DEP 0010: New governance for the Django project

DEP:	0010
Author:	James Bennett
Implementation Team:	James Bennett, others to be determined
Shepherd:	Aymeric Augustin
Status:	Final
Type:	Process
Created:	2018-09-22

Table of Contents

Abstract
Terminology
Specification
Motivation
Rationale
Backwards Compatibility
Reference Implementation
Copyright

Note

This is a historical document, describing the changes from Django's BDFL structure to its Technical Board leadership, later updated by DEP 12 to the Steering Council. See Django's documentation for operational documentation of the Steering Council and how it works.

Abstract

This is a proposal to reform the organization of the Django open-source project, by dissolving the current team of committers and replacing it with a new governance model.

The following Q&A is informative, and describes the proposal in a general way; for full details, please see the "Specification" section below.

What roles will there be in the project after this change?

Three roles will be actively involved in producing Django as we know it: Mergers, Releasers, and the Technical Board. One additional role, "Django Core Developer", is honorary, and used to recognize individuals who have previously made significant contributions to Django. A Django Core Developer will not have any type of automatic governance, oversight, or code-committing privileges.

In addition, a Triage & Review Team will be created to recognize active contributors, and allow additional privileges when assisting on pull request reviews.

How will code get added to Django?

For smaller changes such as bugfixes and minor features, Mergers will use their judgment to determine if there's consensus that the change is good, and merge it if so. If they have any concerns, they can start a discussion and/or consult the Technical Board. The Django Security Team will also have the ability to authorize the merge of code to fix security issues being handled under Django's security process.

For larger changes that use the DEP process, code will be merged to Django as the milestones of the DEP's implementation are reached, unless the Technical Board decides to block the merge.

Who decides when Django gets released?

Django's bugfix releases already follow a consistent schedule, and feature releases (and their alpha/beta/candidate packages) have target dates scheduled in advance, as per the time-based release schedule defined in DEP 44.

This will continue. There will continue to be consultation on release blockers and the Technical Board will have the power to change the schedule or delay a release as needed. The Django Security Team will also have the ability to authorize off-schedule releases as needed to fix critical security issues.

Who decides the technical direction of Django?

Anyone can propose new features or directions for Django. For larger features, the DEP process will be used, and for smaller features discussion in the appropriate forum will be used with the aim of achieving consensus on the change. The Technical Board will have the power to veto individual changes or proposals.

The Technical Board will also periodically request proposals for new features/ideas for upcoming releases of Django, and maintain an archive of them.

How will the people in these roles be chosen?

Mergers and Releasers will be selected by the Technical Board in consultation with the DSF's Fellowship Committee.

The Technical Board will be elected periodically, and any person who has made a substantive contribution to Django in the past is eligible to vote.

Django Core Developers will be recognized and granted that title by the DSF. An initial grant of the title will occur automatically to the people who have historically been part of "Django Core".

Who can speak on behalf of Django?

Originally, Adrian and Jacob, as co-BDFLs, could speak on behalf of Django if they wished. Since they stepped back from that role, no single person has had the authority to do so.

Under this governance model, it will still be the case that no single person will speak on behalf of Django; people holding particular roles will be free to state their opinions as holders of those roles, but that will not bind or commit the Django open-source project to any particular course of action.

Note that this only refers to the technical direction of the Django open-source project; the DSF has both the right and the obligation to speak on behalf of Django in certain legal and financial matters, and changing the governance of the open-source project will not change that.

Why can't people serve on the Technical Board if they hold certain other roles?

To avoid concentration of power/authority in any single person, or any small group of people. It has been the case at least once in the past that a single person -- other than Adrian and Jacob during their time as BDFLs -- held commit access, release permission, the private key for security@djangoproject.com, root access to the djangoproject.com servers, a seat on the Technical Board, and a seat on the DSF Board, all at the same time. This is an undesirable situation, and as a result there are some restrictions on how many roles a single person may hold simultaneously.

If this doesn't work, how can it be changed?

This proposal includes a process for making changes. It will use a modified version of the DEP process, and require approval by at least the Technical Board and the DSF Board to adopt a change to governance. Additionally, for any change that either board feels is large enough to require it, there is a procedure for changes to be put to a vote of the community.

Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

For clarity, this DEP uses the following terms to refer to existing groups:

"Django Core": the set of people who have or have had permission to push to <https://github.com/django/django/> or the previous Subversion repository, or who have been members of the django-core mailing list, the #django-core IRC channel, or identified as members of "Django Core" on the djangoproject.com website.
"DSF" and "DSF Board": the Django Software Foundation and its Board of Directors, respectively.
"Django Fellows": a list of multiple people who have been or still are paid by the Django Software Foundation to perform various tasks, including triaging issues, reviewing and merging pull requests, and managing Django's releases.
"Django Security Team": a group of people who respond to security issues handled under Django's security process.
"Django Forum": the discussion forum at forum.djangoproject.com.

The following terms are used in this document to refer to types of changes made to Django's codebase:

"Minor Change" means fixing a bug in, or adding a new feature to, Django of a scope small enough not to require the use of the DEP process.
"Major Change" means any change to Django's codebase of scope significant enough to require the use of the DEP process.

The following terms are used in this document to refer to types of releases of Django:

"Major Release Series" means the x.0 through x.2 releases of Django, for a given x. For example, Django 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 collectively form a Major Release Series.
"Feature Release" means an x.y.0 release of Django, where x.0 began a major release series and y is either 0, 1, or 2. For example, Django 3.1.0 is a Feature Release.
"Bugfix Release" means an x.y.z release of Django, where x.y.0 was a Feature Release, and z is not 0. For example, Django 3.1.4 is a Bugfix Release. A Bugfix Release is "for" a particular Feature Release if, when considering the version number in the format x.y.z, x and y have the same values for the Bugfix Release as they do for the Feature Release. For example, Django 3.1.4 is a Bugfix Release for the Django 3.1.0 Feature Release.
"Security Release" means a Bugfix Release which included a fix for a security issue in Django being handled under Django's security process.
A member "in good standing" of a venue for discussing the technical direction of Django is any member of that venue whose participation privileges have not been revoked, either by moderators of that venue, by the operator of the venue if operated by a third-party service or administrator, or by the Code of Conduct committee of the DSF.

Specification

This section and its sub-sections are normative.

The current governance of the Django project will be replaced. To accomplish this, the following steps will be taken:

Push access to <https://github.com/django/django/> SHALL be removed from all persons not designated as Mergers. Access to upload releases of Django to the Python Package Index and to djangoproject.com SHALL be removed from all persons not designated as Releasers.
The django-core mailing list and the #django-core IRC channel SHALL be closed, though archives accessible to the former members MAY be maintained.
The new roles described below SHALL be implemented appropriately.
The existing roles repurposed below SHALL be repurposed as described.

The following new roles are added:

Merger
Releaser
Triage & Review Team

The following roles are repurposed:

Django Core Developer
Technical Board

New role: Merger

In place of the prior informally-specified role of committer, Django will formalize and expand the de facto process already in place: the role of the Merger. A Merger is a person who merges pull requests to <https://github.com/django/django/>.

The set of Mergers SHOULD be small; the ideal would be between three and five people, in order to spread the workload and avoid over-burdening or burning out any individual Merger. In light of that, the current Django Fellows SHALL become the first set of Mergers. Thereafter, the Technical Board SHALL select Mergers as necessary to maintain their number at a minimum of three.

It SHALL NOT be a requirement that a Merger also be a Django Fellow, but the Django Software Foundation SHALL have the power to use funding of Fellow positions as a way to make the role of Merger sustainable.

A person MAY serve in the roles of Releaser and Merger simultaneously, but a person MUST NOT serve as a Merger and a member of the Technical Board simultaneously.

New role: Releaser

Over its history, the Django project has granted various people permission to issue packaged releases of Django. At present five people have permission to upload releases to the Python Package Index.

The role of Releaser will formalize this: a Releaser is a person who has the authority (and will be granted the necessary permissions) to upload packaged releases of Django to the Python Package Index, and to djangoproject.com.

A person MAY serve in the roles of Releaser and Merger simultaneously.

The initial set of Releasers SHALL consist of the Django Fellows. Thereafter, the Technical Board will select Releasers as necessary to maintain their number at a minimum of three. All persons who currently have permission to upload release of Django to the Python Package Index, but who do not become or are not selected as Releasers, SHALL have that permission revoked.

It SHALL NOT be a requirement that a Releaser also be a Django Fellow, but the Django Software Foundation SHALL have the power to use funding of Fellow positions as a way to make the role of Releaser sustainable.

New role: Triage & Review Team

The Triage & Review Team allows current, regular contributors additional permissions on GitHub, in order to assist with the processing of pull requests.

The objective of the team is to help spread work beyond the Mergers and into the wider contributor community.

There will be a GitHub Team with GitHub's Triage Permission to allow members to help manage pull requests directly.
A pull request approval from a member of the Triage and Review team will be sufficient to allow a Merger to merge a minor change they themselves have proposed.
Subject to both the Django Code of Conduct, and to Technical Board oversight, the Triage and Review Team will be self-managing.
Anyone actively engaging in discussions on GitHub and django-developers will be eligible to join the Triage and Review Team. Membership is not meant to be bureaucratic: folks who are active should be invited by a team member or Merger, or quietly mention that they've been overlooked and would like to join if this fails to happen. A simple seconding from an existing member should be enough for approval.
Team membership will be reviewed with each major release. Members will be asked if they wish to continue. For self-care, those needing a break are advised to take it. Former members will be welcome back in the future.

Repurposed role: Technical Board

The Technical Board provides oversight of Django's development and release process, assists in setting the direction of feature development and releases, selects Mergers and Releasers, and has a tie-breaking vote when other decision-making processes fail.

The powers of the Technical Board are:

To make a binding decision regarding any question of a technical change to Django.
To veto the merging of any particular piece of code into Django or order the reversion of any particular merge or commit.
To put out calls for proposals and ideas for the future technical direction of Django.
To set and to adjust the schedule of releases of Django.
To select Mergers and Releasers, other than the initial appointments of the Django Fellows at the time of adoption of this governance process.
To remove Mergers and/or Releasers, when deemed appropriate, using the processes described in this document.
To participate in the removal of members of the Technical Board, when deemed appropriate, using the processes described in this document.
To call elections of the Technical Board outside of those which are automatically triggered, at times when the Technical Board deems an election is appropriate, using the processes described in this document.
To participate in modifying Django's governance, using the processes described in this document.
To decline to vote on a matter the Technical Board feels is unripe for a binding decision, or which the Technical Board feels is outside the scope of its powers.
To take charge of the governance of other technical teams within the Django open-source project, following the processes described below, and to govern those teams accordingly.

The Technical Board SHALL consist initially of five members. To be qualified for election to the Technical Board, a candidate MUST demonstrate:

A history of technical contributions to Django or the Django ecosystem. This history MUST begin at least 18 months prior to the individual's candidacy for the Technical Board.
A history of participation in Django's development outside of contributions merged to the <https://github.com/django/django/> repository. This may include, but is not restricted to:
- Participation in discussions on the django-developers mailing list or Django Forum.
- Reviewing and offering feedback on pull requests in the Django source-code repository
- Assisting in triage and management of the Django bug tracker.
A history of recent engagement with the direction and development of Django. Such engagement MUST have occurred within a period of no more than two years prior to the individual's candidacy for the Technical Board.

Repurposed role: Django Core Developer

The role of Django Core Developer SHALL be used as an honorary title in recognition of an individual's significant and extended contributions to Django or to major parts of its ecosystem.

At the time of adoption of this proposal, all individuals who meet the definition of "Django Core", as given in the terminology section of this DEP, SHALL be granted the title of Django Core Developer, retroactive to the date on which they first met that definition of "Django Core", and the DSF SHALL publish, on djangoproject.com, a list of all such persons.

Future grants of the title of Django Core Developer will be made by the DSF Board; the DSF Board SHALL use input from the Technical Board, the DSF membership, and interested members of the general public, to identify candidates for this title, and SHALL maintain and publish the list of individuals to whom this title has been granted.

How Django's development is discussed

Discussion of Django's technical development can take place in any venue approved by this DEP or by the Technical Board, so long as that venue is open to interested members of the public. Such a venue is defined as follows:

Such a venue MAY require prior registration of an account to participate, but MUST NOT require monetary payment from general participants to join or participate. A venue which has both paid and non-paid membership options available is acceptable.
Such a venue MAY have rules for participation established by the Technical Board, and MAY be moderated by a person or persons designated by the Technical Board, for the purpose of maintaining good order and on-topic discussion.
All such venues MUST be subject to the Django Code of Conduct.
Moderators of such venues MAY remove, close, filter, restrict access to, and/or lock particular messages, threads, and/or sections of the venue as necessary, in the moderators' judgment, to enforce the venue's rules and the Django Code of Conduct. The Technical Board SHALL be the final arbiter of the rules of such venues, and the Code of Conduct committee of the DSF, with appeal to the DSF Board, SHALL be the final arbiter of the application of the Django Code of Conduct in such venues.
Such a venue also MUST exclude any person deemed ineligible to participate in the community spaces of the Django project by the Code of Conduct committee of the DSF, for at least the period of time during which the Code of Conduct committee deems that person ineligible.
Such a venue also MAY temporarily exclude a person who has been deemed by the designated moderators to be disruptive, acting in bad faith, spamming, or otherwise not behaving in accordance with the rules of the venue or the Django Code of Conduct, and MAY permanently exclude such a person, if the Technical Board and/or the DSF Code of Conduct committee approve a permanent exclusion of that person.
Finally, such a venue also MAY exclude, temporarily or permanently, any person whose membership, account, and/or access is suspended or terminated by a third-party provider of the platform and/or of account services (such as an identity provider service, if such venue uses a third-party identity provider for authentication).

The django-developers mailing list, the code.djangoproject.com bug tracker and wiki, the pull-request discussion areas of the primary Django repository on GitHub, and the Django Forum SHALL all be deemed venues generally open to interested members of the public, for purposes of this document.

How Django is developed

Any Releaser MAY, on their own initiative, merge administrative commits, such as bumping version numbers or adding stub release notes, without seeking approval from other Releasers or Mergers.

Any Merger MAY, on their own initiative, merge any pull request which constitutes a Minor Change, with one exception: a Merger MUST NOT merge a Minor Change primarily authored by that Merger, unless the pull request has been approved by another Merger, by a Technical Board member, by a member of the Triage & Review Team, or by the Django Security Team.

Any Merger MAY initiate discussion of a Minor Change in the appropriate venue, and request that other Mergers refrain from merging it while discussion proceeds. Any Merger MAY request a vote of the Technical Board regarding any Minor Change if, in the Merger's opinion, discussion has failed to reach a consensus.

When a Major Change reaches one of its implementation milestones, any Merger or member of the associated DEP's Implementation Team MAY inform the Technical Board of an intent to merge the appropriate code. The Technical Board MUST then hold a vote (see Voting process of the Technical Board below) on whether to permit the merge; if the result of the vote is any result other than a veto, the code MAY be merged at the earliest practical opportunity after the vote, by any Merger, without further consultation with the Technical Board.

How Django is released

Django follows the time-based release schedule, as outlined in DEP 44.

The following points apply specifically to the oversight role of the Technical Board:

When the scheduled date of a Feature Release, of an alpha/beta/candidate package for a Feature Release, or of a Bugfix Release is less than one week away, the Technical Board MAY, by vote, request that the Releasers not issue the release on the scheduled date. In the event that the Technical Board does make such a request, the Releasers MUST NOT issue the release until such time as they receive an update from the Technical Board granting permission for the release. If the Technical Board requests that a release not be issued, they SHALL provide public notice, on the django-developers mailing list or the Django Forum, of their reasoning, and SHALL provide timely updates regarding the status of the release.
At any time, the Django Security Team MAY ask a Releaser to issue one or more Security Releases of Django, regardless of prior schedule, in order to handle a security issue under Django's security process. When the Django Security Team makes such a request, the Releaser MUST issue the requested release(s) at or as close as is practicable to the time of release requested by the Django Security Team. The Technical Board MUST NOT attempt to prevent such release(s) from occurring; if the Technical Board feels such release(s) are or were inappropriate, the Technical Board may take action after the release(s).

How Django's technical direction is determined

Any member in good standing of a discussion venue that is generally open to interested members of the public, and which has been designated for discussion of such proposals, MAY propose new features for Django at any time.

For features which qualify as a Minor Change, proposers SHALL use the code.djangoproject.com bug tracker and/or the django-developers list or the Django Forum to make their proposal, and discussion SHALL occur in those venues, or in such other venue as the Technical Board may direct, provided that the venue of discussion is generally open to interested members of the public.

For features which qualify as a Major Change, proposers SHALL use the DEP process, with discussion taking place on the django-developers mailing list, the Django Forum, or in such other venue as the Technical Board may direct, provided that the venue of discussion is generally open to interested members of the public.

In order to provide focus for development efforts, the Technical Board SHALL periodically issue a public call, on the django-developers mailing list and the Django Forum, for proposals of features to be implemented in the future Feature Releases. The Technical Board SHALL ensure that such proposals are archived in a venue generally open to interested members of the public.

The Technical Board SHALL have the right to veto, via its voting process, any proposed change to Django.

Acceptance and implementation of a Major Change specified via the DEP process MUST NOT occur until the Technical Board has, via its voting process, accepted the DEP.

If discussion of a Minor Change has failed to produce consensus, any member in good standing of the discussion venue MAY request that the Technical Board make a decision, via its voting process. The Technical Board MAY decline to vote and instead ask for further discussion to occur, or deem that a consensus was reached via discussion.

Any member in good standing of an appropriate discussion venue for a proposal MAY request that the Technical Board reconsider a proposal previously vetoed, but not until at least six months have elapsed since the veto, or the next Feature Release of Django has occurred, whichever is later. The Technical Board MAY decline to reconsider the proposal, and allow the veto to stand without a new vote. In the event that the Technical Board once again vetoes the proposal, or allows the previous veto to stand, the proposal SHALL NOT be raised for reconsideration again until after the next election of the Technical Board, unless a member of the Technical Board requests that the Technical Board reconsider the proposal.

Any member of the Technical Board MAY request that the Technical Board reconsider a proposal previously vetoed, regardless of the amount of time that has elapsed since the veto, and regardless of whether the Technical Board has vetoed the proposal multiple times or allowed a previous veto to stand. The Technical Board MAY decline to reconsider the proposal, and allow the veto to stand without a new vote.

Voting process of the Technical Board

When a vote of the Technical Board is held, they SHALL use the following process:

A proposal put to the Technical Board SHALL be in the form of a yes or no question. For example: "Shall the Django project accept and begin implementation of DEP 10?"
The possible outcomes of a vote are:
- Accept: the "yes" option of the question is to be taken.
- No Action: the "no" option of the question is taken, but the proposal is not subject to the waiting period for reconsideration.
- Veto: the "no" option of the question is taken, and the proposal is subject to the waiting period for reconsideration.
Members of the Technical Board SHALL have, from the time a question is put to them, a voting period of one week to review the question and submit their votes.
Votes MUST be made in public, on the django-developers mailing list, Django Forum, or such other venue, generally open to interested members of the public, as the Technical Board may direct.
Each vote MUST be one of the following: "+1", "0", or "-1". Each vote SHOULD be accompanied by an explanation of the voter's reasoning.
Votes SHALL be counted as follows: the score of the proposal is an integer, and initially is zero. Each "+1" vote adds one to the score; each "0" vote leaves the score unchanged; and each "-1" vote subtracts one from the score.
If a voting period ends and not all members of the Technical Board have voted, the vote SHALL be deemed incomplete if either: a majority of the members of the Technical Board have not voted; or a majority have voted, but the current score of the proposal is -1, 0, 2, or 3 (that is, the score is such that a single additional vote could change its outcome). When a voting period ends and the vote is deemed incomplete, an additional voting period of one week SHALL occur, and this process SHALL repeat until a voting period closes and the vote is not deemed incomplete. Members of the Technical Board who have already voted on the current proposal MAY change their votes at any time prior to closing of the final voting period. The most recently-indicated vote on the proposal of each member of the Technical Board SHALL be the one counted toward the proposal's score.
Once a voting period ends and is not deemed incomplete, the final score SHALL be tallied from the votes cast, and the outcome SHALL be as follows: a score of 3 or greater produces an outcome of Accept; a score less than 3 but greater than or equal to zero produces an outcome of No Action; a score of less than zero produces an outcome of Veto.

Votes of the Technical Board on matters within the scope of its powers are binding. All persons involved in or contributing to the development of Django, including all Mergers and Releasers, MUST abide by these decisions.

Process of selecting Mergers and Releasers

As noted above, the initial set of Mergers and Releasers SHALL be the current Django Fellows as of the time of adoption of this governance process. The Technical Board then SHALL work to select at least one additional Merger, and SHALL at all times attempt to maintain a roster of at least three Mergers, and at least three Releasers. There shall be no upper limit to the number of Mergers and Releasers.

The selection process for either role, when a vacancy occurs or when the Technical Board deems it necessary to select additional persons for such a role, SHALL occur as follows:

Any member in good standing of an appropriate discussion venue, or the DSF Board acting with the input of the DSF's Fellowship committee, MAY suggest a person for consideration.
The Technical Board SHALL consider the suggestions put forth, and then any member of the Technical Board MAY formally nominate a candidate for the role.
The Technical Board SHALL then vote on the question: "Shall the nominated person be granted the role?"

The following restrictions apply to the roles of Merger and Releaser:

A person MUST NOT simultaneously serve as a Merger and as a member of the Technical Board. If a Merger is elected to the Technical Board, they SHALL cease to be a Merger immediately upon taking up membership in the Technical Board. A person MAY simultaneously serve as a Releaser and as a member of the Technical Board.
A person who is ineligible to participate in Django community spaces due to action of the Code of Conduct committee of the DSF MUST NOT serve in the role of Releaser or the role of Merger. Any person who becomes ineligible while already holding such a role SHALL cease to hold that role immediately upon becoming ineligible.

Mergers and Releasers MAY resign their role at any time, but SHOULD provide some advance notice in order to allow the selection of a replacement. Termination of the contract of a Django Fellow by the Django Software Foundation SHALL temporarily suspend that person's Merger and/or Releaser role(s) until such time as the Technical Board can vote on the question: "Shall that person continue to serve in that role or roles?"

Otherwise, a Merger and/or Releaser may only be removed from that role or those roles by:

Becoming disqualified due to election to the Technical Board (for a Merger), or
Becoming disqualified due to actions taken by the Code of Conduct committee of the Django Software Foundation, or
A vote of the Technical Board, on the question "Shall this person be removed from their role(s)", in which all members of the Technical Board vote "+1". If the person in question is a Releaser, and also a member of the Technical Board, the outcome instead requires that all members of the Technical Board, other than that person, vote "+1".

A vote of the Technical Board, on the question "Shall this person be suspended from their role(s)", achieving an Accept outcome with any score, SHALL temporarily suspend that person from the role of Releaser and/or Merger until such time as discussion and voting can take place regarding permanent removal and/or reinstatement.

Process of selecting the Technical Board

The initial Technical Board shall be made up of the final technical board elected under Django's prior governance process.

Whenever an election of the Technical Board is triggered, via any of the mechanisms described in this document, the following limits SHALL immediately apply to the Technical Board's powers, until such time as the election has concluded:

Any appointments to the roles of Merger and/or Releaser, other than of Django Fellows, SHALL be temporary, and SHALL automatically terminate one month after the election of a Technical Board under the process described below, unless re-confirmed by the Technical Board so elected.
The Technical Board MUST NOT accept any DEPs or changes to DEPs, and MUST NOT change the governance process described in this document, until after the election has concluded and the Technical Board so elected has been seated.

Elections of the Technical Board are triggered by any of the following events:

Immediately and automatically upon adoption of this governance proposal, though that election MAY be delayed for a period to be determined by the DSF Board, in order to allow technical implementation of the required voter registration and balloting features.
Immediately and automatically, one week after the actual release of the final Feature Release of a Major Release Series of Django, if no election of the Technical Board has yet occurred during that Major Release Series.
Immediately and automatically when fewer than three of the members elected in the most recent election of the Technical Board remain among the current roster of members of the Technical Board.
At any other time, if the Technical Board votes to produce an Accept outcome on the question "Shall an election of the Technical Board occur?"

Any person who meets one of the following qualifications is generally eligible to vote in elections of the Technical Board:

Any person who holds an Individual membership in the DSF.
Any person who can demonstrate, on application to the DSF, a history of substantive contribution to Django or its ecosystem. Such persons are also encouraged to apply for Individual membership in the DSF, but are not required to do so.

The privilege of any person to vote in elections of the Technical Board may be revoked at any time, with or without warning, by the Code of Conduct committee of the DSF for reason of violation of the Django Code of Conduct (and is automatically revoked if the Code of Conduct committee deems someone ineligible to participate in the community spaces of the Django project), or by the DSF Board if, in the sole judgment of the DSF Board, the person in question has falsified their qualifications for voting privileges or otherwise acted in bad faith.

The roll of voters for elections of the Technical Board SHALL be maintained by the DSF Board, which SHALL act as a neutral arbiter and judge of Technical Board elections. Members of the DSF Board MAY stand for election to the Technical Board if qualified, but any DSF Board member who is a current member of the Technical Board or a candidate in an upcoming election MUST abstain from taking part in the DSF Board's oversight of that Technical Board election. The DSF Board MAY delegate aspects of its oversight responsibilities (such as the technical details of constructing registration and voting forms) if it chooses to do so, but only the DSF Board may ratify the results of a Technical Board election.

The process of electing a Technical Board is as follows:

When an election is automatically triggered, or when the Technical Board votes to trigger an election, the Technical Board SHALL direct one of its members to notify the Secretary of the DSF, in writing, of the triggering of the election, and the condition which triggered it. The Secretary of the DSF then SHALL post to the appropriate venue -- the django-developers mailing list and the Django Forum to announce the election and its timeline.
As soon as the election is announced, the DSF Board shall begin a period of voter registration. All Individual members of the DSF are automatically registered and need not explicitly register. All other persons who believe themselves eligible to vote, but who have not yet registered to vote, MAY make an application to the DSF Board for voting privileges. The voter registration form and roll of voters SHALL be maintained by the DSF Board. The DSF Board MAY challenge and reject the registration of voters it believes are registering in bad faith or who it believes have falsified their qualifications or are otherwise unqualified.
Registration of voters will close one week after the announcement of the election. At that point, registration of candidates will begin. Any qualified person may register as a candidate; the candidate registration form and roster of candidates SHALL be maintained by the DSF Board, and candidates MUST provide evidence of their qualifications as part of registration. The DSF Board MAY challenge and reject the registration of candidates it believes do not meet the qualifications of members of the Technical Board, or who it believes are registering in bad faith.
Registration of candidates will close one week after it has opened. One week after registration of candidates closes, the Secretary of the DSF SHALL publish the roster of candidates to the django-developers mailing list and the Django Forum, and the election will begin. The DSF Board SHALL provide a voting form accessible to registered voters, and SHALL be the custodian of the votes.
Voting SHALL be by secret ballot. Each voter will be presented with a ballot containing the roster of candidates, and any relevant materials regarding the candidates, in a randomized order. Each voter MAY vote for up to five candidates on the ballot.
The election SHALL conclude one week after it begins. The DSF Board SHALL then tally the votes and produce a summary, including the total number of votes cast and the number received by each candidate. This summary SHALL be ratified by a majority vote of the DSF Board, then posted by the Secretary of the DSF to the django-developers mailing list and the Django Forum. The five candidates with the highest vote totals SHALL immediately become the new Technical Board.

Once elected, a member of the Technical Board MAY be removed in either of two ways:

They become ineligible due to actions of the Code of Conduct committee of the DSF. If this occurs, the affected person immediately ceases to be a member of the Technical Board. If that person's ineligibiliity ends at a later date, they MAY become a candidate for the Technical Board again in an election occurring after that date.
It is determined that they did not possess the qualifications of a member of the Technical Board. This determination must be made jointly by the other members of the Technical Board, and the DSF Board. A valid determination of ineligibility requires that all other members of the Technical Board vote "+1" on the question "Shall this person be declared ineligible for the Technical Board?", and that all members of the DSF Board who can vote on the issue (the affected person, if a DSF Board member, MUST NOT vote) vote "yes" on a motion that the person in question is ineligible.

A member of the Technical Board MAY notify the other members of the Technical Board, and the Secretary of the DSF (or the President of the DSF, if the member in question is serving as the Secretary of the DSF), in writing, of a temporary or permanent incapacity which prevents them from continuing to serve on the Technical Board. A member of the Technical Board MAY resign from the Technical Board by notifying the other members of the Technical Board of their intent to resign.

The Technical Board MAY fill a temporary or permanent vacancy on the Technical Board. To do so, the other members of the Technical Board (and the departing member(s), if eligible and willing), SHALL use this process:

Any member of the Technical Board, including an otherwise eligible but departing member, MAY nominate a candidate to fill a vacancy.
The Technical Board SHALL then direct one of its members to notify the Secretary of the DSF, in writing, of the nomination. The DSF Board SHALL check the qualifications of the person nominated, and the Secretary of the DSF SHALL notify the Technical Board of the result. If the DSF Board determines the nominated person is not qualified, the nomination MUST be discarded.
Otherwise, the Technical Board then SHALL vote on the question: "Shall this candidate fill the vacancy on the Technical Board?" As an exception to the Technical Board voting process described above, this vote SHALL have only a single one-week voting period, SHALL have an outcome of "Accept" if all eligible voting members of the Technical Board vote "+1" in that period, and SHALL have an outcome of "Reject" otherwise.

Interaction of the Technical Board and the Django Security Team

The Django Security Team SHALL have the following powers, and in the event of a conflict or contradiction between the exercise of the powers of the Technical Board and the exercise of these powers of the Django Security Team, the Django Security Team's powers SHALL prevail:

To request a Merger merge code to fix a security issue being handled under Django's security process.
To request a Releaser issue a release of Django containing code to fix a security issue being handled under Django's security process.

In the event that the Technical Board feels the Django Security Team has used the above powers inappropriately, the Technical Board MAY appeal to the DSF Board to mediate the issue. Any member of the DSF Board who is also a member of the Django Security Team or of the Technical Board MUST abstain from participation in the DSF Board's decision-making in such mediation. The decision of the DSF Board in the dispute SHALL be binding on both the Technical Board and the Django Security Team.

Interaction of the Technical Board and other teams

The Django open-source project involves other teams with other tasks, some of which -- such as maintaining the infrastructure of the djangoproject.com website, and Django's continuous integration -- are technical in nature. Currently, those teams are largely self-governing.

Initially, the Technical Board SHALL NOT have binding authority over those teams, except as regards matters that are otherwise within the powers of the Technical Board, although the Technical Board's powers are explicitly constrained, as described above, with respect to the Django Security Team.

No later than one month after the first election of the Technical Board has concluded, each team whose work is primarily technical in nature SHALL enter into discussion with the Technical Board regarding the future governance of that team. If that team, via its own current governance process, and the Technical Board, by vote, agree that that team should be placed under the governancee of the Technical Board, that team and the Technical Board SHALL then develop a process for bringing that team under the governance of the Technical Board and the manner in which the Technical Board will govern that team. Upon acceptance, by that team's own current governance process and by vote of the Technical Board, of the proposal, that team then SHALL come under the governance of the Technical Board, and the Technical Board SHALL have the power to govern that team accordingly.

For teams which are not yet under, or which do not transition to, the governance of the Technical Board, the following shall apply:

The Technical Board MAY make requests of those teams, and those teams SHOULD accommodate those requests when reasonable and practicable.
Those teams MAY make requests of the Technical Board, and the Technical Board SHOULD accommodate those requests when reasonable and practicable, provided that accommodating the request falls within the powers of the Technical Board.

In the event of a dispute between the Technical Board and a team not under the governance of the Technical Board, the DSF Board shall serve as mediator. Any member of the DSF Board who is also a member of the Technical Board or of the affected team MUST abstrain from the DSF Board's decision-making in such mediation. The decision of the DSF Board in the dispute SHALL be binding on both the Technical Board and the affected team.

Changing this governance process

Changes to this governance process shall be treated initially as Major Changes to Django, and as such shall require the use of the DEP process as described in DEP 1, with modifications as described below.

To reach the "accepted" state, a DEP proposing changes to this governance process must receive an outcome of "Accept" in a vote of the Technical Board with a score of at least 4, rather than the usual 3.
Once such a DEP reaches "accepted" status, the Technical Board MUST direct one of its members to notify the Secretary of the DSF, in writing, of the existence of an accepted DEP for changing the governance process.
The DSF Board SHALL hold a vote, at its earliest convenience, on a motion to adopt the proposed change. If the DSF Board rejects the motion, the governance process SHALL NOT change, and the Secretary of the DSF SHALL notify the Technical Board, in writing, of the DSF Board's objections to the proposal. The DEP then SHALL, as an exception to the process described in DEP 1, be returned to draft status. The DEP then MAY be revised and once again accepted by the Technical Board and notified to the DSF Board.
If the DSF Board accepts the motion, the DSF Board and the Technical Board SHALL then hold separate votes on the question of whether the proposed change is significant enough to require approval by the community at large. If both the DSF Board and the Technical Board determine that the proposal is not significant enough to require such approval, the proposal then SHALL be adopted and the DEP SHALL immediately begin implementation.
If the DSF Board and/or the Technical Board determine that the proposal is significant enough to require approval by the community at large, the DSF Board SHALL immediately call a special election. The qualifications of voters for the special election SHALL be the same as those for elections of the Technical Board, and all persons eligibble to vote for the Technical Board SHALL automatically be eligible to vote in the special election. As with elections of the Technical Board, there SHALL be a one-week period of voter registration, during which prospective voters MAY apply to the DSF Board for voting privileges. One week after that registration period closes, the special election will begin. Voting SHALL be by secret ballot. Each voter SHALL be presented with a ballot containing a link to the DEP, and links to any associated materials, and the question: "Shall the change to Django's governance, indicated above, be adopted?" Voters MAY vote "Yes", "No", or "Abstain" on the question. The election SHALL conclude one week after it begins. The DSF Board SHALL then tally the votes and produce a summary, including the total number of votes cast and the number of votes for each option. If at least a plurality of votes cast are for "Yes", the proposal then SHALL be adopted and the DEP SHALL immediately begin implementation. If "Yes" does not achieve at least a plurality of votes cast, the proposal then SHALL NOT be adopted and the DEP SHALL, as an exception to the process described in DEP 1, be returned to draft status. The DEP then MAY be revised to begin this process anew.

Adoption and implementation of this DEP

Mere acceptance of this DEP SHALL NOT be sufficient to proceed to implementation. To fully adopt and implement this DEP, the following process SHALL be used:

This DEP must be voted on by the current Django Core, and must attain the required threshold in that vote (as currently specified, 4/5 of votes cast in favor).
This DEP must be accepted by the current Django technical board without veto, in accordance with the DEP process.
As this DEP imposes significant new responsibilities on the DSF Board, the DSF Board must vote to accept it.
If the current Django technical board and the DSF Board agree, this proposal may be put to a final vote by the membership of the DSF, but such a vote is not an automatic requirement, and the current Django technical board and the DSF Board may determine the threshold for the proposal to pass, if they agree that such a vote is required.

Upon completion of the above steps, this DEP shall immediately take effect and become the governance process of the Django web framework:

Code push and package upload permissions will be revoked as necessary.
The then-current set of Django Fellows will automatically become both Mergers and Releasers.
The initial grant of the role of Django Core Developer will take place, to the appropriate individuals.
An election of the Technical Board will automatically be triggered.

Motivation

This section is informative.

Django has been a very successful open-source project, but faces certain threats to its long-term viability. Among those is the stagnation of the core development team; new members are added rarely, most people who have been members no longer actively participate, and development has for some time seemed to proceed on "autopilot", with the Django Fellows and a far smaller subset of contributors doing most of the work.

This is unsustainable.

Recruitment of new core developers is difficult for several reasons:

There is no clear path, currently, for a contributor to start out and then progress to eventual commit access and "core" status.
The existence of current "Django Core" has repeatedly been described as a discouragement, with potential contributors comparing themselves to what they perceive as the standard of "core" and feeling that they are not good enough.

Additionally, despite the worldwide reach of Django, members of "core" have tended to be relatively homogeneous, and no census of contributors to Django of any level produces results close to the actual demographics of Django's users.

This indicates that the current governance -- ad-hoc on the public mailing list, with a nebulous and often-inactive "core" and a purely reactive technical board -- is not succeeding in attracting contributors in regions and populations among whom use of Django is rapidly growing.

The primary goal of this proposal are:

To reform Django's governance to be more community-driven and less reliant (either in theory or in practice) on the people historically considered "core",
While preserving recognition of the historical contributions of the people in "core",
And formalizing the parts of Django's current governance that are working (such as a small number of people actually committing code) while replacing those which are not (such as the special status of "core" members in governance, and the purely reactive nature of the technical board).

It is accepted that this is only the first step in a process of encouraging and growing the number and diversity of contributors to Django, and that further steps will need to be taken. But although it is not sufficient to solve all of the above problems, this proposal, or something similar to it, is necessary to begin the process of solving these problems.

Rationale

This section is informative.

Dissolving or reorganizing Django core is a recurring issue within Django core, the broader community of Django developers, and the DSF. In particular, there seems to be a consensus to remove the perceived bump in governance status associated with membership in Django core, especially as many people who could claim this membership are no longer active in contributing to or shepherding the development of Django. This DEP attempts to act on that consensus by providing a concrete proposal.

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