CHARTER: s5: rework TDC description and scope

The TDC has been a fairly confusing concept from the outset, and the
statement of the scope of the TDC was quite difficult to follow (not to
mention that it contained some text which was only relevant to the
runtime-spec). The text has been refreshed and now has a more general
description of the role of the TDC now that the OCI has a pretty large
variety of projects under its belt, and explicitly defines the
Maintainership Coalition (the set of all maintainers across all
projects). Previously, a literal reading of the Charter would have you
believe that only runtime-spec maintainers had certain rights under the
Charter.

This change does redefine some aspects of the TDC, and technically
changes the roles of different TDC elements, but broadly this is in
keeping with existing conventions within the TDC of OCI Projects and
doesn't majorly change the role of the TDC within the OCI.

Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai <[email protected]>

Author: cyphar

CHARTER.md

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 | 1.1       | 2020-05-06  | 2020-06-05     | • *(Section 1)* Remove scope table. |
 | 1.2       | 2020-06-04  | 2020-07-04     | • *(Section 1)* Simplify mission.   |
 | 1.2+DRAFT |             |                | • *(Section 2)* Simplify OCI Project definition and clarify scope. |
+| 1.2+DRAFT |             |                | • *(Section 5)* Simplify TDC description and enshrine all maintainers of OCI Projects as TDC Maintainers. |
 | 1.2+DRAFT |             |                | • *(Section 6)* Unify TOB voting rules to always require a qualified super-majority for decisions. |
 | 1.2+DRAFT |             |                | • *(Section 12)* Formalise changelog and version numbers. |
 
@@ -213,72 +214,105 @@ h. For avoidance of doubt, OCI membership does not convey any rights to
    influence will come through code and specification contributions to the
    technical projects.
 
-## 5. Technical Developer Community
-
-a. The OCI hosts and supports the participation of a technical development
-   community (“OCI TDC”) in OCI Projects. The OCI TDC shall be open to any
-   developer, end user or subject matter expert that chooses to participate in
-   the activities of OCI, regardless of whether the participant is employed by
-   an OCI Member company so long as his or her contributions and conduct comply
-   with this Charter.
-
-b. The OCI TDC has an established scope of work focused on:
-
-   - i. Creating and maintaining formal specifications (the OCI Specifications)
-     for container image formats and runtime, which will allow a compliant
-     container to be portable across all major, compliant operating systems and
-     platforms without artificial technical barriers;
-   - ii. Ensuring that OCI Specifications incorporate and align to the OCI
-     Values, as defined in Section 8 below;
-   - iii. The TDC will look to agree on a standard set of container actions
-     (e.g. start, exec, pause) as well as a runtime environment associated with
-     the container runtime;
-   - iv. Creating and maintaining test cases that shall serve as the testing
-     functions for achieving certification as an OCI Certified Solution;
-   - v. Engaging end users for feedback or input on OCI Projects, including,
-     but not limited to, relating to usability;
-   - vi. Ensuring that all OCI Projects follow and adhere to the OCI IP Policy;
-   - vii. Approving releases by OCI Projects;
-   - viii. Creating, maintaining and enforcing governance guidelines for the
-     TDC, approved by the maintainers, and which shall be posted visibly for
-     the TDC. The guidelines shall cover the following:
-   - ix. establishing and defining roles and responsibilities (at a minimum, a
+## 5. Technical Developer Community (TDC)
+
+a. The OCI shall host and support the participation of a technical development
+   community ("TDC"), encompassing all OCI Projects. The TDC consists of two
+   groups:
+
+   1. TDC Contributors, membership of which shall be open to any developer, end
+      user or subject matter expert that chooses to participate in the
+      activities of any OCI Project, regardless of whether the participant is
+      employed by an OCI Member company so long as their contributions and
+      conduct comply with this Charter.
+   2. TDC Maintainers (hereafter "Maintainers"), which are the set of
+      maintainers for a given OCI Project (as listed in the top-level
+      MAINTAINERS file of the OCI Project). For the avoidance of doubt, all
+      Maintainers are also necessarily TDC Contributors. In addition:
+
+      - i. an individual may only become a Maintainer of an OCI Project
+        after approval by whatever procedure that OCI Project's Maintainers
+        have established under Section 5 (b)(iii) of this Charter; and
+      - ii. only the Maintainers of an OCI Project may modify the set of
+        Maintainers for that OCI Project. No OCI Member, the TOB, the
+        Maintainers of different OCI Project, nor the Trademark Board may
+        modify the set of Maintainers for a given OCI Project (except in cases
+        where an existing Maintainer's contributions or conduct have not
+        complied with this Charter); and
+      - iii. the collection of Maintainers for all OCI Projects shall be
+        referred to in this Charter as the "Maintainership Coalition".
+
+b. The Maintainers of each OCI Project have a responsibility to create,
+   maintain and enforce governance guidelines for the TDC of their OCI Project,
+   which shall be posted visibly for the TDC. The guidelines shall cover:
+
+   - i. establishing and defining roles and responsibilities (at a minimum, a
      role for committers or maintainers authorized to commit code to the
-     codebase);
-   - x. defining the process or requirements to take on a role in the TDC (e.g.
-     how to become a contributor, or how to become a maintainer);
-   - xi. the process by which participants in the TDC may give up or be revoked
-     of their roles (e.g. how to remove maintainers); the rules for decision
-     making in the TDC; and
-   - xii. any workflow or processes participants are expected to follow in
-     making or merging contributions.
-   - xiii. Attempting to harmonize the OCI Specifications with other proposed
-     standards, including, but not limited to, the appc specification;
-   - xiv. Ensuring that the scope of technologies promulgated and proposed as
-     standard elements of OCI Projects (including OCI Specifications) are those
-     that are sufficiently widespread and sufficiently mature and stable so as
-     to warrant establishment in the specification;
-   - xv. Referring to the Technical Oversight Board any issues that deal with
-     failure to follow established technical governance, issues that impact
-     multiple OCI Projects or specifications, or conflicts that cannot be
-     resolved within the TDC. Issues shall be referred to the TOB according to
-     the requirements in Section 6.; and
-   - xvi. Any issues of non-compliance with the OCI IP Policy shall be
-     immediately referred to The Linux Foundation.
-
-c. The maintainers and contributors shall set the technical direction of the
-   OCI Projects, with minimal interference by the Technical Oversight Board;
-
-d. The TDC will only accept influence through contribution. The primary means
+     codebase); and
+   - ii. defining the process or requirements to take on a role in the TDC
+     (including but not limited to how to become a contributor and how to
+     become a maintainer); and
+   - iii. the process by which participants in the TDC may give up or be
+     revoked of their roles (including but not limited to how to remove
+     maintainers);
+   - iv. the rules for decision making in the TDC; and
+   - v. any workflow or processes participants are expected to follow in
+     making or merging contributions; and
+   - vi. the procedure for approving and publishing releases of the OCI
+     Project.
+
+c. The TDC has an established scope of work for all OCI Projects. For each OCI
+   Project, the TDC has a responsibility to:
+
+   - i. ensure that the OCI Project adheres to the general requirements for
+     OCI Projects and the specific requirements for their project's Project
+     Category, as outlined in Section 2 of this Charter; and
+   - ii. ensure that the OCI Project incorporates and aligns with the OCI
+     Values, as defined in Section 7 of this Charter; and
+   - iii. ensure that the OCI Project follows and adheres to the OCI IP Policy,
+     as outlined in Section 8 of this Charter. Any issues of non-compliance
+     with the OCI IP Policy shall be immediately referred to The Linux
+     Foundation; and
+   - iv. create and maintain the OCI Project such that it is portable across
+     all major, compliant operating systems and platforms without artificial
+     technical barriers; and
+   - v. engage end users for feedback or input on the OCI Project, including,
+     but not limited to, relating to usability.
+
+d. In addition to the responsibilities outlined in Section 5 (b) of this
+   Charter, Maintainers of OCI Specifications have a responsibility to:
+
+   - i. attempt to harmonize the OCI Specification with other proposed
+     standards, including, but not limited to, the AppC specification; and
+   - ii. ensure that the scope of technologies promulgated and proposed as
+     elements of the OCI Specification are those that are sufficiently
+     widespread and sufficiently mature and stable so as to warrant
+     establishment in the specification; and
+   - iii. in addition to Section 5 (b)(vi) of this Charter, require a qualified
+     super-majority vote of Maintainers of the OCI Specification in order to
+     approve any release of the OCI Specification.
+
+e. In addition to the responsibilities outlined in Section 5 (b) of this
+   Charter, Maintainers of OCI Conformance Suites have a responsibility to
+   create and maintain test cases that shall serve as the testing functions for
+   achieving certification as an OCI Certified Solution.
+
+f. Notwithstanding Section 2 (i) of this Charter, the TDC Members and
+   Maintainers shall set the technical direction of the OCI Projects, with
+   minimal interference by the TOB. However, any issues that deal with failure
+   to follow established technical governance, issues that impact multiple OCI
+   Projects or specifications, or conflicts that cannot be resolved within the
+   TDC shall be referred to the TOB using the procedure outlined in Section 6
+   of this Charter. Once an issue is referred to the TOB, the TOB is empowered
+   to resolve it (though such resolutions should be made in consultation with
+   the relevant Maintainers or the Maintainership Coalition).
+
+g. The TDC will only accept influence through contribution. The primary means
    for any organization to influence the technical direction of the OCI
-   Projects is via contribution or service as maintainers. OCI Members
-   specifically disclaim any right to influence technical direction either on
-   the basis of their financial contributions or their existence as OCI
-   Members;
-
-e. The maintainers of the TDC shall be those listed in the MAINTAINERS file in
-   the project repository, available at
-   (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opencontainers/specs/master/MAINTAINERS).
+   Projects is via contribution as TDC Members or service as Maintainers. OCI
+   Members specifically disclaim any right to influence technical direction
+   either on the basis of their financial contributions or their existence as
+   OCI Members.
 
 ## 6. Technical Oversight Board (TOB)