rasdaman Project Governance

Project Steering Committee

The rasdaman community open-source project (in short: rasdaman) is governed by its Project Steering Committee (PSC).

The PSC is overseeing and leading strategic development of rasdaman with the goal of ensuring that rasdaman keeps prospering. To this end, the PSC has the following main responsibilities based on several instruments:

• manage commit rights to the rasdaman code base with the goal of keeping code quality and ensuring implementations of the strategic directions.
• establish the short-term and long-term goals for the further development of rasdaman.
• pursue an active outreach policy towards user groups, policy and standards makers, and any other relevant groups with the goal of (i) maintaining the technological lead of rasdaman in the field of Array Databases, (ii) maintaining its impact on relevant standards, such as OGC and ISO coverage standards, and (iii) maximize uptake of rasdaman in all user communities that can benefit from Array Databases.

The PSC discusses issues openly, documents decisions made and provides minutes on publicly available media (mail logs, wiki pages, IRC logs, or whatever is deemed appropriate). In all issues, the PSC strives to achieve unanimous consent based on a free, independent exchange of facts and opinions. Should such consent exceptionally not be reached then Peter Baumann has a casting vote.

Further rules the PSC will give itself on demand, driven by practical needs as issues arise.

The PSC seeks to have a balanced representation of developers and users from the various domains. Peter Baumann, as the creator and Principal Architect of rasdaman, is a standing member of the PSC. Currently, the PSC consists of:

• Peter Baumann, ​Jacobs University and ​rasdaman GmbH
• Dimitar Misev, ​Jacobs University and ​rasdaman GmbH
• Stephan Meissl, ​EOX IT Services GmbH

Anyone can apply for joining the PSC. Applications will first be discussed publicly with the rasdaman community, followed by decision vote through the PSC.

The PSC can be approached any time by anyone via rasdaman-psc <guesswhatgoeshere> googlegroups . com . Any issue of project governance can be raised, including (but not limited to) project strategy and perceived PSC member malperformance. The PSC will discuss every issue in a publicly visible way using the public rasdaman channels and determine a solution based on the rules and procedures stated on this page.

Instruments

The following instruments are being used, under the governance of the PSC, to run the rasdaman project:

• The ​rasdaman project website is the single authoritative project information turnpike. Based on ​trac, it contains a wiki, a git repository for code maintenance, and some more modules.

• The ​Patch Manager, integrated in the rasdaman trac, accepts code contributions, ensures rasdaman license rights, and maintains a history of code submissions.

Developers submit their code exclusively through the Patch Manager. Patches are accepted by the Patch Manager only if the submitter agrees to the ​rasdaman Contributor Agreement, thereby guaranteeing that the rasdaman code base follows a uniform IPR structure. (The originally first contributor of the full rasdaman code version and creator of the open-source project, ​rasdaman GmbH, has signed the Contributor Agreement as well.)

All code contributions have to be formatted as ​git patches against the ​rasdaman repository. Patches are accepted by members of the PSC who all have commit rights. Incoming patches are inspected in due course after submission and checked for overall quality, adherence to the ​rasdaman Code Guide, and matching with the overall strategic goals of the project. In case of deviations, committers can, at their discretion, accept the patch, accept it and invite the submitter to provide a follow-up patch for correction of minor issues, or - in case of major deviations - reject the patch and invite the submitter to provide a suitably revised patch. Patches submitted cannot be modified - every change to the rasdaman code base requires a specific patch with its own agreement to the rasdaman Contributor Agreement.

This workflow is enforced by the ​Patch Manager trac plugin. Its ​source code is in the repository next to the rasdaman code itself.

• Nightly builds add to Quality Assurance; their ​current status is publicy available on the project trac.