Committers Group Overview
The VIVO Committers Group – named because they are authorized to "commit" change to the code repository – have ultimate responsibility for the shape of the VIVO software, as well as its architecture and design going forward. They can apply code changes contributed by the larger VIVO development community to the open source platform.
A list of the current members of the committers group can be seen at VIVO Committers.
Why Become a Committer?
Becoming a committer means that you have a voice and an official vote on decisions around the evolution of the VIVO platform. It also gives you an opportunity to develop leadership skills in a friendly, open source community.
Committer Requirements
Although there are no explicit requirements to become a committer, generally we look for someone who has shown initiative and/or has been an active participant in the VIVO Community. Participation may be in the form of actively helping people on mailing lists, submitting code patches/features, presenting on VIVO at conferences, leading workshops, or generally volunteering time to help with any VIVO initiative.
It's worth noting that committers need not be highly technical in nature. We only ask that you make a commitment to bettering VIVO in some way. Anyone who shows the initiative and interest in making VIVO better is eligible.
How to Nominate Someone
New committers may be nominated by anyone in the VIVO Community at anytime. You can even nominate yourself.
In your nomination, please explain why you feel this individual (or individuals) should be added to the Committers group. Generally, we are just looking for references to his/her active participation in the VIVO Community.
Send new committer nominations to VIVO Committers mailing list. If you have any questions about nominations, you can also talk to a current committer who can offer advice.
Again, there is no specific timeline for nominations. Nominations may be made at any time.
What Happens Next?
Once a committer is nominated, the nomination is voted on by all current Committers. The decision to accept or reject the nomination is based on a majority vote. If a nomination is accepted, that person will immediately receive an invite to become a VIVO Committer! If a nomination is rejected, we will provide feedback on how that person may become more active in the community, so that he/she could be potentially re-nominated and accepted in the future. (Please note that a rejection of a nomination does not mean that the person is "unqualified". It just means that the existing Committers may not be familiar enough with that person's activities in the VIVO Community. A person can always be re-nominated at a later time.)
For more information see the Committers' policies on adding a new Committer.
New Committer Actions
The following steps should be taken when new committers join the team:
- Add to crowd group: vivo-committer
- Add to owners of official GitHub VIVO organization
- Add to vivo-commit google-group
- Add to committers wiki page
- Announce the new committer ([template])
