Hi,

one of the objectives that I was given, when I started as Xen.org community manager was to learn about the unwritten rules of how Xen.org governance works, write them down and make some improvement proposals. At this point, I wanted to present my findings and also make an improvement proposal. Governance changes can be quite divisive, which is why we are going to consult you and ask for input. The proposal has already been reviewed by key stake-holders in the community and by the Xen Advisory Board. The feedback we have received, has so far been positive.

The detailed proposal can be found on http://www.xen.org/files/Proposals/XenGovernanceProposal1.pdf and essentially consists of three parts:

Basic principles describing how the community works: these are Openness, Transparency, Meritocracy and Consensus Decision Making
Key roles in the community: these are Maintainers, Project leads and a lightweight nomination and election process
A lightweight project life cycle that shows how a project gets from an idea to maturity and is eventually archived. There is also a section on how this works in practice.

If you are a contributor to Xen.org or an otherwise active community member, please review the preoposal (http://www.xen.org/files/Proposals/XenGovernanceProposal1.pdf). We also created a poll (http://www.xen.org/polls/governance_proposal1.html) to find out whether the proposal resonates with you. The poll will be open for 4 weeks (until Jun 7th).

Best Regards
Lars