The Eclipse Technology Project – Top Level Project Charter – The Eclipse Foundation

...[the rest of the charter is unchanged]...

Roles
The Projects under this Charter are operated as meritocracies -- the more you contribute, and the higher the quality of your contribution, the more you are allowed to do. However with this comes increased responsibility.

Users
Users are the people who use the output from the Project. Output will typically consist of software and research. Software in this context means intellectual property in electronic form, including source and binary code, documentation, courseware, reports and papers. 

Contributors Developers
Users who contribute software or research become contributors developers.  Contributors Developers are encouraged to participate in the user newsgroup(s), and should monitor the developer mailing list associated with their area of contribution. When appropriate, developers may also contribute to development design discussions related to their area of contribution. Contributors Developers are expected to be proactive in reporting problems in the bug tracking system and to supply fixes and new features via patches.

Committers
Contributors Developers who has the trust of the Project's Committers, can have their status promoted to that of a "Committer" for that Project or some component of that Project. A Committer has write access to the source code repository for the associated Project (or component) and/or website and/or bug tracking system. A Committer and gains voting rights allowing them to affect the future of the Project (or component).

How a Contributor demonstrate trustworthiness to a Project's Committers is defined by each Project's Committer and the PMC. Without restricting or requiring the Projects to follow these mechanisms, here are some recommended practices: 

• A Contributor can give frequent and valuable contributions a Project or a component of a Project, or
• A Contributor can have a extensive public record of contribution to similar projects or technologies, or
• A Contributor can be well known to be trustworthy to all of a Project's Committers

The process agreed on by a Project's Committers and the PMC must follow the Eclipse principles by being open and transparent.

In order for a Contributor Developer to become a Committer on a particular Project overseen by the PMC, another Committer for the same Project (or component as appropriate) can nominate that Contributor Developer or the Contributor Developer can ask to be nominated. A nomination must include a public statement of why the Contributor qualifies as a Committer (e.g., URLs of their contributors). Once a Contributor Developer is nominated, the Committers for the Project (or component) will vote. If there are at least 3 positive votes and no negative votes, the Contributor Developer is recommended to the PMC for commit privileges. If the PMC also approves, the Contributor Developer is converted into a Committer and given write access to the source code repository or website or bug reporting system for that Project (or component). 

Becoming a Committer is a privilege that is earned by contributing and showing discipline and good judgment. It is a responsibility that should be neither given nor taken lightly, nor it is a right based on employment by an Eclipse Member company.

At times, Committers may go inactive for a variety of reasons. The decision making process of the Project relies on active committers who respond to discussions and votes in a constructive and timely manner. The PMC is responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of the Project. A Committer that is disruptive, does not participate actively, or has been inactive for an extended period may have his or her commit status removed by the PMC.

Active participation in the user newsgroup and the appropriate developer mailing lists is a responsibility of all Committers, and is critical to the success of the Project. Committers are required to monitor and contribute to the user newsgroup.

Committers are required to monitor the developer mailing list associated with all Projects and components for which they have commit privileges. This is a condition of being granted commit rights to the Project or component. It is mandatory because committers must participate in votes (which in some cases require a certain minimum number of votes) and must respond to the mailing list in a timely fashion in order to facilitate the smooth operation of the Project. When a Committer is granted commit rights they will be added to the appropriate mailing lists. A Committer must not be unsubscribed from a developer mailing list unless their associated commit privileges are also removed.

Committers are required to track, participate in, and vote on, relevant discussions in their associated Projects and components. There are three voting responses: +1 (yes), -1 (no, or veto), and 0 (abstain).

Committers are responsible for proactively reporting problems in the bug tracking system, and annotating problem reports with status information, explanations, clarifications, or requests for more information from the submitter. Committers are responsible for updating problem reports when they have done work related to the problem.

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