[SeasonOfDocs] TheGoodDocsProject: Contributor Agreements

[Jennifer Rondeau]

A CLA involves signing and in the case of the CLAs I've needed to sign
review by the governing board before you're good to go. Typically
automated, but a multi-step process and more complicated if you need to
sign an org-based CLA (as opposed to a CLA for an individual).

A DCO is integrated with Git (GitHub and I assume other Git servers), so
you provide a `--signoff` argument to your git commits. Or add it to your
git alias.

Either way it's an extra step of some sort, not implicit.

On Mon, Jul 29, 2019 at 5:18 PM Jared Morgan <jaredleonmorgan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> With these agreements, does anyone have to actually sign and return the
> agreement? Or do they take the form of "submitting your change is like
> signing the agreement"?
>
> I'm just following along with this thread for now because (as you can
> probably tell) I have never heard of this before in open source projects.
>
> On Mon., 29 Jul. 2019, 07:21 Jennifer Rondeau, <jennifer.rondeau at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> It's been my experience working with the Kubernetes community that a CLA
>> can pose a non-insignificant barrier to entry for new contributors,
>> especially if they aren't already familiar with FOSS. And it's my
>> observation from working with a range of Write the Docs communities that
>> technical writers tend to be less familiar with FOSS norms and practices
>> than coders -- this includes writers from large companies.
>>
>> If we want to maintain a project that's an open and welcoming for all as
>> possible, I'd support a DCO, but I also wonder whether we need or want even
>> that much. My guess is that it would be enough to drive away at least some
>> otherwise valuable contributors. I don't have data about how many potential
>> contributors lack of a DCO would keep away -- anyone else?
>>
>> Related but not quite on topic: how do we want to solicit and encourage
>> contributions? Are we assuming only contributors who are already familiar
>> with a Git workflow? That would definitely keep some good work away, based
>> on my experience with writing day sessions for the Write the Docs guide at
>> WtD conferences.
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 28, 2019 at 2:25 PM Jo Cook <jo.k.cook at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Personally I'm fine with the light tough DCO but happy to go with
>>> whatever works for people contributing from large companies.
>>>
>>> All the best
>>>
>>> Jo
>>>
>>> On Sun, Jul 28, 2019 at 1:15 PM Cameron Shorter <
>>> cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It has been ~ 10 years since I last looked into open source contributor
>>>> agreements, so I've been doing some research. I feel this is an
>>>> important consideration for a project which is hopefully to be as
>>>> central as ours will become.
>>>>
>>>> It is about having contributors confirm they are allowed to give to our
>>>> project and to agree we can distribute contributions under our open
>>>> licenses.
>>>> We have a few options: do nothing, old heavy weight Contributor License
>>>> Agreement (CLA), or lightweight Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO)
>>>> Pros and cons are explained in Producing Open Source Software:
>>>>
>>>> https://producingoss.com/en/contributor-agreements.html#developer-certificate-of-origin
>>>> I propose we adopt the light DCO: https://developercertificate.org/
>>>>
>>>> I'd like to hear if anyone has any opinions or experience in this area
>>>> (especially from those of you in big companies which have legal
>>>> departments which may be opinionated.)
>>>>
>>>> After we've discussed for a few days (weeks if being debated), I'll put
>>>> together a motion to vote on.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>> Technology Demystifier
>>>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>>>
>>>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>>>
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>>>> SeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.org
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ------------------------
>>> http://about.me/jocook
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