A Draft Document from the Ruby Together Board of Directors
We are writing these down to help align us on where we are going and how we will get there. We will use these guidelines to help us make lots of small decisions, so that the big ones will be easier.
The world as we’d like to see it—Ruby open source made better for everyone.
- Popular Ruby projects are actively maintained, and Ruby's critical infrastructure is secure and stable.
- Project users and maintainers are empowered to decide what’s best for their projects.
- Ruby open source projects have a diverse group of maintainers, who feel recognized for their work.
- Ruby open source projects provide a well-managed and welcoming community, and make it easy for devs of any skill level to contribute.
- Ruby open source developers are paid for their work, reducing maintainer burnout.
- Companies support maintenance work for tools which they use, even if they can't afford to hire devs for open source work.
How we intend to make our vision real—by representing the Ruby community and paying developers to maintain Ruby open source.
- Give control to the community
- Developer members and companies who fund Ruby Together each get one vote in board elections; board members choose which projects to fund. Votes are per-entity, not based on amount paid..
- Companies aren’t allowed to hold more than one seat on the board. Companies have giving limits in order to maintain balance and guard against single-entity pressure.
- Be accountable and transparent
- Publish more. This includes status updates and progress summaries, as well as income, expenditures, and budget summaries every month. Every month, we tell you what we did with the money, and our upcoming plans.
- Collaborate with other community organizations
- Work together with other Ruby community organizations because a rising tide raises all ships.
- Increase the number of open-source project maintainers
- Support more developers for fewer hours per week. More devs reduces solo-maintainer risk.
- Encourage contributions of ~5 hours/week which helps those with full-time jobs participate.
- Welcome and encourage contributors
- Make projects easy for anyone to contribute to, regardless of experience level.
- Establish a collaborative, positive space for projects, with a clear enforcement policy.
- Involve developers across the full range of experience
- We need the expertise and caution of experience, but we also need enthusiasm and fresh perspectives to make breakthroughs and revolutions possible.
- It’s more important to listen to and empower new developers than to keep existing experts comfortable, so Ruby open source can exist and thrive into the future.
- Have a clear and transparent funding process
- We have a place to see current and past funded projects online
- We have an open process to propose, evaluate, and fund new projects.
What we want to be like as an organization and a community
- Treat everyone as a valuable human being, worthy of respect and empathy. No exceptions.
- When raising issues, propose a solution if you can.
- Acknowledge and appreciate work others have done, especially communication and emotional labor.
- Strive to empower Ruby developers first, then open source contributors, and finally open source maintainers.
- Sustainable action is critical for long-term results in non-profit and open source work.
- Like open source, we thrive on the input of our members and our community.
Please open a Pull Request to provide feedback and suggest changes. We value everyone's contribution, regardless of their membership in Ruby Together.
In the interest of ensuring that all feedback is public and transparent, please create a new account in order to provide anonymous feedback, if you would prefer to do so.