Jenkins is now an official “SPI Associate Project”.
SPI, Software in the Public Interest (see wikipedia and website, but not thesisters.com) is one of the main Open Source Foundations. Like the Software Freedom Conservancy (wikipedia, website) the SPI is an umbrella organization that provides services to projects and organizations from the free software community. Unlike the Apache Software Foundation, the projects in SPI (and SFC) retain high flexibility in how they run their projects, and, unlike the Eclipse Foundation, the SPI has no Strategic Members.
The framework for Associate Projects was last updated in 2004. From the introduction to resolution 2004-08-10.iwj.1:
Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (‘SPI’) is an umbrella organization which provides legal and formal services, including the ability to manage legal property, to various projects and organizations (‘Associated Projects’, or simply Projects’) which form part of the wider community working on free software and related activites (the Community’).
SPI takes the view that the political and technical decision making for a Project is a matter for the people who participate in it. Accordingly, SPI does not normally control or manage Projects.
Some other facts about SPI:
- Good entry points are the main page, the about page, and the (brief) Wikipedia page.
- SPI was incorporated in NY in 1997 under these by-laws.
- SPI was granted 501(c) status by the IRS in 1999.
- Minutes since 2005 are available online.
SPI Associate Projects include well-known projects like (full list):
- Debian
- Drupal
- GNUstep
- LibreOffice
- Open64
- OpenOffice.org
- PostreSQL
- and, of course, Jenkins.
The Jenkins resolution is 2011-04-26.mzh.1 (minutes):
2011-04-26.mzh.1: Jenkins as associated project
WHEREAS 1. Jenkins is a substantial and useful open source project. 2. The Jenkins developers would like SPI's support and assistance, including taking donations. THE SPI BOARD RESOLVES THAT 3. Jenkins is formally invited to become an SPI Associated Project, according to the SPI Framework for Associated Projects, SPI Resolution 1998-11-16.iwj.1-amended-2004-08-10.iwj.1, a copy of which can be found at http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2004/2004-08-10.iwj.1 4. Kohsuke Kawaguchi is recognised by SPI as the current authoritative decision maker and SPI liaison for Jenkins. He is acting on behalf of the interim governance board. Successors will be appointed by the said governance board when need be. 5. This invitation will lapse, if not accepted, 60 days after it is approved by the SPI
Becoming an SPI Associate Project is just one, but very important, step in the process that formally startyed with the January Vote. Next steps include transferring of trademark and formalization of the CLA contributions.
All Jenkins decisions are taken during the, always public, meetings held on IRC. Minutes are available at meetings.jenkins-ci.org in 2 versions (full and summary) and 2 formats (HTML and TXT). Summaries are created automatically via meetbot; I recommend checking the summaries and then scanning the full logs. For example, the summary from last meeting accurately recorded the trademark action but only the full minutes recorded the comment about the CLA.
Congrats to Jenkins and SPI, and a wish for the continued growth of the Jenkins community!
