Project Harmony Launches Today

Apr 07, 2011

"Project Harmony is like Creative Commons for contributor agreements. We've set out to capture the best practices of free and open source software contributions, across a diverse array of project cultures, communities, and values." said Allison Randal, a community participant in Project Harmony. "The public review process for the Alpha versions of the documents launches today, and runs through May 6th. After a year of hard work by the original ~100 drafting volunteers, we're really looking forward to broader participation in this public review."

Project Harmony—community-centered group focused on contributor agreements (CAs) for free and open source software (FOSS)—was launched today by Amanda Brock, General Counsel for Canonical. There is a diverse group of individuals who make up this project and represents varying perspectives, experiences, communities, projects and more. This group comes together under their common belief in the future of FOSS and combines that common belief with their common interest in using their skills to the benefit of collaborative FOSS communities.

For those who would like to get involved in the project that seeks to "enable more people to contribute code, by reducing the cognitive cost and legal time of reviewing contribution agreements" can do so by joining the mailing list and IRC channel. Interested individuals can also help by participating in the public review process of the contributor agreements (alpha phase).

There is also a guide to the Harmony contributor agreement templates and the options a FOSS project may choose from. In addition there is an FAQ page which more information about the project, its overview, CAs, guide to the CAs, and provisions that were considered but not included can be found.

Related content

  • Apache's Ongoing Licensing Bout with Sun

    The recently updated Java Specification Requests (JSRs) show that the licensing battle between the Apache Software Foundation and Sun Microsystems (the force behind Java) still hasn't ended after raging for seven years.

    more »
  • Red Hat Signs Sun Agreements on Java SE Development

    Red Hat has signed the Sun’s Contributor Agreement and TCK License Agreement with the aim of developing an Open Source Java platform for RHEL.

    more »
  • Welcome

    The Linux Foundation launched the Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) as a bold stroke in 2014. The foundation, which stands astride the FOSS world and mediates between the realm of business and the hacker culture, started the CII as a reaction to the infamous Heartbleed bug, which shocked the open source faithful and left doubts about the security of FOSS technologies. The original goal of the CII was to "fund and support critical elements of the global information infrastructure," which sounded like a good idea. I didn't have high hopes for them doing much besides giving out money, but money is always good. In the business world, where the Linux Foundation keeps one foot, if you can't make a problem go away by denying it, the next best thing is to pounce on it dramatically and say, "We've got this under control!"

    more »
  • FOSS community, FOSS business, and the nature of allies
    more »
  • Miguel de Icaza and his ostracization from FOSS
    more »
comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Security Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source