SLEP019: Governance Update - Recognizing Contributions Beyond Code (#74)

Co-authored-by: Gael Varoquaux <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Andreas Mueller <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Juan Martin Loyola <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Reshama Shaikh <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Adrin Jalali <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Thomas J. Fan <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Chiara Marmo <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Christian Lorentzen <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Meekail Zain <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Tim Head <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Noa Tamir <[email protected]>

Author: 12 people

index.rst

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
     slep012/proposal
     slep013/proposal
     slep017/proposal
+    slep019/proposal
 
 .. toctree::
     :maxdepth: 1

slep019/proposal.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+.. _slep_019:
+
+####################################################################
+ SLEP019: Governance Update - Recognizing Contributions Beyond Code
+####################################################################
+
+:Author: Julien Jerphanion <[email protected]>, Gaël Varoquaux <[email protected]>
+:Status: Draft
+:Type: Process
+:Created: 2022-09-12
+
+**********
+ Abstract
+**********
+
+This SLEP proposes updating the Governance to broaden the notion of
+contribution in scikit-learn and to ease subsequent related changes to
+the Governance without requiring SLEPs.
+
+************
+ Motivation
+************
+
+Current state
+=============
+
+The formal decision making process of the scikit-learn project is
+limited to a subset of contributors, called Core Developers (also
+refered to as Maintainers). Their active and consistent contributions
+are recognized by them:
+
+-  being part of scikit-learn organisation on GitHub
+-  receiving “commit rights” to the repository
+-  having their Pull Request reviews recognised as authoritative
+-  having voting rights for the project direction (promoting a
+   contributor to be a core-developer, approving a SLEP, etc.)
+
+Core Developers are primarily selected based on their code
+contributions. However, there are a lot of other ways to contribute to
+the project, and these efforts are currently not recognized [1]_. To
+quote Melissa Weber Mendonça [2]_ and Reshama Shaikh [3]_:
+
+.. epigraph::
+
+   "When some people join an open source project, they may be asked to contribute
+   with tasks that will never get them on a path to any sort of official input,
+   such as voting rights."
+
+Desired Goal: incrementally adapt the Governance
+================================================
+
+We need to:
+
+-  value non-coding contributions in the project and acknowledge all
+   efforts, including those that are not quantified by GitHub users'
+   activity
+
+-  empower more contributors to effectively participate in the project
+   without requiring the security responsibilities of tracking code
+   changes to the main branches. These considerations should lead to the
+   diversification of contribution paths [4]_.
+
+Rather than introducing entirely new structure and Governance, we
+propose changes to the existing ones which allow for small incremental
+modifications over time.
+
+******************
+ Proposed changes
+******************
+
+Some of the proposed modification have been discussed in the monthly
+meetings, on April 25th 2022 [5]_ and September 5th 2022 [6]_.
+
+Define "Contributions" more broadly
+===================================
+
+Explicitly define Contributions and emphasize the importance of non-code
+contributions in the Governance structure.
+
+Evolve the Technical Committee into a Steering Committee
+========================================================
+
+Rename "Technical Committee" to "Steering Committee".
+
+Define the Steering Committee as a subset of Core Contributors rather
+than a subset of Core Developers.
+
+Create a Triage Team
+====================
+
+Create a Triage Team which would be given "Write" permissions on GitHub
+[7]_ to be able to perform triaging tasks, such as editing issues'
+description.
+
+Define "Core Contributors"
+==========================
+
+Establish all members of the following teams as "Core Contributors":
+
+   -  Triage Team
+   -  Communication Team
+   -  Development Team
+
+A Contributor is promoted to a Core Contributor after being proposed by
+at least one existing Core Contributor. The proposal must specify which
+Core Team the Contributor will be part of. The promotion is effective
+after a vote on the private Core Contributor mailing list which must
+last for two weeks and which must reach at least two-thirds positive
+majority of the cast votes.
+
+Extend voting rights
+====================
+
+Give voting rights to all Core Contributors.
+
+Simplify subsequent changes to the Governance
+=============================================
+
+Allow changes to the following aspects of the scikit-learn Governance
+without requiring a SLEP:
+
+   -  additions and changes to Roles' and Teams' scopes
+   -  additions and changes to Roles' and Teams' permissions
+
+Any changes to the scikit-learn Governance (including ones which do not
+require being back by a SLEP) will continue to be subject to the
+decision making process [8]_, which includes a vote of the Core
+Contributors.
+
+If subsequent changes to the Governance are proposed through a GitHub
+Pull Request (PR):
+
+   -  a positive vote is cast by approving the PR (i.e. "Approve"
+      review)
+   -  a negative vote is cast by requesting changes to the PR (i.e.
+      "Request changes" review)
+
+In this case, the vote still has to be announced on the Core
+Contributors' mailing list, but the system of Pull Request approvals
+will replace a vote on the private Core Contributors' mailing list.
+
+***********
+ Copyright
+***********
+
+This document has been placed in the public domain [9]_.
+
+**************************
+ References and Footnotes
+**************************
+
+.. [1]
+
+   J. -G. Young, A. Casari, K. McLaughlin, M. Z. Trujillo, L.
+   Hébert-Dufresne and J. P. Bagrow, "Which contributions count? Analysis
+   of attribution in open source," 2021 IEEE/ACM 18th International
+   Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR), 2021, pp. 242-253,
+   doi: 10.1109/MSR52588.2021.00036: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.11007
+
+.. [2]
+
+   Contributor experience, diversity and culture in Open Source Projects:
+   keynote from Melissa Weber Mendonça:
+   https://2022.pycon.de/program/NVBLKH/
+
+.. [3]
+
+   Reshama Shaikh's quote from Melissa Weber Mendonça' keynote:
+   https://twitter.com/reshamas/status/1513488342767353857
+
+.. [4]
+
+   NumPy Newcomer's Hour: an Experiment on Community Building, talk from
+   Melissa Weber Mendonça: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0XZQbu0xnw
+
+.. [5]
+
+   scikit-learn April 25th 2022 Developer meeting notes:
+   https://github.com/scikit-learn/administrative/blob/master/meeting_notes/2022-04-25.md
+
+.. [6]
+
+   scikit-learn September 5th 2022 Developer meeting notes:
+   https://github.com/scikit-learn/administrative/blob/master/meeting_notes/2022-09-05.md
+
+.. [7]
+
+   Permissions for each role, Repository roles for an organization, GitHub
+   Docs:
+   https://docs.github.com/en/organizations/managing-access-to-your-organizations-repositories/repository-roles-for-an-organization#permissions-for-each-role
+
+.. [8]
+
+   Decision Making Process, scikit-learn Governance and Decision-Making:
+   https://scikit-learn.org/dev/governance.html#decision-making-process
+
+.. [9]
+
+   Open Publication License: https://www.opencontent.org/openpub/