Comunica Association Memberships
Monday, November 8, 2021
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Earlier this year, we announced the Comunica Association, which is a non-profit organization that aims to make Comunica sustainable in the long term. In this post, we announce the possibility to become a member or sponsor to the association, allowing organizations to drive the future roadmap of Comunica. We plan an official launch in fall 2022, up until when organizations can choose to become a founding member of the Comunica Association.
🏆 Status of the bounty program
The bounty program has now been running for a couple of months, and so far it is working exactly as intended. At the time of writing, two organizations (Triply and Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed) have placed a total of six bounties, with a varying scope. One of these bounties has already been completed, and two of them are being worked on.
An important finding is that bounties are best applied on issues that have a clearly defined scope, and are not too large. For example, a bounty for a specific and easily reproducible bug is ideal. On the other hand, more high-level issues such as the need to improve overall performance seem to be less suited for bounties, as the scope is large or infinite, and the required effort is hard to predict. Such issues are better suited for being part of the general roadmap of Comunica, which is the main motivation for introducing a membership structure.
🏅 Members and sponsors
Up until now, Comunica primarily had a research-driven roadmap, because it grew out of a research project. To allow more organizations and individuals to determine what this roadmap should look like, the Comunica Association now allows members to become part of the board.
Board members are able to determine Comunica's roadmap, and the future of the association. One can become part of the board by either contributing time or via a financial contribution, which will both be invested in core maintenance of Comunica, such as managing issues and pull requests, and working towards the roadmap.
Furthermore, for organizations that want to support the association, but do not have the desire to become part of the board, there is the option to become a sponsor, for which three tiers currently exist. The budget provided by sponsors will also go directly towards funding core maintenance of Comunica, with the option for sponsors to prioritize certain issues.
Since the Comunica Association has a commitment to work as publicly and transparant as possible, all financial contributions from members and sponsors will go via our Open Collective page. This will allow everyone to see who contributed to the project, and how the budget is being spent.
🚀 Next steps
Organizations that are interested in supporting Comunica, can do so starting from today. Becoming a board member or a sponsor can be done via our Open Collective page, after which we will contact you about the practical next steps. If you want to become a board member by contributing time, you can contact us directly.
All members and sponsors that are active by our launch date in the fall of 2022 (exact date will be announced later), will be considered founding members and sponsors, and will receive a permanent mention on this website. Based on the active members and sponsors, we will be actively looking for dedicated core maintainers that want to be funded by the Comunica Association (be sure to contact us if you're interested in this!).
Click here to learn more about the Comunica Association, or contact us regarding any specific questions you may have about the association.