New Committers

The DSpace Committers Group – named because they are authorized to "commit" change to the code repository – have ultimate responsibility for the shape of the DSpace software, as well as its architecture and design going forward. They can apply code changes contributed by the larger DSpace development community to the open source platform.

A list of the current members of the committers group can be seen at DSpaceContributors

Becoming a member of the committers group

To become a member of the committers group, you must either be nominated by a current member of the group, or you can nominate yourself. To nominate yourself, talk to a current member who can offer advice, and if appropriate forward your nomination to the group.

When a new member is nominated, a vote is held amongst the current group members.

Voting rules

• Duration: 1 week
• Votes: 1 vote per current member
• Vote options: +1 = YES, -1 = NO, 0 = DON'T MIND
• Vote counting: For a vote to pass, there must be at least 3 '+1' votes, and more '+1' votes than '-1' votes.

Email invite

The standard invitation email reads:

Dear XXXX,

On behalf of all the DSpace committers, I would like to extend to you an
invitation to join the group. Your work on DSpace evinces an abiding
interest in the platform, and we all feel you would be a valuable
addition to our team.

Being a committer means participating in the evolution of the platform,
typically by making changes to the source code, or managing the
integration of contributions made by the community at large. But it also
means having a voice and a vote on technical, administrative and release
management issues, providing your expertise and guidance on the lists,
organizing testing, etc.

We are mindful of the fact that no one is being paid to do this, and no
specific time commitment is required or expected; in fact we *do* expect
that one's involvement will fluctuate over time with job duties. Nor is
there any specified term of office - one's job responsibilities may
change over time, and so one's ability to devote time to DSpace.

We ask that you seriously consider this offer, and hope that you will
accept it!

Sincerely,
The DSpace Committers Group.

Stuff to do to get a new committer set up

• Add to jira-developers group so they can administer JIRA issues:
  • http://jira.dspace.org/jira/secure/admin/user/BulkEditUserGroups!default.jspa?selectedGroupsStr=jira-developers

• Assign their account in Trac the appropriate privileges in SVN:
  • First, make sure they have a Trac Account
  • Grant the user the permission 'BROWSER_VIEW': https://scm.dspace.org/trac/dspace/admin/general/perm
  • Finally, add user to the proper access group. For full DSpace Committers, add the user to the 'dspace' group: https://scm.dspace.org/trac/dspace/admin/subversion/svnauthz/editgroup/dspace
    • NOTE: If this user is only getting limited commit access, you'll need to first configure an appropriate access group: https://scm.dspace.org/trac/dspace/admin/subversion/svnauthz
• Add to dspace-commit mailing list:
  • https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/admin/dspace-commit/members (receivers list)
  • https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/admin/dspace-commit/privacy/sender (senders list – ONLY need to add alternate email addresses here, if any)

• Add to SourceForge project members page (Subversion access = No, Shell Access = Yes, Release Tech = Yes, Tracker Manager: A)
  • https://sourceforge.net/project/admin/project_membership.php?group_id=19984

• Make sure the new committer is aware of the 'dspace-changelog' listserv. It's a very useful way to keep in touch with changes in SVN.

• Move them up to list of committers on DSpaceContributors

• Announce to dspace-general, dspace-devel, and dspace-tech email lists. If several committers are joining the group at once, consider sending one email for all, rather than separate emails.