[4diac-dev] Standardize process of electing/retiring committers

["Bianca Wiesmayr" <bianca.wiesmayr@xxxxxx>]

Hi all,

an increasingly diverse community uses and develops Eclipse 4diac. We
welcome all kinds of contributions - from bug reports to submitted code.
Currently, there are seven committers, see
https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/iot.4diac/who 
As the number of code submissions is rising, especially for 4diac IDE,
also new committers will certainly be elected in the future. What does a
committer do? As a committer, you have write access to the git
repository. 4diac contributions are typically uploaded to the Gerrit
code review. Here, the acceptance of the code by a committer is required
before the code can be merged into the repository. Furthermore, only
committers can elect other committers on the project.

In order to create a fair and inclusive environment for (potential)
contributors, I suggest to discuss formal criteria for selecting
committers. Of course, these criteria would only complement the election
procedure from the Eclipse foundation and not result in any automatism.
Information on becoming a committer can be found on the webpage, e.g.
https://www.eclipse.org/membership/become_a_member/committer.php 

--> Which criteria should a contributer fulfil before we initiate a
committer election? 
--> How long should the person have been contributing? 
--> Which minimum requirements should the contributions fulfil? 
--> Should we consider whether we expect the person to provide
contributions also in the future?
--> Which other criteria can you come up with? 

Of course, during our lives many things change: we may stop
contributing due to a lack of free time, due to shifted interests or
simply because of our career path. I'd therefore also suggest to
initiate a default procedure for retiring committers after a certain
period of time.

--> A certain period of inactivity is certainly normal. After which
period of time should we retire committers?
--> Should an inactivity involve only times without contributions, or
does also a low number of contributions count as inactivity?
--> Should we consider whether we expect contributions from this
committer in the future? 
--> Which other criteria can you come up with?

While formal voting rights for committer elections are given only to
other committers, I hope to open a broader discussion on this process. I
therefore strongly encourage everyone on the mailing list to share their
opinions and ideas. 

Looking forward to your answers,

Bianca

-- 
-- 
DI Bianca Wiesmayr, BSc
University Assistant
LIT Cyber-Physical Systems Lab
 
JOHANNES KEPLER
UNIVERSITÄT LINZ
Altenberger Straße 69
LIT Open Innovation Center (EG)
4040 Linz, Österreich
T +43 732 2468 9485
bianca.wiesmayr@xxxxxx
jku.at/lit/cps-lab