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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<title>Git for Windows</title>
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<h1 id="git-for-windows-governance-model">Git for Windows governance model</h1>
<h2 id="overview">Overview</h2>
<p><em>Git for Windows</em> is led by a benevolent dictator (Johannes Schindelin) and managed by the community. That is,
the community actively contributes to the day-to-day maintenance of the project, but the general strategic
line is drawn by the benevolent dictator. In case of disagreement, they have the last word. It is the
benevolent dictator’s job to resolve disputes within the community and to ensure that the project is able to
progress in a coordinated way. In turn, it is the community’s job to guide the decisions of the benevolent
dictator through active engagement and contribution.</p>
<h2 id="roles-and-responsibilities">Roles and responsibilities</h2>
<h3 id="benevolent-dictator-project-lead">Benevolent dictator (project lead)</h3>
<p>Typically, the benevolent dictator, or project lead, is self-appointed. However, because the community
always has the ability to fork, this person is fully answerable to the community. The project lead’s role is a
<a href="http://producingoss.com/html-chunk/social-infrastructure.html#benevolent-dictator-qualifications">difficult one</a>:
they set the strategic objectives of the project and communicate these clearly to the
community. They also have to understand the community as a whole and strive to satisfy as many
conflicting needs as possible, while ensuring that the project survives in the long term.</p>
<p>In many ways, the role of the benevolent dictator is less about dictatorship and more about
diplomacy. The key is to ensure that, as the project expands, the right people are given influence
over it and the community rallies behind the vision of the project lead. The lead’s job is then to ensure
that the committers (see below) make the right decisions on behalf of the project. Generally speaking,
as long as the committers are aligned with the project’s strategy, the project lead will allow them to
proceed as they desire.</p>
<h3 id="committers">Committers</h3>
<p>Committers are contributors who have made several valuable contributions to the project and are
now relied upon to both write code directly to the repository and screen the contributions of others. In
many cases they are programmers but it is also possible that they contribute in a different
<a href="http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/rolesinopensource">role</a>. Typically, a committer will focus on a
specific aspect of the project, and will bring a level of expertise and understanding that earns them
the respect of the community and the project lead. The role of committer is not an official one, it is
simply a position that influential members of the community will find themselves in as the project lead
looks to them for guidance and support.</p>
<p>Committers have no authority over the overall direction of the project. However, they do have the ear
of the project lead. It is a committer’s job to ensure that the lead is aware of the community’s needs
and collective objectives, and to help develop or elicit appropriate contributions to the project. Often,
committers are given informal control over their specific areas of responsibility, and are assigned
rights to directly modify certain areas of the source code. That is, although committers do not have
explicit decision-making authority, they will often find that their actions are synonymous with the
decisions made by the lead.</p>
<h3 id="contributors">Contributors</h3>
<p>Contributors are community members who either have no desire to become committers, or have not
yet been given the opportunity by the benevolent dictator. They make valuable contributions, such as
those outlined in the list below, but generally do not have the authority to make direct changes to the
project code. Contributors engage with the project through communication tools, such as the
<a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/git-for-windows">mailing list</a>,
<a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows">GitHub</a>, via <a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues">reports of issues</a>
and via <a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pulls">pull requests</a> in the issue tracker, as detailed in our
<a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/How-to-participate">how to participate</a> document.</p>
<p>Anyone can become a contributor. There is no expectation of commitment to the project, no specific
skill requirements and no selection process. To become a contributor, a community member simply
has to perform one or more actions that are beneficial to the project.</p>
<p>Some contributors will already be engaging with the project as users, but will also find themselves
doing one or more of the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>supporting new users (current users often provide the most effective new user support)</li>
<li>reporting bugs</li>
<li>identifying requirements</li>
<li>supplying graphics and web design</li>
<li>programming</li>
<li>assisting with project infrastructure</li>
<li>writing documentation</li>
<li>fixing bugs</li>
<li>adding features</li>
</ul>
<p>As contributors gain experience and familiarity with the project, they may find that the project lead
starts relying on them more and more. When this begins to happen, they gradually adopt the role of
committer, as described above.</p>
<h3 id="users">Users</h3>
<p>Users are community members who have a need for the project. They are the most important
members of the community: without them, the project would have no purpose. Anyone can be a user;
there are no specific requirements.</p>
<p>Users should be encouraged to participate in the life of the project and the community as much as
possible. User contributions enable the project team to ensure that they are satisfying the needs of
those users. Common user activities include (but are not limited to):</p>
<ul>
<li>evangelising about the project</li>
<li>informing developers of project strengths and weaknesses from a new user’s perspective</li>
<li>providing moral support (a ‘thank you’ goes a long way)</li>
<li>providing financial support</li>
</ul>
<p>Users who continue to engage with the project and its community will often find themselves becoming
more and more involved. Such users may then go on to become contributors, as described above.</p>
<h2 id="support">Support</h2>
<p>All participants in the community are encouraged to provide support for new users within the project
management infrastructure. This support is provided as a way of growing the community. Those
seeking support should recognise that all support activity within the project is voluntary and is
therefore provided as and when time allows. A user requiring guaranteed response times or results
should therefore seek to purchase a support contract from a vendor. (Of course, that vendor should
be an active member of the community.) However, for those willing to engage with the project on its
own terms, and willing to help support other users, the community support channels are ideal.</p>
<h2 id="contribution-process">Contribution process</h2>
<p>Anyone can contribute to the project, regardless of their skills, as there are many ways to contribute.
For instance, a contributor might be active on the project mailing list and issue tracker, or might supply
<a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pulls">pull requests</a>. The various ways of contributing are described
in more detail in our <a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/How-to-participate">how to participate</a> document.</p>
<p>The <em>Git for Windows</em> <a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues">issue tracker</a> is the most appropriate
place for a contributor to ask for help when making their first contribution. Please also read the projects
<a href="https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Issue-reporting-guidelines">issue reporting guidelines</a></p>
<h2 id="decision-making-process">Decision-making process</h2>
<p>The benevolent dictatorship model does not need a formal conflict resolution process, since the
project lead’s word is final. If the community chooses to question the wisdom of the actions of a
committer, the project lead can review their decisions by checking the email archives, and either
uphold or reverse them.</p>
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