From its inception as Hydra, Samvera has been designed to provide a generalizable, portable framework that would meet the needs not only of the three original institutions, but also those of a wider community. Originating as a multi-institutional project spanning three universities (Hull, Stanford and Virginia), and with support from Fedora Commons, Samvera has since expanded to include like-minded institutions with similar needs, technical infrastructures and complementary systems.
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Community Structure and Responsibilities
Adopters
Samvera is committed to being free and open source software. Adopters are members of the Samvera Community who use the software. The Community would not be what it is without adopters. Adoption, and all kinds of contributions big and small, can build toward Partnership.
Partnership
At the heart of the Samvera Community are the Samvera Partners, those who both use the software and formally contribute to the Samvera effort overallSamvera Partners are institutions, corporations or other groups that have formally committed to contributing to the Samvera Community. Samvera Partners collectively advance the project and the Community for the benefit of all participants.
The Samvera Partners include contribute to groups that coordinate effort across activity from multiple institutions and development efforts. These include the Steering the Board of Directors, the Roadmaps Alignment Group, the Roadmap Council and the Core Components Maintenance Group and Samvera’s Interest and Working Groups, as well as project-specific teams that focus on particular efforts working on specific projects and solutions such as the Avalon Media System, Hyrax, and Hyku solution bundles.
Samvera Partners are individuals, institutions, corporations or other groups that have formally committed to contributing to the Samvera Community; they not only use the Samvera technical framework, but also add to it. Samvera Partners collectively advance the project and the Community for the benefit of all participants.
Partnership is earned by actively contributing to the Community. Partners:
Contribute.
In at least one of many ways, giveAnnual Partnership dues to support Community infrastructure along with any one or more of: code, analysis, design, documentation, presentations and other forms of communication, marketing, support, funding, participation in working/interest groups, or other resources.
Stay Informed. Additionally, be among the first to be notified of any known security issues and fixes, ahead of the information being made public.
Meet. Participate in
the Samvera Partner meetings and other conversations that shape our future.
Attend Samvera Partner Meetings, held twice a year. Vote. As a Partner, it is a duty and privilege to vote
in elections on elected positions and on other matters of importance.
Lead. Help lead the way by participating in the governance of Samvera. Partners may provide input on the Community and technical direction up to the highest levels, and represent Samvera to the broader community
.Stay Informed. Additionally, be among the first to be notified of any known security issues and fixes, ahead of the information being made public.
How to become a Samvera Partner
The steps to become a Samvera Partner are:
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Nomination. Be nominated by an existing Partner.
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Invitation. Get invited to be a Partner by the Steering Group.
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Application. Submit a brief letter of intent (which will be posted publicly) and the corporate Contributor License Agreement, and sign a Letter of Agreement (LoA) in support of the formal, legal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) [PDF].
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Approval. Be voted in by the Steering Group, and
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.
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Partners
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have
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How to stop being a Samvera Partner
The steps to relinquish partnership are:
Notify. Provide notice in writing to the Samvera Steering Group that you wish to withdraw from your partner agreement; or
Vote. A majority of Partners in good standing vote to remove a Partner.
Partnership Fees
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the
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Benefits to All Samvera Partners
In return for Partner contributions, the Community undertakes to provide a number of specific services in return. These include:
The right to vote in formal Samvera decision making (one vote per Partner institution)
The right to put up candidates for election to the Samvera Steering Group
The right to attend Partner meetings and Partner calls
The right to advance information about any security vulnerabilities discovered in Samvera software (via the Partners’ closed mailing list)
Centrally coordinated legal and financial services relating to
Rights management
Financial stewardship
Legal issues (including trademark)
Marketing (including website and wiki)
An annual Samvera Connect conference
An annual Samvera Virtual Connect
Access to the services of any Samvera appointed employees to help further local Samvera initiatives
Public acknowledgement of Partnership in/on appropriate publicity materials (including the website and wiki)
Roles and Responsibilities
All Samvera Partners
All Samvera Partners are empowered with the responsibility to promote the well-being and development of the Community. Collectively, the Partners share responsibilities including, but not limited to:
Electing representatives to the Steering Group
Community maintenance and growth
Collaborative roadmapping (technical & community)
Samvera application development
Governance of, maintenance of and code contribution to the core components
Design contribution: UI's, API's, data models, et al.
Documentation and sharing of contributions, eg. through http://samvera.github.io/
Community infrastructure provisioning & support (Bug trackers, Continuous Integration Servers, Web site, Wiki, etc.)
Maintenance of the official Samvera website
Resource coordination
Recruiting
Community advocacy (e.g., public speaking, writing articles)
Participation and leadership in "Interest Groups" and "Working Groups" within the Samvera Community
Meeting organization & planning
Determining Community strategy
Samvera Steering Group
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right to nominate persons for election to the Samvera Board of Directors.
Samvera Board
The Samvera Board is drawn from the Samvera Community. It consists of nine members elected from the Partner institutions. Each year, three members step down in rotation and elections are held to fill the three seats. Steering Group Samvera Board members are elected for three years and may serve no more than two contiguous terms. No two members may be supported concurrently by the same Partner institution. Steering Group Board members take on the same responsibilities as Partners and additional responsibilities including, but not limited to:
Managing Samvera's legal records
Managing the licensing framework for Samvera code components
Managing Samvera’s finances
Appointing, and overseeing the work, of any Samvera staff positions approved by Partners
Formally admitting new Samvera Partners
Identifying individuals who have institutional authority to act on behalf of their Partner institution/entity
Ensuring the quality of provision and support for the Community infrastructure
Seeding / supporting the development of
"Interest Groups
" or
"Working Groups
" within the Samvera community
Initiating working groups to review or update Samvera’s governance structure as required by the
Steering Group bylawsSamvera Bylaws
Initiating working groups to review and/or update Samvera’s Code of Conduct and Anti-Harrassment Policy periodically
Ensuring the quality of Samvera Partner and Connect meetings
Ensuring appropriate management of the Samvera brand and official Community communications
Ensuring the quality of the official Samvera website
Formally representing the Samvera Community to funding agencies and (possible) commercial partners
Essentially, then, the Steering Group's The Board’s role is stewardship and central administration of the Community; they are responsible for helping create the structures to see that critical tasks are addressed, and backstopping the Partners' group in case it doesn't fulfil fulfill these tasks. So, such things as:
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creating decision making structures
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decision making when decisions are not otherwise being made
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backstopping partners when issues go unaddressed
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delicate issues handling
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stewardship and caretaking of the Community as a whole
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How do you become a member of the Samvera Steering GroupBoard?
If you are from a Partner institution and have their explicit support, you may put yourself forward, or agree that someone else put your name forward, as a candidate at a
Steering Group Board election. Partners will vote to elect their preferred candidates.
The current membership of the Samvera Steering Group Board can be found Samvera Steering Group Board membership.
The current set of Bylaws governing the operation of the Steering Group Samvera Board can be found here.
Samvera Code Development
Anyone is welcome to use, improve, and hack on the Samvera codebase -- the code is open source!
How do you become a member of the Samvera developer community?
Join the samvera-tech group and mailing list listed on our Get In Touch page
Join the #dev channel on the Samvera slack organization - find instructions on the Get In Touch page
Submit code to the Community
(see guidelines), contribute resources to the group, and engage in the technical development process.
Samvera developers have a standing weekly call on Wednesdays 9:00am PDT / Noon EDT.
Some of the things Samvera developers do:
Define technical architecture
Coordinate development of common functionality
Define and enforce development practices
Code development
Testing
Integration and release
Developer and deployment documentation
Peer support for onboarding new developers
All Samvera code is distributed under an open source license (Apache 2.0 as of 2013), and Contributor License Agreements (CLA's) based on the Apache Foundation CLA's are required from contributors before their code can be added to the Community's code base. See the Samvera Community Intellectual Property Licensing and Ownership page for more details.
Our code development is overseen and coordinated by a number of groups. The Roadmap Council exists Roadmaps Alignment Group exists to align the roadmaps of the various Samvera code initiatives where this makes sense. The council comprises the product owners of the core Samvera components and Solution Bundles and of representatives from relevant Interest or Working Groups. The essential elements of the Samvera code are maintained by the Core Components Maintenance Group which is devoted to the ongoing maintenance of identified core components via planned sprints organized in communication with the product owners. Hyrax, the repository toolkit that underpins other solution bundles has two key working groups: one for coordinating development, and another for its roadmap. Our solution bundles (Hyku and Avalon) each have their own development teams responsive to the needs of, and advised by, their users.