Raj KannanThis is a draft and has not yet been approved as a baseline
OSDU development fosters meritocracy. Interoperability and long-term sustainability relies on standards on architecture, data models - so it is important for the Forum to strike the right balance between meritocracy and standards to drive optimum development and evolution of the platform.
The following are key principles that are followed by the Forum to achieve this balance:
Solicit contributions from anyone, anywhere:
Any developer or entity can sign up for OSDU forum and contribute working code if it does not conflict with the established standards on architecture, data definitions of the platform. A contributor is required to submit a shared backlog item defined in the process here to ensure that the donation can be verified to be in-line with OSDU Forum goals and will proceed towards an approval for a PMC incubator project as defined in the process here.
Best contributions win – selected by consumers:
Reasonable contributions in-line with OSDU forum goals will be brought forward as an extension of the platform. Multiple alternative contributions will be facilitated as extensions allowing the forum members to deploy, operate and validate these extensions in real-world settings. The best contribution is identified by polling the forum members on their experience and feedback before an incubator extension is promoted to a standard top-level project of the forum.
Contributions matter most:
As people in open source communities often say: "Code talks." If multiple contributions are in the form of ideas, requirements, specifications, definitions but one of it is working code with backing of the contributor to take the donation from an incubator to a top-level project – this contribution is selected (as long as it doesn’t violate the standard and integrates with OSDU platform as stated above). This avoids long debates on which theory or idea is better and allows the forum to tangibly select and deploy a working contribution that is in-line with platform goals.
Influence thru contribution:
OSDU forum believes that those who contribute the most have the most merit and therefore are the most deserving when it comes to influence. In other words, the influence of the code-base development, design and architecture/model specifications should be driven thru earned-trust rather than purely position and authority. In other words, the organization and/or individual that has made more tangible contributions of working software integrated to the platform has the credibility and trust required to influence the evolution. This fosters true merit-based influence in the PMC development space.
Contributions are voluntary, standard compliance is not:
Though OSDU welcomes merit-based contributions and donations to the code base, it does not imply that compliance to the standards and integration with the rest of the platform is optional. OSDU forum does not force or require contributors to donate the code to the forum but when they do, it does impose the requirements on code compliance to standards and its sustainability when donated to the forum. This ensures the cohesiveness of the platform and the long viability of the donation within the larger OSDU platform. Any code donation that is not accompanied by resources to integrate and sustain the code-base will require close scrutiny and may not be considered for incorporation to the platform.
Contributions should “do no harm”:
The forum fosters donations of working code that is in-line with its vision and contributions. The forum does not encourage contributions or top-level project evolutions that break compatibility with existing investments of operators or cloud providers or other forum members. Alternative implementations that do not impact existing code-base are acceptable as optional extensions if in-line with OSDU forum vision and approved thru shared-backlog process.
That said, evolution is key and understandable – the forum aims to minimize “cognitive bias” and would truly step back and evaluate contributions that are in such category. So where required, such ‘breaking-change’ proposals should go thru an Architecture Decision Record (LADR) process to be vetted that the break in compatibility is coordinated and truly a benefit for the larger community. The timing and coordination are key to ensure continued operations sustainability of the platform. OSDU semantic versioning will need to be employed for such major changes, when approved.