OpenJDK Governing Board Minutes: 20011/4/21

[Doug Lea]

On 05/06/11 09:19, Mark Wielaard wrote:
>
> Personally I would have a lot more patience and would be slightly less
> "paranoid" if you could just tell us whether or not you are addressing
> some of the actionable items listed in some of the pervious discussion.
> e.g. here:
> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/gb-discuss/2011-April/000120.html

The GB prepared a response to previous rounds of feedback that
address some of these, but is also still held up because the Oracle
members of GB require it to go through legal review (sigh).
But in the mean time, I'll try to answer independently from my
perspective.

> - Get rid of the SCA. Commit to using the GPL for everything.
>   People should be able to be members of the community without
>   having to assign all their rights on non-reciprocal terms to
>   Oracle.

I don't think this can happen, but the OCA (was SCA) can
at least be improved to address most concerns that appear to
have caused some potential contributors to hesitate doing
so. My guess is that some aspects of non-reciprocity will likely
remain though.

> - Don't tie OpenJDK work to the JCP/JSRs as long as those use
>   terms which are community-hostile/GPL-incompatible.

The bylaws can avoid any *necessary* linkage between OpenJDK
and JCP, modulo harmless dependencies based on JCP
currently defining what JavaN consists of. On the other hand,
some projects may choose to operate using rules based on
JCP expert groups etc. There are not yet any process documents
for any projects, in part because there are not yet bylaws.

> - Create a board without non-OpenJDK hackers or appointed seats.

For now I'll just say: The revised bylaws include several
compromises on this point.

> - Make the infrastructure open to the community instead of company
>   controlled.

The GB is charged with helping to ensure that infrastructure exists,
but does not require any particular company to provide it. We hope to
focus on infrastructure and process issues soon.

> - Keep communicating openly instead of hiding for months and then
>   publishing declarations.

Yes. The now regularly-released published minutes should help.


-Doug