Governance
Transparent governance for a vendor-neutral consortium.
The foundation operates under a written charter, an open RFC process, and a multi-tier voting structure designed to protect neutrality, 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. Seats are allocated across enterprise, startup, research, and community categories.
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 votes are allocated across the ecosystem.
| 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 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 are disclosed annually in the foundation transparency report.