Kannel Foundation Proposal

Overview

The Kannel Foundation is being proposed by Wapit, ANAM and 3G LAB as a way of maintaining the development effort and profile of Kannel WAP & SMS gateway project.

Introduction

It is felt that in order to maintain the Kannel project a formal structure must be introduced to promote the level of activity in the development of the gateway. In order to do this the following proposal has been developed and has been discussed with the active Kannel developers at the Kannel conference in the UK, May 9th, 10th and 11th.

Foundation Structure

The proposal suggests that the foundation be made up of a board of 7 people.

Board positions will be allocated as follows:

Company	#Positions
Wapit	2
ANAM	1
3G LAB	1

The remaining 3 places will be elected by Foundation members.

Key Positions

There are three executive positions being proposed:

Kannel Architect
Kannel Marketing Manager
Kannel Executive Manager

The Architect is elected by the general membership. The Marketing Manager and Executive Manager are elected by the board.

A named individual may hold both a board and executive position at the same time.

Responsibilities

The Architect
This named individual leads development, and is responsible for the road-map, priorities, timetables, and release management. They also decide who is issued with CVS access for core development. Any of these responsibilities can be delegated but ultimate responsibility remains with the named individual.
The Marketing Manager
This named individual acts as the spokesperson for Kannel. They must advise on the use of the Kannel brand and take the ultimate decision over third party use of the brand. They will also maintain the customer-oriented elements of www.kannel.org. which include the issue of regular press releases and up-dated information on reference sites.
The Executive Manager
This named individual manages the Foundation itself, and is responsible for the handling of finances and accounting, certification procedures, intellectual property management, and maintenance of the kannel.org machines. Whilst most of these tasks will probably be delegated to specialists, possibly for pay the named Executive manager accepts ultimate responsibility for their actions.

Membership requirements

The proposal suggests 1) Commercial and 2) Noncommercial membership.

A Commercial fee is proposed charged per year. A flat rate of 1,000 Euro is suggested.

Noncommercial membership is free, but is granted at the discretion of the Board.

Membership is expected to consist mainly of corporations and institutions. Each such member can have up to 3 participants in the Foundation and consequently 3 votes. Private persons can also become members and will have one vote each.

Elections

General elections should be held every 6 months.

These elections will call for votes for:
The Architect and
Three elected board positions

Right after that, the new board will elect:
The Marketing Manager and
Executive Manager

Votes will be cast electronically following announcements on announce@kannel.org.

Each named individual is eligible to cast a vote in these general elections.

Vacated elected positions

If an elected member decides to vacate their position they can appoint their successor to complete their term. The board will retain power of veto for exceptional circumstances in particular with a view to protect the position of Architect.

(Note that founding-member board positions are not elected positions. Whilst a founder company may appoint individuals to the board they may not assign founder membership to anyone outside their organization)

Power of Veto

Members can over-rule the board with a general vote although the board will retain the power of veto over Kannel code licensing issues and the Architects position.

License agreements

As stated, the board will retain the power of veto on all matters concerning the licensing arrangements for the Kannel code.

All code contributed to the Kannel project must be assigned to the Kannel Foundation.

Kannel will continue to be distributed under BSD style license until such time as it is decided that this no longer meets the requirements of Kannel Foundation members and so put to vote.

What's next

This proposal has been presented at the Kannel Conference in May and will now be posted on the Kannel site up until Thursday June 14th. Feedback on the Proposal will be accepted by Foundation@kannel.org and a final vote will be cast on 28th June 2001 where the decision will be taken to press ahead with the foundation or for the Kannel project to remain in the state in which it currently exists.

Formation

It is likely that if the Foundation is created, there will not yet be enough members to fill a complete board. Initially, only the positions for founding members will be filled, and that partial board there is will appoint the Architect, Marketing Manager, and Executive Manager.

The first scheduled elections will be six months after this formation (January 7th, 2002)

When the Foundation is formed Wapit will assign its trademark on the Kannel name to the Foundation. The license on the Kannel source code will be changed to say "The Kannel Foundation" instead of "Wapit Ltd".