I think it could be good to actually use the processes written in the gouvernance document, making them actually fit the practices. That would sort of "automate" the integration of people in a sense, by giving people clear pathways.
Here is an example of what it could look like, inspired from other communities I have interacted with. It might look a little "over the top" because it's very formal compared to how we currently operate, but given the right tooling I think it could actually work well. My goals when writing it down were:
- recognize many forms of contributions to OpenRefine with formal membership of the project
- have roles with low barriers of entry and low risks to the project
- make access to roles with more sensitive rights voted on by the community
Teams
The OpenRefine project consists of various teams:
Developers
Rights:
- triage issues (add/remove tags, close issues)
- review PRs
- vote in elections
To become one:
- get two code pull requests merged in the one of OpenRefine's GitHub repositories
Maintainers
Rights: like developers, but also:
- merge pull requests
- publish releases
- review security vulnerability reports
To become one:
- become a Developer first
- then get elected as a Maintainer (see: election process)
Term: two years (re-election possible)
Translators
Rights:
- vote in elections
To become one:
- contribute translations to the tool or documentation
Documenters
Rights:
- vote in elections
- merge documentation changes on the openrefine.org website
To become one:
- make at least two documentation contributions on the openrefine.org website
Designers
Rights:
- vote in elections
To become one:
- propose a change to OpenRefine which gets implemented
Trainers
Rights:
- vote in elections
To become one: one of
- run one training event around OpenRefine
- publish an openly accessible tutorial about OpenRefine
Code of Conduct committee
Rights:
- vote in elections
- respond to Code of Conduct reports
- be moderator on the forum
To become one:
- first, be part of any other team
- then, get elected
Term: three years (re-election possible)
Advisory committee (which we could rename?)
Rights:
- formally represent the project at Code for Science & Society
To become one:
- first, be part of any other team
- then, get elected
Term: three years (re-election possible)
Election process
To run an election:
- create a thread on the forum (in the Elections category - to be created) listing the person and role applied to
- eligible voters can vote to Support (+1), Accept (0) or Oppose (-3) the promotion
- after 14 days, the person is elected if the sum of votes is non-negative