Governance is based on a representative, community-based membership model incrementally rewarding members who have made the greatest commitments to the project. Fedora is governed by a Leadership Group and a Steering Group. This page outlines the roles and responsibilities of each group and its members.
Leadership Group
The Leadership Group is made up of members that contribute over $20,000 annually to the project, along with representatives from institutions contributing at least 0.5 FTE in-kind developers, or a combination of financial and in-kind resources. Members that contribute at lower levels can also be elected to serve on the leadership group. The Leadership Group approves the overall priorities and strategic direction of the project by:
Leadership Group Ambassadors
The Fedora Leadership Group has created a role called “Ambassador” for select group members who are invited by the group to share their wisdom and experience and serve in a non-voting capacity.
The following rules apply to Leadership Group Ambassadors:
- Ambassadors must be nominated by a current member of the Leadership Group
- The nomination must be seconded by another member of the Leadership Group
- Once a candidate has been nominated, Leaders will have two weeks to discuss the nomination and raise any issues
- At the end of the two week discussion period, a private vote will be held
- A simple majority vote will approve the candidate as an Ambassador
- The Steering Group will serve as arbiter in case of a tie vote or other issues that may arise
- Ambassadors will serve a three year term, with the possibility for renewal
- If the need arises, ambassadors can be removed from the Leadership Group via a motion from a member of the Leadership Group followed by a vote
Technical Liaisons
In order to facilitate closer alignment with the Islandora and Samvera communities from a technical perspective, a technical liaison from each community will be appointed to the Fedora Leadership Group in a non-voting capacity. Each community will be asked to put forward one technical liaison based on the following criteria.
A technical liaison should:
- Have broad technical knowledge of their community’s application framework
- Understand the roadmap for the application framework
- Understand how technical changes in Fedora may impact the application framework, and vice-versa
- Have the endorsement, support, and trust of the leadership/governance group of the partner community
Steering Group
The Steering Group is nominated and elected by the Leadership Group. Steering Group members serve three-year terms. The Steering Group provides project oversight and ensures that the priorities of the Leadership Group and members are met, by:
- Providing strategic direction to the Project
- Providing guidance to the Product Manager / Project Director / Technical Manager, with input on their annual performance reviews
- Recommending annual budget allocations
- Presenting key decisions to the Leadership Group for discussion and approval
- Raising funds and securing other resources on behalf of the Project
- Overseeing project operations
Steering Group Chair
The Steering Group elects a chair on an annual basis, drawn from among its members. The Steering Group chair also serves as the Leaders Group chair, to ensure both groups are working on the same agenda and timeframe. When needed, the person serves as the personification / representative of the members of the Fedora Community The Chair has the following duties:
- Chair (convene and facilitate) the Steering Group meetings (both face to face and conference calls), ensuring an appropriate agenda
- Chair (convene and facilitate) the Leaders Group meetings (both face to face and conference calls), ensuring an appropriate agenda
- Collect and channel feedback on DuraSpace-employed staff supporting Fedora for annual and ad hoc performance reviews
- Represent the community in discussions / negotiations with DuraSpace, as appropriate
- Ensure Steering & Leaders contribute to the creation of and final validation of the Fedora project's annual budget, strategic plan and operating plan
- Ensure Members, Steering & Leaders contribute resources (financial and human) and energy to the project consistent with a member-driven, member-supported open source project
Product Manager
The Product Manager, employed through DuraSpace, is funded by and accountable to the Fedora community. The Product Manager has the following duties:
- Set the long-term vision for Fedora
- Serve as strategic liaison to the Steering group, Leadership group, members, service providers, and other stakeholders.
- Work with the Steering and Leadership groups to secure funding and in-kind contributions from Fedora stakeholders
- Perform international outreach to institutions, government organizations, funding agencies, and others
- Work together with the Fedora Technical Lead to oversee key project processes
- Maintain project budget
Technical Manager
For the stability and continuity of the technical platform, the Fedora community, through DuraSpace, employs a full-time technical manager. The Technical Manager has the following duties:
- Establish technical vision, goals, and priorities for the Fedora platform
- Coordinate community software development effort around above priorities
- Chair weekly technical meeting
- Support community engagement in technical discussions
- Support community understanding of Fedora through workshops, conferences, etc
- Ensure regular, production-quality Fedora releases
- Support community initiatives in the broader Fedora ecosystem
- Keep Leadership Group abreast of developments and needs
- Cultivate vibrant developer community
See the Project Team for other groups with Roles and Responsibilities for the Fedora Project
