[dot] KDE e.V. Creates Community Working Group, Code of Conduct

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1218525921/

From: Sebastian Kuegler <sebas at kde.org>
Dept: foundation-for-the-community
Date: Tuesday 12/Aug/2008, @00:25

KDE e.V. Creates Community Working Group, Code of Conduct
=========================================================

   On Monday at Akademy, KDE's yearly world summit, the KDE e.V.
[http://ev.kde.org] held its general assembly, covering a wide range hot
topics, regarding licensing and community scalability. While part of the
meeting is dictated by intricacies of German association law, the AGM
also provides a way of effectively solving issues arising in the KDE
community and deciding on ways to move forward as an organisation. This
year's KDE e.V. General Assembly spawned the Code of Conduct, the
Community Working Group and a Fiduciary License Agreement for KDE
contributors.



                            CODE OF CONDUCT

     The KDE e.V. has ratified a proposal for a Code of Conduct as
accepted shared set of values for participating in the KDE Community.
This Code of Conduct presents a summary of the shared values and "common
sense" thinking in our community. The basic social ingredients that hold
our project together include:

    * Be considerate
    * Be respectful
    * Be collaborative
    * Be pragmatic
    * Support others in the Community
    * Get support from others in the Community

     The full version of the Code of Conduct will be published soon
after the backlog of things to published has been gotten back on top by
KDE's webteam members.



                        COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP

     Preparations in the last months have now led to the founding of
KDE's first Community Working Group. The purpose of this newbody under
the KDE e.V. is summarised as
 "The Community Working Group aims to act as a central point of contact
by being available to communicate user needs and concerns to developers,
and developer intentions and plans to users."
     The initial members of KDE's Community Working Group are:

    * Anne Wilson
    * Juan Carlos Torres
    * Lydia Pintscher
    * Martin Fitzpatrick
    * Tom Albers



                             KDE E.V. LOGO

     As KDE e.V. is a different entity from the more comprehensive KDE
Community, the spirit of this organisation is now displayed by having
its own logo. The three flags on top of the logo represent the three
main tasks of the KDE e.V.: supporting the KDE Community, representing
the KDE Community, and governing the KDE Community. The logo has been
contributed by Oxygen team member David Vignoni.



                      FIDUCIARY LICENSE AGREEMENT

     The Fiduciary License Agreement is a legal safety net to keep KDE's
licensing effective in cases where a change of licensing is required
(for example in the unlikely case that the GPL is void) and the
contributor holding the copyright of a certain piece of code is not able
to change the license of her work.

     The FLA is in no way binding, but a suggestion by the KDE e.V. to
mitigate the risk of possible problems surrounding copyright assignment
and licensing. It is left to each individual copyright holder whether or
not to sign the agreement.

     Details on all the above points will be publised on the KDE e.V.
website soon.