The following draft text has been drawn up in order to clarify and further define the nomination and election process to OSM board positions. We invite you to submit your feedback via the Joomla! People site link at the bottom. Thank you! 

Elections: Two calendar periods are generally planned for elections each year: April and October. Exceptions can be made if the board vitally needs specific skills (for example, if the Treasurer leaves).

Number of Board members: The recommended number of board members to carry out the responsibilities of OSM is 13. This number may fluctuate up to 15 or down to 11.

Term Limits: Board appointments will be for one 2-year period with exceptions possible if the board vitally needs specific skills (Treasurer, Legal Council). OSM may renew terms when it is determined that continuity in a role will best ensure the success of current projects. All board members should maintain instructional documents for the smooth transitioning of new members.

Selection Criteria:

• Community: nominees should have a strong track record of successfully collaborating with, enabling others, and earning the respect of the Joomla! community.
• Character: nominees should have demonstrated integrity, with a history of acting honestly, fairly and openly when in leadership roles.
• Experience and Expertise: nominees being proposed for specific roles should have strong experience and expertise in those areas.
• Success: nominees should be able to point to a history of success and leaving previous roles in a better state than when they arrived.
• Diversity: our goal is to work toward, and honor gender and cultural diversity. We are committed to seeking nominations from all talented and dedicated members of our international Joomla! community.

Election Procedure:

• Public nominations open on the 1st of the month and close on the 14th. Nominations must be made with the agreement of the nominee.
• The OSM board examines the candidates and suggests names to the Community Oversight Committee (COC) before the end of the month.
• The COC approval takes 10 business days to approve or reject the names.
• OSM contacts the successful and unsuccessful nominees. 

Click here for discussion and feedback on the Joomla! People site.

With Joomla 1.6 nearing completion the thoughts of many have been turning to "the next step":

• What features would you like to see in the next version?
• Where do you see Joomla heading over the next release cycle and beyond?
• What do you think Joomla should look like over the next several iterations? And so on.

There are two extremes on the scale of viewpoints about how open source projects should be run. At one extreme, we have the "benevolent dictator" approach where a single leader decides, in isolation, what will be incorporated into the codebase and what will not. At the opposite extreme, we have a project where all decisions are taken in the democratic tradition of a majority vote.

Of course, Joomla has never been, nor should it ever be, at either of these extremes. But it's fair to say that the gradual evolution of the project has seen us move further from the dictatorial towards the democratic end of the spectrum. We have always sought to be a community-led project; our leadership teams are drawn from the community and as leaders, we manage the project on behalf of the community. There is no large corporation or individual dictator with an overwhelming influence on us and the commercial prosperity of the Joomla ecosystem is in large part due to the decentralised, non-profit nature of the organisation.

So how should we steer the future development of the software that we create? Over the 5 years or so since the project's inception, we have been systematically lowering barriers to participation and today we are launching a new process for gathering suggestions for future versions of Joomla that will make it even easier for members of our global community to help shape the future development of the software. This new process comes in two parts, the first of which is aimed at collecting ideas for new features and assessing their popularity through a voting system, while the second is a formal procedure for monitoring and tracking feature suggestions.

New ideas come from many places and can come from anyone in the community. We like to use the Google Group mailing lists for the CMS since it's a great place to brainstorm, but the Joomla People site also works well; or indeed anywhere Joomla folks congregate. The Joomla Idea Pool (JIP), which is based on UserVoice, is a way for anyone in the community to make their voice heard and help set priorities. Each user has ten votes to cast on the various ideas, which will help make clear what future features the community really wants.

It is important to understand that not all features will be added to Joomla. This may happen for a number of reasons. For example, there may be a great feature proposed but either nobody volunteers to take it on, or the PLT decides it is better implemented as a separate extension rather than part of the core CMS or Platform. Our hope is that many or all of the most popular features on the JIP will have a strong chance of attracting energetic development talent to complete them. Once a feature has moved to the implementation stage, it starts its journey along the second part of our new process by getting added to the Joomla Feature Tracker.

The Joomla Feature Tracker (JFT) is the team's way of tracking the progress of a feature and encouraging more collaboration during development. Once an idea has reached the point where it has some level of support and is ready for more serious discussion, or even coding, then it can and should be added to the JFT. This allows it to be tracked more easily and acts as a focal point for activity regarding a new feature. There is more detailed explanation of how items will be moved through the JFT process on the Joomla Developer Network site.

To get this new process started the PLT has seeded the JIP with the feature suggestions that we discussed at the San Jose Summit and which together comprise our vision for the next Joomla release. You can read our vision statement in an announcement on the main joomla.org site.

So, for those asking the question "where next for Joomla development?", we say remember what Alan Kay famously said:

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

So get on over to the Joomla Idea Pool now and help us invent the future of Joomla.

Over the last five years Joomla has seen exponential growth.  We see this happening in not only the market share of sites that use Joomla, but also in the community that supports it.  Having a common goal of making Joomla better and a community structure that encourages each individual's creative spirit to be free has brought our CMS to places that were once only dreamed of.

During the joint summit in San Jose the growth and empowerment of the community was discussed.  Part of that discussion included the inherent need to document the structure and shared values for all people participating in the community.  The result of that documentation is below in the Community Code of Conduct.  Being part of a community like Joomla comes with great rewards - the largest of which is the satisfaction of knowing that you have done something positive to help society.  Anne Frank said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."  Each member of the community has this opportunity with Joomla.  To help bring the best positive methods of this to the forefront, this document was drafted.

Prior to this, only a Volunteer Code of Conduct existed.  What you see below has been taken from the Volunteer Code of Conduct and applied community-wide.  A seperate Volunteer Guidelines will be published at a later date for feedback and comments.  For now, however, please provide feedback and comments on this draft version of the Community Code of Conduct.  The goal is for this Community Code of Conduct to apply to all members of the community and all volunteers.

Community Code of Conduct

This document outlines the code of conduct for everyone interacting with other people on any of the official Joomla community resources. By participating, you agree to the following principles:

Be Considerate

You are interacting with people in the community, so be considerate of how your words and  actions affect others in the community.

Be Respectful

A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. All members of Joomla community should be respectful when dealing with others in the community as well as with people from outside projects and initiatives.

Everyone can make a valuable contribution to Joomla.  We might all experience some frustration from time to time, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack; disagreement is not an excuse for poor behavior or poor manners.

Avoid becoming involved in flame wars, trolling, personal attacks, and repetitive arguments that are not respectful of others’ time. Take these matters "outside" (off-list, etc) if it helps resolve the situation. Do not use community resources for personal or business arguments or agendas.

Be Straightforward

In the Joomla community it is important that you speak for yourself in discussions.  Quoting other community members is often necessary, but be considerate of the fact that context is a very important part of the meaning of what others say. Avoid quoting if it creates a different meaning than what was originally said.

Be Collaborative

Joomla is free software and about collaboration and working together. Collaboration reduces redundancy of work done. It improves the quality of the software produced regardless of whether you are writing code or performing some other task.

When you disagree, consult others. Disagreements happen all the time, and Joomla is no exception. Disagreement, debate and constructive criticism is often how progress is made and is a necessary part of doing complex work in a team. The important goal is not to avoid disagreements or differing views, but to resolve them constructively.

Above all, don't make conflicts personal. Debate should never include reference to a person’s nationality, gender, orientation, beliefs, religion or other personal characteristics.

When you are unsure, ask for help. Nobody knows everything. Nobody is expected to be perfect. Asking questions avoids many problems down the road. Questions are encouraged. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful. Working Group Coordinators and Team Leaders may be able to help you to decide which direction will be most acceptable. However, when asking a question do it in an appropriate forum. Off-topic questions, such as requests for help on a development mailing list, detract from productive discussion.

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I'm pleased to announce that Phil Locke, a recent addition to the OSM Board of Directors, has been appointed Capital Committee Chair today.  His efforts will be critical to the project's success in income generation, and I'm excited to have him leading our team in this role.

Here's a quick overview of this position's responsibilities.

Capital Committee Chair

• Leader of all income generation efforts by OSM
• Manages a team of individuals that ensure the success of OSM's fundraising, sponsorships, advertising, and partnerships
• Communicates with the OSM team regularly regarding the outcomes of activities
• Liaises with the other leadership teams where appropriate to leverage internal resources in an effort to make campaigns successful
• Liaises with the community to harvest new ideas, obtain feedback on campaigns, and spread income generating efforts wider
• Ensures the satisfaction of our sponsors

Phil has expressed to me that he'll be following up with the community soon with his vision for immediate next steps.  Congratulations Phil, and thank you for leading up on this important effort!

Discuss this post on the Joomla! People site.

The Board of Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM) has elected Paul Orwig as Treasurer of the organization. He replaces Steve Burge, who had been appointed as Acting Treasurer on the 10th of August 2010.

Paul has been an outstanding member of the Joomla Community and was recently appointed to the OSM board. Paul has previously been on Joomla! Community Leadership Team, the Lead editor for the Joomla! Community Magazine, and a Webmaster for the Joomla! community portal. 

The OSM board wishes to express thanks to Paul for serving in this important role and Steve for having assisted during the transition.

Please leave your comments over at http://people.joomla.org/