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author | Kai T. Ohlhus <k.ohlhus@gmail.com> |
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date | Sun, 29 May 2022 01:25:16 +0900 |
parents | fbe0260e079a |
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--- layout: page title: Governance icon: <i class="fas fa-landmark"></i> footer: true permalink: governance --- This page should clarify about the various entities and actors around the GNU Octave programming language. ### GNU Octave The **GNU Octave** project was initialized 1992 by [John W. Eaton <jwe@octave.org>](mailto:jwe@octave.org). It consists of a [software source code repository](https://www.octave.org/hg/octave) and a community of people who work on that code. The most clear cut line that can be drawn is that there is a [set of people](https://savannah.gnu.org/project/memberlist.php?group=octave) who have commit access to the source code repository: there are currently 24 committers (10 active and 14 dormant). This set of people doesn’t really define the entire project. Additionally, there are many people who are prolific contributors to the GNU Octave ecosystem but who do not have “[commit bit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committer#Commit_bit).” The communal nature of open-source makes it difficult to precisely define where the GNU Octave project ends and the greater community begins, which is exactly how we like it. Finally, most development and donation spending decisions are made by or agreed with John W. Eaton. ### Free Software Foundation (FSF) The FSF <https://www.fsf.org/> is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promoting computer user freedom. With the help of the FSF, both individuals and corporations have the opportunity to [donate to the GNU Octave project](https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=10). Despite the free usage of the FSF infrastructure for distributing the GNU Octave source code, the project does not receive any direct or indirect monetary funding by the FSF. ### Related organizations with no governance role There are organizations that people sometimes mistakenly believe have some kind of official control over the GNU Octave project. This section details three of them, but please note that neither has any official relationship to the GNU Octave project, nor any governance capacity with respect to the project. Individuals who have some control over the project and happen to belong to these organizations, have that control as individuals and not as members of those organizations. Those individuals take the separation of those roles quite seriously. #### Octave Forge and Octave Packages **Octave Forge** <https://octave.sourceforge.io/> is the former collection of software packages, that can be easily installed and used with GNU Octave. The Octave SourceForge project was initiated in 2000 and active development stopped in 2018. New packages are not accepted, but existing packages are still maintained. The project lists [56 members](https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/_members/) (10 active and 46 dormant) maintaining existing Octave packages, but not the source code of GNU Octave itself. **Octave Packages** <https://gnu-octave.github.io/packages/> is another collection of Octave packages and intended successor of **Octave Forge**. New packages are accepted here and the development of Octave packages is independent of GNU Octave itself. #### GitHub Organization The GitHub Organization <https://github.com/gnu-octave/> was established around 2020. It is a loose connection of currently [27 members](https://github.com/orgs/gnu-octave/people) (10 active and 14 dormant) developing software intended to be used with GNU Octave (including **Octave Packages**), but not the source code of GNU Octave itself. ### Questions If you have any questions about GNU Octave's governance structure, please reach out via email to [John W. Eaton <jwe@octave.org>](mailto:jwe@octave.org). This page is inspired by the [JuliaLang project](https://julialang.org/governance/).