Post Open Deliverables List
Bruce Perens <[email protected]> 9-December-2024 This list covers the deliverables of the Post Open project.
The documents and other products here are to be created by the officers, volunteers, other participants as part of public review, and our attorneys.
- Post Open License
Status: Draft exists, is in the hands of attorneys for editing. The Post Open license is the license applied to copyrightable products that are part of the Post Open Collection. While it would mainly be applied to software, it can also be applied to documentation, AI training models, and gate-array bitstreams.
We do not recommend its application to hardware schematics and most designs of physical objects, because of a mostly-incorrect assumption that these things could be protected under copyright. They are properly the domain of patent, and copyright protection extends to the textual document rather than the physical implementation.
While previously there was a Post Open Zero Cost License and a Post Open Paid License, we plan to integrate the text into one document. This would leave us with two uses of the same document: one with implicit consent, and one with explicit consent. Paid use and some other conditions would require explicit consent, informal use of the software would mainly by implicit consent, although we might make explicit consent part of the process to be admitted to our online communities.
The text has been created by Bruce Perens and our attorneys say that delivery of their first reviewed version is imminent. There would be some iteration and public review, but delivery of this document has high confidence. - Post Open Operating Agreement
Status: To be written. This is the agreement executed by all developers with the Post Open Administration, and defines the developer’s interaction with Post Open. It requires positive identification of developers and a secure chain-of-custody so that back-doors, etc. are not inserted into software. It defines the handling of cryptographic devices issued by the Post Open Administration and requires their return when ordered. It makes various security violations explicitly a breach of contract, and informs of the potential of criminal prosecution. It requires cooperation in investigations regarding the security of the Post Open Collection. It defines the obligation of the project to pay developers in certain cases. It defines the process for handling a deceased or unresponsive party for payment processing, and defines a list of heirs and assigns. It grants the Post Open Administration the permission to represent the interest of the developer in legal proceedings involving software in the Post Open Collection, so that there can be one plaintiff or defendant (perhaps mostly in patent defense) for enforcing the license and in other legal proceedings. It will handle additional issues not stated here.
This document has not yet been drafted, and would require legal review. - Organizational Formation
Status: Not started. We plan to form a California Mutual Benefit Corporation and subsequently register it under rule 501(c)4 of the US Internal Revenue Service, or other statutes as appropriate, to operate Post Open. This is a 6-8 month procedure with some significant paperwork.
At some point later we may form a 501(c)3 charitable foundation to receive donations and fund activities in the public benefit, but this is left for later.
This would require advice of counsel on legal and tax issues. Califoria is preferred for the ANTI- SLAPP law and in general progressive legal structure. Mr. Perens has participated in several organization formations, and is able to do the paperwork with advice of counsel. - Status: Finished. Code of Conduct
After an early series of incidents that are unpleasant to discuss, and the actual implementation of safe spaces for women at some conferences, the need became obvious for Open Source projects to implement a code of conduct. Fortunately the nasty stuff seems to have gone away (along with perhaps a relatively few actual perpetrators) but the projects have had trouble with use of their codes of conduct to suppress dissent and to abridge the right of political expression outside of the project.
We created a new code of conduct to deal with these issues and many others. The document exists and is stable. - Remediation Process
Status: Not started. This is the process for parties that have infringed the copyrights of software in the Post Open Collection or breached the contract in the Post Open License to come back into compliance, settling the issue with the Post Open Administration, on behalf of the developers, at minimum expense and pain.
This document has not yet been created, but Mr. Perens has commercially implemented and administered such processes for a number of companies. - Web Site
Status: Finished (it's this web site). This is a re-creation of the current Post Open web site, in a system other than Wordpress. We are presently contemplating Odoo. - Status: Not started. Automated Business Facilities
This is the creation of facilites for parties to sign on the the Post Open License, to be enrolled as a developer, and to participate in remediation, via web interfaces. We are considering using Odoo for these. - Status: Not Started. GIT Repository
This is the creation of an online system derived from GitLab to provide the code repository for the Post Open Collection. In the case of projects which already operate a git repository (most of them, at the start) this will mirror an external repository and there will be an automated means for the developer to set up mirroring. - Backup System
Status: Partial. Daily backups are performed by the server vendor. This is the creation of at least two off-site backups of all content, updated daily or more frequently. At least one month of daily backups shall remain available, and backups of greater granularity (for example weekly) over longer periods. - Publication
Status. Not Started. For reasons of copyright protection and compliance with munitions export law (ITAR and EAR in the US), the Post Open Collection must be published. The collection will be registered as a periodical with the US Library of Congress, and a monthly Blu-Ray disc (or later multiple discs) will be produced of the Post Open Collection and deposited with the Library of Congress. This will also serve as an additional backup. This publication will be available for purchase or subscription. - Compliance Process
Status: Not Started. The compliance process is the annual process through which a paid licensee complies with the Post Open License. A CPA will be contracted to operate this process, under NDA (we use the Bonterms NDA), to keep the compliance information of individual companies from the Post Open Administration. The CPA will also receive payment on our behalf, and deposit it as an aggregate, so that we have totals but not the amount paid by individual companies (which indicates their revenue). The document describing how the licensee operates compliance will be made an appendix to the Post Open license. Online facilites for upload of the compliance data and payment will be created, but must be operated and further maintained by a separate party, under NDA, to sequester the information that they handle from the Post Open Administration. - ID Process
Status: Committee convened. The ID process is used to provide developers with a textual ID (it looks like an email address, and can work as one) and a cryptographic device that verifies their identity (PKI or 2FA tokens are available for less than $20/unit). A textual modification to the ID will be used to designate the beneficiary of any payment regarding software checked in to the git repository. This will be the developer themselves, an employer or contracting party in case of a work-for-hire, or the developer’s favorite charity. A process will be developed to register these third parties and operate a payment account for them.
A volunteer is currently developing this process along with the privacy policy. - Privacy Policy
Status: Committee convened. This defines privacy policy and processes of the project and makes requirements and recommendations for privacy policy to be implemented by software in the Post Open Collection. This is required for compliance with various laws.
A volunteer is currently developing this process. - Apportionment System
Status: Not Started. This project will develop the first generation of the system to determine what to pay developers. This will include a system to map legacy git IDs to Post Open IDs, to scan the git repository for a project for check-ins, accounting for the contribution of each developer by line-count, accounting for the persistence of a contribution in the context of overlapping check-ins, and avoiding attribution to developers for simple operations like reformatting existing content. This information will be combined with the usage information conveyed by paid users in their compliance documents, and the amount paid per program, to determine an amount to be apportioned to each programmer or documentation writer. This information will be transferred to a system for issuance of payment using the developer’s enrollment data, probably implemented on Odoo.
The first-generation will be capable of handling the first few years of operation of Post Open, but is not assumed to be the final version, and will give us time to learn information critical to the production of a final version. The implementation language will be compiled and relatively fast, but geared toward rapid development. We are considering the Crystal language. - Presentations and Displays
Status: Waiting for Funding. This is the continuing promotion of Post Open through presentations at conferences, for which a travel and lodging budget has been submitted, and also displays or booths at conferences for further promotion and for the attendees to learn about Post Open in greater detail. This is to result in activities at 10 to 12 conferences throughout a year. - PR and Publicity
Status: Operating. The Post Open project has continued to use publicity for promotion, developing continuing relationships with editors and reporters and resulting in the publication of many articles throughout the year, without an advertising cost. We will promote press coverage resulting in at least 12 published articles. - Staff Acquisition
Status: Not Started. Early in the funding period we would take on a second officer as a full-time employee. Late in the funding period we would take on fractional CFO under contract. - Funding Development
Status: Operating. We would solicit additional funding from some number of sources to keep us operating until Post Open could be self-sufficient. This would be in progress by the half-year period.