Governance
Transparent governance for a vendor-neutral educational nonprofit.
The foundation operates under a written charter, an open RFC process, and a multi-body voting structure designed to protect public benefit, prevent capture, and reward technical contribution.
Governance Structure
Three coordinating bodies. One process.
Board of Directors
Sets foundation strategy, approves the budget, ratifies bylaws, and oversees executive direction. Directors are elected by the membership; no Board seat is conferred by dues or contribution level. A single Founding Director seat is held by the founder during the foundation's seven-year formation period and converts to an elected seat thereafter.
Technical Steering Committee
Oversees the standards process across all working groups. Resolves cross-group conflicts, ratifies new working group charters, and maintains the RFC lifecycle.
Working Groups
Where the work happens. Each working group has a public charter, an elected chair, and a voting membership. Working groups produce and ratify the foundation's specifications.
Membership Governance
How participation and election eligibility work.
All members may stand for election to the Board and Technical Steering Committee. No seat is allocated by membership tier or contribution level — the table below describes baseline eligibility, not reserved seats.
| Tier | Working Group Vote | TSC Vote | Board Seat Eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | Yes | Eligible | Yes |
| Startup | Yes | Eligible | Yes |
| Research | Yes | Eligible | Yes (research seats) |
| Community | Yes (chair-confirmed) | Observer | Yes (community seat) |
No tier may hold more than 33% of seats on any single working group.
Policies
Foundation policy documents.
Antitrust Policy
Standard consortium antitrust guidelines. No discussion of pricing, customers, or competitive strategy in foundation forums.
Conflict-of-Interest Policy
Board members and working group chairs disclose commercial conflicts. Conflicts trigger recusal from related votes.
Working Group Procedures
Charter requirements, election procedures, quorum rules, and dispute escalation paths.
Voting Procedures
Approval thresholds for charters, drafts, and final standards. Lazy consensus for editorial changes; supermajority for final ratification.
Working Group Procedures
How a new working group is chartered.
- 01
A proposal is submitted to the Technical Steering Committee with a draft charter and at least three sponsoring members.
- 02
The TSC reviews scope overlap with existing groups. If scope is novel, the proposal advances to public comment.
- 03
Public comment period lasts 30 days. The proposing members refine the charter based on feedback.
- 04
The TSC votes on ratification. A two-thirds majority is required to charter the new working group.
- 05
Once chartered, the working group elects a chair and steering committee from its voting membership.
- 06
The working group begins producing pre-drafts and follows the foundation RFC process from there.
Operating Principles
Non-negotiables for the foundation.
- All working group meetings are public unless explicitly chartered otherwise.
- All draft and final specifications are public; no member tier receives privileged or early access.
- All standards are published under a permissive open license with patent non-assertion.
- No single vendor may control a working group or steering committee.
- All votes and decisions are recorded in the public foundation registry.
- Reference implementations are required before any specification reaches final status.
- Funding sources, sponsorships, and grants are disclosed annually in the foundation transparency report.
- No part of foundation earnings inures to the benefit of any private member, officer, or director.
- Sponsor recognition is limited to qualified sponsorship acknowledgment; no advertising, endorsement, or qualitative product claims.
- The foundation does not participate in political campaigns and limits lobbying to an insubstantial portion of its activities.