[Haskell-cafe] Proposal to incorporate Haskell.org

Jason Dagit dagitj at gmail.com
Wed May 11 18:47:21 CEST 2011


I would like to add a big thank you to everyone involved and a huge thanks
to the SFC.

I believe this move is the right one and it will be tremendously valuable to
the community going forward.

Thanks!

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Don Stewart <dons00 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The intent is that all management of haskell.org infrastructure
> continues to be done by the haskell.org committee, following this
> charter (e.g. the team that has been making decisions about
> haskell.org servers and systems for the past 6 months):
>
>    http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell.org_committee
>
> So the day-to-day work of haskell.org that we all see remains with the
> community. The paper filing and legal work is done by the SFC support.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The process for the haskell.org committee itself was voted on last year:
>
>  *  The committee consists of 7 members. Members are expected to serve
> a 3 year term, and terms are staggered so that 2 or 3 members step
> down each year, at the end of October.
>
>  *  The members will elect one of their number to be chair each year.
> The chair is responsible for making sure that things keep moving, and
> to ensure that a conclusion is reached on any issues raised.
>
>  *    When a member steps down, either because they have reached the
> end of their term or because other circumstances require them to step
> down early, open self-nominations will be sought from the community
> via the haskell@ mailing list. Previous committee members, including
> those who have just stepped down, will also be eligible for
> nomination. The committee will then select a replacement from amongst
> those nominated.
>
>  *   Each year, the committee will post a statement of the haskell.org
> assets, and the transactions for that year. Some details may be
> omitted, e.g. for confidentiality of donors.
>
> Cheers,
>   Don
>
> On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 2:16 AM, Simon Peyton-Jones
> <simonpj at microsoft.com> wrote:
> > Dear haskell.org committee
> >
> > Great stuff.  Thanks for getting this together.
> >
> > Things I wondered about are:
> >        - who will run the haskell.org entity?
> >        - how are they chosen?  do they have fixed terms?
> >        - how are they accountable to the Haskell Community
> >          (eg an a brief annual report would be good;
> >             since money is involved, accounts perhaps)
> >
> > None of these look like being problems to me, but I think we should have
> a page that sets out these matters -- a kind of constitution for
> haskell.org, if you like -- as part of the process.
> >
> > Simon
> >
> > | -----Original Message-----
> > | From: libraries-bounces at haskell.org [mailto:
> libraries-bounces at haskell.org] On Behalf
> > | Of Don Stewart
> > | Sent: 10 May 2011 23:45
> > | To: haskell at haskell.org; Haskell Libraries; GHC Users Mailing List;
> haskell-cafe;
> > | committee at haskell.org
> > | Subject: Proposal to incorporate Haskell.org
> > |
> > | Hello everyone.
> > |
> > | The haskell.org committee[1], in the interest of the long-term
> stability
> > | of the open source Haskell community infrastructure, has decided to
> > | incorporate haskell.org as a legal entity. This email outlines our
> > | recommendation, and seeks input from the community on this decision.
> > |
> > | The committee's proposal is that haskell.org incorporate as an entity
> > | under the Software Freedom Conservancy umbrella organization (the same
> group
> > | that Darcs joined recently):
> > |
> > |     http://sfconservancy.org/
> > |
> > | If we proceed with this move, haskell.org will be a legal entity, and
> > | registered as a non-profit, allowing us to more directly accept
> > | (US tax-deductible) donations, and to invest in assets that benefit the
> > | Haskell open source community.
> > |
> > | We welcome your feedback on the proposal attached below.
> > |
> > | -- Don Stewart (on behalf of the Haskell.org committee)
> > |
> > |
> > |
> > |
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > |
> > | = A proposal for the incorporation of Haskell.org =
> > |
> > | In recent years, haskell.org has started to receive assets, e.g. money
> from
> > | Google Summer Of Code, donations for Hackathons, and a Sparc machine
> for use in
> > | GHC development. We have also started spending this money: in
> particular, on
> > | hosting haskell.org itself. There is also interest in running
> fundraising
> > | drives for specific things such as Hackathon sponsorship and hosting
> fees.
> > |
> > | However, haskell.org doesn't currently exist as a legal entity,
> meaning that
> > | these assets have had to be held on our behalf by other entities, such
> as
> > | Galois and various universities. This leads to tricky situations, with
> no-one
> > | being sure who should decide how the haskell.org assets can be used.
> > |
> > | To solve these problems, we propose that haskell.org applies to become
> a member
> > | project of the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC)
> > | <http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/>. The SFC is a non-profit
> organization
> > | that provides free financial and administrative services to open source
> > | projects. Additionally, it has 501(c)(3) status, meaning donations from
> the US
> > | are tax-deductible. The SFC would hold haskell.org's money and other
> assets,
> > | and would be able to accept donations on behalf of haskell.org.
> > |
> > | The haskell.org committee, as described here [2], will make decisions
> on
> > | spending assets and other decisions related to governing the
> non-profit.
> > |
> > |
> > | Before proceeding, we are inviting input from the community in the form
> > | of specific objections or queries regarding the plan.
> > |
> > | We've tried to answer some of the most likely questions:
> > |
> > | Q: Does this mean that my Haskell project must now be covered by a
> > |      copyleft licence such as GPL?
> > | A: No, but Haskell projects using haskell.org resource should use an
> > |     Open Source licence
> > |      <http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical>.
> > |
> > | Q: Will it still be possible to use community.h.o to host
> > |      non-open-source material, such as academic papers?
> > | A: An overall minority of such content, as is the current situation, is
> > |     not a problem.
> > |
> > | Q: Will it still be possible to have job ads on the haskell.orgmailing
> > |     lists and website?
> > | A: Yes.
> > |
> > | Q: Will this affect our ability to host the Haskell Symposium
> > |     <http://www.haskell.org/haskell-symposium/>  and Industrial
> Haskell
> > |     Group<http://industry.haskell.org/>  webpages within haskell.org?
> > | A: No.
> > |
> > | Q: What will be the relationship between haskell.org and other
> > |     organizations such as the Haskell Symposium and Industrial Haskell
> > |     Group?
> > | A: Those organisations will continue to exist as separate entities.
> > |
> > | Q: If an umbrella non-profit organisation "The Haskell Foundation" was
> > |     created, would haskell.org be able to join it?
> > | A: Yes. It's likely that in such a scenario, the Haskell Foundation
> > |     would become the owner of the haskell.org domain name, with the
> cost
> > |     divided between the members. The entity that is part of the SFC
> would
> > |     be renamed "community.haskell.org" in order to avoid confusion.
> > |
> > | [1]: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell.org_committee
> > | [2]:
> http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell.org_committee#Operation
> > |
> > | _______________________________________________
> > | Libraries mailing list
> > | Libraries at haskell.org
> > | http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
> >
> >
>
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