You need help or advice to set up a Hydra Samvera Interest Group or a Working Group? You've come to the right place!
If this page doesn't answer your questions and you still need help, then you might want to
- email the Hydra Samvera Community mailing list (hydrasamvera-community@googlegroups.com), or
- email the Hydra Samvera Steering Group (hydrasamvera-steering@googlegroups.com)
...but please read the relevant bits of this page first!
...
Working groups are the main working vehicle within the Hydra Samvera Community and may stand alone or be born out of existing Working Groups or Interest Groups. They are created to perform specific tasks in a defined realm and timescale, thereby allowing collaborative work to flourish in a structured environment.
...
All of the discussions of the interest group should be transparent and public and the channels used for communication must be published, but there may be situations where either the discussion takes place offline or is not suitable for public dissemination.
Working Groups
Working Group Formation
Working groups should be able to be convened with a minimum of effort, while allowing participants to understand what they are signing up for. The group should emerge naturally from discussions and needs within the community, while not penalizing individuals or organizations that were not part of those initial discussions. Using existing channels, such as interest groups, participants in discussions that show promise of inter-institutional convergence and the possibility of joint development work should document the shared needs and requirements. This documentation should be more persistent and visible than an email thread, but need not be overly formal. The preferred method is a maintained page within the Hydra Samvera wiki using the template provided there, otherwise a publicly shared document linked from the wiki is sufficient.
...
This document, henceforth the charter, provides the definition of the working group and its deliverables. It is not a contract and may be changed with the consensus of the members of the working group at any time, however significant changes such as a 6 month or more delay in timeframes, the abandonment of a deliverable, or the change in the overall scope of the work should be announced to the Hydra community Samvera Community via the regular channels.
Working Group Approval
Once the draft charter is acceptable to the participants in the discussion, there is a Call for Participation (CfP) issued. This is simply an email to the appropriate lists with at least [CfP] in the subject heading that announces the document and seeks the engagement of the additional participants. Organizations must respond publicly that they are willing to take part and commit development resources towards the working group's goals. At least three Partners must respond positively, and no more than three Partners may respond negatively, for the working group to be approved. If fewer than three Partners are willing to contribute, then the working group's topic is likely too specific and the work should be done outside of the Working Group process. If more than three Partners object to the work being done, then there is a significant issue that should be resolved before committing resources.
...
Once the working group is approved, the link to the charter will be added to the Hydra Wiki page that lists active working groups.
Working Group Requirements
All members of a working group producing code must be licensed Hydra Samvera contributors covered by the appropriate CLAs, otherwise members must agree that textual materials may be released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This is to ensure that the deliverables of the group are unencumbered by intellectual property restrictions. Participants meeting these requirements may join at any time, without any prior approval process: the gateway is activity, not reputation.
...