Wayne,
Two comments focused just on this Ratifying section.
- What is the difference in your mind between "ratify" and
"approve"?
- Related, we had discussed the use of the word "adopt" at
the place where you're using "ratify". Any particular reason
why you went with a different term?
- In the legal discussions, the lawyers are discussing the
idea of when a company participating in the spec process has
its patents included in the output. The consensus is that we
will have Reviews at certain steps along the way, and if a
company is still involved in the spec group at the moment the
Review is completed, then they've provided irrevocable patent
license to the spec in its form at that time. This means that
where you currently have Milestone 1 ... Milestone N there
will need to be at least one, if not two Reviews under the
EDP, along with an approval by the Specification Committee.
On 2018-05-08 3:44 PM, Wayne Beaton wrote:
Ratifying
The Specification Committee, then, is responsible for
ratifying and promoting the output of the open source project's
final release as an official specification. By the time we get
to the point that a Specification Project makes an official
release, the committee (and vendors) should have consumed
milestone builds and provided feedback, so that final
ratification step should be relatively straightforward.
So, I think that the spec creation and ratification process
looks a little like this:
The project proposal includes a scope, so getting the
Specification Committee's approval seems pretty natural.
Likewise, setting the plan at the beginning of a release
cycle seems like something that the Specification Committee
should get some say in. I tend to prefer a feedback loop model
for milestone builds rather than formal approval (but am ready
to be convinced otherwise).
Strictly speaking, the PMC approves releases, but we may
decide to give the Specification Committee some say here. The
main role of the PMC in the release process is to ensure that
the process has been followed correctly and that the project is
operating according to the open source rules of engagement.
Ultimately, the Specification Committee has to ratify (and
promote) the specification.
In terms of coordinating the delivery of multiple
specifications, our experience with the simultaneous release may
provide some good answers. More on this later.
