EDP

The Eclipse Foundation Specification Process defines a general framework for developing specifications in open source at the Eclipse Foundation; it extends the Eclipse Development Process (EDP) by adding a few extra checks and balances. In the first installment of this series, we described the EDP; in this second installment, we...

The Eclipse Foundation Specification Process (EFSP) was authored as an extension to the Eclipse Development Process (EDP). With this in mind, before we can discuss the EFSP, we’ll start with a quick EDP primer. At a high (and very simplified) level, the EDP looks a little something like this: All...

The primary role of the Eclipse IP Team is to reduce the risks associated with adopting open source software. In broad terms, they ensure that the licenses on content are compatible, that provenance is clear, and that content otherwise unencumbered from a legal point-of-view (strictly speaking, the team does all...

In the world of open source, Committers are ones who hold they keys. Committers decide what code goes into the code base, they decide how a project builds, and they ultimately decide what gets delivered to the adopter community. With awesome power, comes awesome responsibility, and so it’s no mistake...

The term Intellectual Property (IP) refers to any sort of creative work, be it literature, art, or software. In the realm of open source software, artifacts like source code, documentation, and images are considered intellectual property. Unless otherwise stated, intellectual property is the property of its creator, who may grant...

In 2016, we introduced the notion of license certification intellectual property (IP) due diligence (“Type A”) into the Eclipse IP Policy with a goal in mind to automate the certification process. At that time, we started a process of evaluating tools that could be used for automatic validation and eventually...

Late last week, I pushed out an update to our documentation regarding the legal documentation requirements for Eclipse projects that Sharon Corbett and I have been working on over the past quarter. In the process, we moved the guidelines off of the main website and rolled them in to the...

For many open source organisations, open means the same thing as transparent: open as in open book. At the Eclipse Foundation, we regard being transparent as the practice of making sure that the community can see and understand what the project is doing; and being open as the act of...

As part of the project creation process, the Eclipse Foundation assumes ownership of the project’s name. As a legal entity, the Eclipse Foundation owns all Eclipse project and corresponding product trademarks on behalf of the the Eclipse community. This prevents companies and others from misusing or misrepresenting their products as...

The Eclipse Development Process (EDP) regards a release as a pretty significant event. A release is similar to what other organizations might call a general availability release (GA), or ship event. A release is generally associated with some form of enhanced quality assurance testing and marketing. A release is intended...