Committee, and Project Manager, have an increased responsibility to ensure transparency in funding applications.
This policy provides guidelines to uphold openness and accountability in fundraising efforts. It applies specifically when funds are managed by Code for Science & Society (CS&S).
While the vast majority of OpenRefine contributors are volunteers, the Advisory Committee recognize the need to attract and retain contributors to help:
From a funding perspective, the Advisory Committee distinguish between restricted and unrestricted funds.
Unrestricted funds are not linked to a specific deliverable or usage and usually come from donations. The Advisory Committee decides how to use these funds based on the budget requests from Contributors.
Restricted funds are attached to specific deliverables or budget assignments from the grantors and usually come from grant applications. The Advisory Committee must approve grant applications by formal vote before submitting them.
Any contributor can initiate a grant application as a Principal Investigator (PI). The PI
[Grant Opportunity:] on the forum section named Community Feedback to collect feedback from the community.Grants can be used for:
Contractors and employees hired via a restricted fund will:
In the event of any conflict of interest (a Committee Member, their family member, or someone with whom the Committee Member has a close academic or employment relationship is involved in a decision), the Committee Member must immediately notify other Committee Members. The Committee Members will be asked to recuse themselves from ongoing conversations and decision processes regarding the Transaction.
Advisory Committee members:
Since January 2020, OpenRefine is a member project of Code For Science and Society (CS&S). CS&S provides administrative, legal and fiscal infrastructure to receive and manage funds under the CS&S Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement.
CS&S is a USA-based organization qualified as exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and classified as a public charity under IRC Sections 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi).
This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.. This work is based upon "Meritocratic Governance Model" by University of Oxford and guidelines available for the Apache Community.