Fw: [Spi-private] Madwifi: Resolution 2007-12-29.jdd.1

Tue Jan 8 21:35:13 UTC 2008

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Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:22:21 -0800
From: "Joshua D. Drake" <jd at commandprompt.com>
To: spi-private at lists.spi-inc.org
Subject: [Spi-private] Madwifi: Resolution 2007-12-29.jdd.1

Per the request of Madwifi who has done quite a bit of due diligence 
before requesting the ability to join SPI... (kudos to mcs for the
template)

SPI resolution 2007-12-29.jdd.1

WHEREAS

  1. Madwifi is a substantial and significant Free Software project.

  2. The Madiwifi developers would like SPI's support and assistance,
     including taking donations.

THE SPI BOARD RESOLVES THAT

  3. Madwifi is formally invited to become an SPI Associated Project,
     according to the SPI Framework for Associated Projects.

  4. Currently, Michael Renzmann (mrenzmann at madwifi.org) is recognised
by SPI as the current authoritative decisionmaker for Madwifi.

  5. This invitation will lapse, if not accepted, 60 days after it is
     approved by the SPI Board.

Full application below.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Take 2] Application of madwifi.org as associated project
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:10:02 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Renzmann <mrenzmann at madwifi.org>
To: spi-general at lists.spi-inc.org
References: <4811.194.45.26.221.1197892555.squirrel at webmail.madwifi.org>

Hi all.

Below is the revised version of madwifi.org's application as associated
project. The only change is the correction of a wrong reference as
pointed out by Joshua Drake.

=== pseudo-diff start ===
Software" movement (FOSS). Past claims that the project does not fully
honour FOSS due to the support and use of the binary-only HAL in MadWifi
- -should have been voided by our explanation in [4].
+should have been voided by our explanation in [6].
=== pseudo-diff stop ===

Who?
====
madwifi.org develops Linux kernel drivers for Wireless LAN devices with
Atheros chipsets. Started in late 2003 by two developers, the project
today has a total of 23 members. We currently provide two main drivers:
MadWifi and ath5k.

MadWifi has an established userbase and is one of the most advanced WLAN
drivers available for Linux today. It's available in all major Linux
distributions. It's embedded in products from companies such as FON [3]
and Meraki [4] and is also used in many academic projects [5].

MadWifi itself is open source but depends on a proprietary Hardware
Abstraction Layer (HAL) that is available in binary form only. This was
one of the main reasons for the project to shift [6] our focus of
development towards ath5k in September 2007. ath5k is a relatively new
and emerging driver that does not depend on the HAL and thus is fully
open-sourced. It is intended to exceed MadWifi feature-wise, is aimed to
be added to the mainline kernel and finally will replace MadWifi in the
long run.

All "products" (code, documentation and thelike) of the project are
offered according to the principles and ideas of the "Free and Open
Software" movement (FOSS). Past claims that the project does not fully
honour FOSS due to the support and use of the binary-only HAL in MadWifi
should have been voided by our explanation in [6].

Why and What?
=============
Our main motivation to get some backing of a non-profit entity is to be
able to handle monetary donations from users in a clean way.

So far, we are a bunch of interested and only loosely organised
developers working on the driver. Legally there is no "the project", so
it's not possible to set up a bank account for "the project". Accepting
monetary donations would require at least one developer to munge a
private bank account with funds received for the project. As this just
calls for trouble we once decided against doing it this way.

On the other hand we see a rising amount of users asking us how they can
donate money to support the ongoing development of MadWifi and ath5k.
The money would be a great help for covering costs for our server, for
setting up a testbed installation, for providing developers with
Atheros-based cards, and so on.

In short: we'd highly appreciate SPIs support and assistance for
handling all types of donations as well as material and immaterial
assets on behalf of the project.

How?
====
We are currently in the process of drafting a proper final charter.
Until we come to a decision there we'd like [7] to start off with the
following interim charter:

=== cut ===
The MadWifi project intends to join the SPI as member, basically to get
the backing of a non-profit organization and for being able to handle
monetary donations properly. The project is working on a full-fledged
charter but will need more time to finish it. Until then the following
minimalistic interim charter shall be in effect:

1. Michael Renzmann (mrenzmann at madwifi.org) acts as interim liaison for
the SPI. He is authorized by the team to fulfill the tasks outlined by
the SPI in [1], section "Your Project Liason".

2. The team may decide to replace the liaison with another member who
in a vote has received more than 50% of all votes cast (simple
majority). See also 4.

3. All decisions regarding the use of assets managed by the SPI on
behalf of the project (such as donated funds) need to be authorized by
an affirmative vote of 66% of all team members. See also 4.

4. The authoritative list of team members is available on [2], the
liaison is responsible to keep it up-to-date. Eligible to vote are all
current team members, each member has exactly one vote. Voting must
take place on the publicly accessible mailing list
madwifi-devel at lists.sourceforge.net. Only those votes are taken into
account that appear on the mentioned list.

5. The team should decide on a final charter until May 31, 2008. Once
that has happened the interim liaison informs the SPI board about the
result of the decision. At that point this interim charter will be
replaced by the regular charter the team has agreed on, and a regular
SPI liaison will be elected as specified in the regular charter.

[1] http://www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/associated-project-howto.html
[2] http://madwifi.org/wiki/TeamMembers
=== cut ===

Bye, Mike

[1] 
http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-general/2007-September/002413.html
[2] 
http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-general/2007-September/002413.html
[3] http://www.fon.com
[4] http://meraki.com/
[5] http://madwifi.org/wiki/Publicity
[6]
http://madwifi.org/wiki/news/20070920/madwifi-moves-away-from-binary-only-hal
[7] 
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.drivers.madwifi.devel/5325/focus=5561

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