Governance Principles

The Open Buro Alliance governance model is built on five non-negotiable principles:

  • Neutrality — No single organization can hold a majority vote or veto power. The standard serves the ecosystem, not its largest contributor.
  • Transparency — All governance meetings, decisions, and votes are public. Meeting minutes are published. The roadmap is visible to everyone.
  • Meritocracy — Influence is earned through contribution, not purchased through membership fees. Code, specifications, documentation, and community work all count.
  • Inclusivity — Any organization or individual can participate. Barriers to entry are kept minimal. Governance structures actively prevent concentration of power.
  • Accountability — Governance bodies report to the community. Regular elections. Term limits. Public conflict-of-interest declarations.

Governance Structure

Three tiers ensure balanced decision-making:

Steering Committee

The strategic body that sets the long-term direction of the standard. Composed of representatives from founding members, elected community representatives, and independent technical experts. Meets quarterly. All minutes published.

  • Sets the annual roadmap priorities
  • Approves new specification versions
  • Manages Alliance membership and partnerships
  • Oversees budget and resource allocation

Technical Committee

The working body that develops and maintains the standard specifications. Open participation — anyone can propose, review, and contribute to specifications through the public RFC process.

  • Manages the specification lifecycle (draft, review, accepted, deprecated)
  • Runs working groups on specific domains (identity, navigation, data, AI, security)
  • Reviews and approves reference implementations
  • Maintains the conformance test suite

Community Forum

The open space where all stakeholders participate in discussions, propose ideas, and provide feedback. No membership required.

  • Public discussion of all RFCs and proposals
  • Community voting on non-binding advisory polls
  • Working group participation open to all
  • Annual community summit (in-person and remote)

Decision-Making Process

Decisions follow a structured, transparent process:

  1. Proposal — Anyone can submit an RFC (Request for Comments) through the public repository. Proposals must include motivation, specification changes, and backward compatibility analysis.
  2. Discussion — 30-day public comment period. All feedback is recorded and addressed by the proposal author.
  3. Technical Review — The Technical Committee evaluates feasibility, coherence with existing specifications, and implementation impact.
  4. Vote — The relevant committee votes. Simple majority for technical decisions, supermajority (2/3) for governance changes. All votes are recorded and public.
  5. Implementation — Accepted proposals enter the specification with a target version. Reference implementations follow.

Membership

The Alliance welcomes four categories of members:

Category Who Rights
Founding Members Organizations that initiated the standard (LINAGORA, DINUM) Steering Committee seat, full voting rights
Contributing Members Organizations actively implementing or extending the standard Technical Committee participation, voting rights on specifications
Associate Members Organizations endorsing and promoting the standard Community Forum participation, advisory voting
Individual Contributors Developers, designers, writers contributing to the standard Community Forum participation, RFC submission, working group membership

Inspiration

Open Buro's governance model draws from proven open source governance frameworks:

  • Linux Foundation Neutral governance for industry-critical infrastructure
  • CNCF Graduated project model with clear maturity criteria
  • W3C Consensus-driven web standards with broad stakeholder participation
  • OpenID Foundation Identity standards governed by implementors

We learn from their successes and their failures. The goal: governance that is robust enough to build trust, light enough to ship fast.

The standard is open. The governance is open. The Alliance is open.
The only thing that's closed is the door to vendor capture.
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