User:Sethwoodworth/MembershipDraft

OLPC Community Membership

There is a large number of volunteers who contribute or would like to contribute to OLPC's goals. Some of these people are developers, some are educators and many of these people fall into any number of other groups. There is a matter of pride in being a developer or a support-gangster at OLPC. And participation in these venues is somewhat formalized and well understood. Expectations are defined and there is a framework to volunteer within. Currently there isn't a framework or structure for other types of volunteers to get involved.

I see several methods to foster this structure, among them a Human Participation Interface or an official community liaison. My proposal is much along the lines of systems in place at Ubuntu, Gnome, Wikipedia and much like Mel's SG Restructuring proposal. I propose to create an OLPC Volunteer-Membership structure.

FOSS Membership

Ubuntu and Gnome already have very similar membership systems in place. "Substantial contributors" in development, Grassroots org, documentation, or graphic design are all eligible for Membership in their structures. The requirements basically involve over three months of involvement, community support, and documented contributions. Although Wikipedia doesn't involve the same sort of community structure (far more ad-hoc), they seem to treat admin-ship as a reward/acknowledgment for dedicated contributions and commitment over time.

OLPC Membership

Membership at OLPC would provide several benefits to the OLPC organization as a whole, as well as benefits to volunteer members. While users who drop in for short amounts of time to contribute small amounts to OLPC are very useful, the greatest utility is from volunteers who have been around OLPC's community to have been trained in the basics of Git, our Wiki, IRC, various mailing lists, and of course the XO hardware and software. Becoming a member of OLPC would likely involve active projects that a volunteer is working on. Also, as evident in the OLPC-health project, there aren't enough people at OLPC to oversee and coordinate (but not administer) on going projects that the community is interested in. Having access to @laptop email addresses, able to set up phone conferences and discuss OLPC events as a more official contributor to OLPC would provide a lot of support and framework to languishing projects. But OLPC isn't the only party to benefit from Membership.

Volunteers would also have a strong incentive to become full members. As members they would have access to an email redirect like @ubuntu.com and @gnome.org provide their members (although this may end up being @member.laptop.org). Members would also have better access to phone conference lines and other OLPC resources. Also there have been several attempts to set up a community panel for vetting and distributing XO's through the developer's program. Who better to decide on laptop contributors getting laptops than trained and committed volunteers.

The most important factor in maintaining volunteers, especially in an online project, is a feeling of ownership on the part of volunteer. Membership can provide this sense of ownership as well providing ownership and responsibility in a real sense within OLPC.

It should also be noted that an 'insider's track already exists to some degree in our volunteer community. The volunteer Support Gang is privy to sensitive materials, and is often given access to additional information and resources. Also Wiki adminship is given on the basis of the testimonials of fellow volunteers. So parts of this membership proposal already exist within our community.

Moving forward

A membership system isn't something that simply agreed upon by a group of volunteers, nor can the project be handed down fully-formed from OLPC. A consensus must be found among current volunteers and OLPC. Please add any questions/comments/concerns below.

Discussion

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