Developer Voting Procedures

Occasionally during meetings, larger decisions need to be made or small disagreements will occur. In these cases, the DSpace Committers will attempt to come to a consensus by bringing the topic to a vote. Currently, the following voting procedures are in place, as decided unanimously by the DSpace Committers in the Spring of 2009.

The DSpace Committers follow the Apache Voting Process.

Votes can be called either during meetings or via email. Any Committer may call a vote. There are three main votes that can be made:

• +1 : positive, "I agree"
• 0   : neutral, "I'm undecided, or unsure"
• -1  : negative, "I disagree" (should always include a reason why you disagree)

In a general sense, there are three types of votes that may take place:

1. Votes on code modifications - proposals require at least three positive (+1) votes, and no negative votes (-1) to pass. In this scenario, a negative vote constitutes a "veto".
2. Votes on a new release - proposals require a majority are in favor (and at least three +1 votes have been cast)
3. Votes on procedural/policy changes - proposals require more positive (+1) than negative (-1) votes

Similar to the Apache Voting Process, only Committers have "binding" votes. Others are free to vote to express their opinions, but those votes are considered advisory in nature.

There are also votes on new Committers, which follow a similar voting process, but are held in private.

Further details of some of the intricacies of these voting procedures can be found in the Apache Voting Process.