What is a Proposal?

"Proposals" definition: Proposals detail ideas, brainstorms or potential solutions to a known issue or problem in the code, community or process. Proposals may recommend changes we could make that may help us resolve issues we've encountered in the past. A few examples: a proposal could recommend accepting or adding a new technology, changing an API, or changing how we interact as a team or plan new releases of the software.

"Special Topics" versus "Proposals"

• Special Topics are higher level topics/questions/problems which need to be addressed or discussed. They may include some details or background about the problem domain, but should not suggest any particular solutions to the problem.
• Proposals should present potential solutions to the problem. One Special Topic (e.g. "How can we better handle Preservation Metadata?") may result in many Proposals (e.g. "Option #1", "Option #2", "Combo of Option #1 and #2", etc.)

Overview: Adding a new Proposal

This page is a place to post new proposals for review by DSpace Community and/or Developers. New proposals can recommend any sort of change to solve an existing or perceived problem/issue. A few examples: a proposal could recommend accepting or adding a new technology, changing an API, or changing how we interact as a team or plan new releases of the software.

To add a new proposal:

1. Please create a sub-page for the details of your proposal. In your details you should describe the reasons behind your proposal. Your proposal need not be flushed out completely – even initial ideas are welcome, especially if they can start to answer some basic questions:
   • Why do you feel this will help DSpace Software or our Community as a whole?
   • What problem(s)/issue(s) are you trying to solve?
   • How do you feel your proposed solution could resolve these problems/issues?
2. Once your proposal is ready for review/comments, add a link to your proposal page and brief description in one of the categories below.
   • Feel free to add additional proposal categories below if your proposal does not fit into an existing category.
3. Announce that you have a new proposal posted for comment/review. The best way to announce this is via either a mailing list, or at a DSpace developers meeting (if it is a technology proposal)
4. It is recommended to add a "last updated" date below so that people know if you've made significant updates to your proposal

To comment on an existing proposal

1. Visit the proposal page and either comment on the proposal directly, or add your thoughts on the "discussion" page.
2. Please keep comments constructive. Give reasons why you agree/disagree to help us improve upon the proposal.

Proposals may be based in the following categories:

• Organizational Proposals for improving how we as a community or as a development team are organized.
• Release Cycle/Process Proposals about improving our normal DSpace release cycle (e.g. how frequently we release a new version, how we plan those releases, how we communicate those releases, etc.).
• Technology Proposals about underlying technology changes in the software (e.g. API changes, architecture/design changes, etc.). Technology changes may need to be sub-categorized if we start to receive many different levels of proposals.

Proposals