Why this fork?
A short overview of events leading up to the split of almost all TWiki contributors from Peter Thoeny/TWIKI.NET in October 2008.- Introducing: the players on the scene
- Order of events
- May 2007: TWiki.net is announced
- August 2007: players united
- January, February 2008: conflicts arise
- July 2008: first governance proposal not accepted by the community
- September 2008: emotions rising, creation of a democratic board
- October 2008: unilateral change in governance
- Result: contributors split from twiki.org
- Follow up: the fork in the news
- Follow up: reactions by email
Introducing: the players on the scene
- Peter Thoeny: founder and project lead of Open Source TWiki (since 1998)
- TWIKI.NET: commercial company set up by Peter Thoeny (CTO) in 2007. Initially led by Rod Beckstrom, since 2008 by Tom Barton.
- TWiki Community: a loose collection of developers and other contributors that jointly work on Open Source TWiki
- WikiRing: a network of mostly European TWiki consultants grouped by one brand. All WikiRing consultants are part of the TWiki Community.
Order of events
May 2007: TWiki.net is announced
In May 2007, Peter Thoeny announced that he and others had formed TWiki.net, a company established for the express purpose of commercialising TWiki. The community response is generally positive.August 2007: players united
The first TWiki summit is heralded as a great success, with TWIKI.NET pulling out all the stops to make sure the community is welcomed and engaged. Some disagreements followed due to the summit not having a formal mandate to make decisions in camera that affected the absent community.January, February 2008: conflicts arise
In January 2008, Peter Thoeny attempted to release TWiki 4.2.0 with a press release that suggested that TWIKI.NET were responsible for the release. This was withdrawn after community protests, and a request for clarification of the governance model added to the agenda for the summit. At the TWiki Community Summit 2008 in California, further friction was felt between TWIKI.NET, WikiRing consultants, and other TWiki Community members regarding the TWiki brand (usage rights of name and logo) and the way the Open Source project was being led (governance). Rod Beckstrom accused community members of planning a fork and otherwise acting against the interests of the community. Any decision on the governance model was postponed to the third summit (held in Berlin). Peter Thoeny was to make a proposal on twiki.org, so community members could discuss it in public.July 2008: first governance proposal not accepted by the community
Peter Thoeny wrote a proposal for a new TWiki governance model. In short:- Peter Thoeny is a Self Appointed "Benevolent Dictator for Life" (BDFL) -- spiritual leader of the TWiki project. The BDFL appoints members of the Technical Board.
- The TWiki name and brand, as well as the twiki.org domain name, are the property of the project founder Peter Thoeny; he has sole discretion in decisions related to these matters.
The community wanted to make explicit the permissions that were implicit before, that is, that the community can use the TWiki (tm) brand the way it has been done before without having to pay or relicence TWIKI.NET. This means that any community member could make a TWiki(tm) package (taking the core, add some plugins and a nice installer on top) and call it TWiki (tm). This means that I could have a company named "Global TWiki Consulting Services" that provides TWiki related services, and that siltes like twikirules.org, twikigurus.org and such can spawn.Alternative governance proposals were then made. The community agreed that a final agreement on the matter would be finalised at the TWiki Community Summit in September.
Today, for all that you need a written permission from the trademark holder, and if there is even the sligthes disagreement between you and him, you run the risk to get sued (a site called twikisucks.org could not exists, for example).
In the same vein, a consulting company that is seen as a heavy competitor to TWIKI.NET is not likely to get the permission to have TWiki (tm) in its name.
September 2008: emotions rising, creation of a democratic board
Just before the TWiki Community Summit September 2008 in Berlin, the community learned that Peter Thoeny was not willing to discuss the role of BDFL or the TWiki brand. Moreover, Peter would not be able to join the summit; instead, Tom Barton would be attending. At the summit, the attending TWiki community members (present physcially and by conference call) expressed the following:- The BDFL position is not needed or appropriate for the community. The majority position was that this would not be an acceptable element of governance.
- The participants expressed very strong reservations about TWIKI.NET's control of the TWiki brand whose value, the participants felt, is primarily based on the volunteer contributions of many individuals.
- The license on the brand name "TWiki" should be a free (as in free beer and free speech) Public License given to the entire community, without having to sign an agreement.
- Peter Thoeny is considered the Chief Evangelist, but he will not have veto right, nor will he have the right to overturn community decisions.
October 2008: unilateral change in governance
As a complete surprise, at 27 October 2008, 21:00 GMT, just a minute before the regular TWiki release meeting, TWIKI.NET announced unilaterally that it would take over governance of the TWiki project, in order to set a broader agenda for TWiki and establish clear project direction (also refer to the IRC logs for the release meeting). All TWiki Community members were barred from editing the twiki.org website and contributing to the TWiki software until they accepted a newly introduced set of terms of use. This implicitly meant accepting the new TWiki Governance model, one which the community had previously rejected. In addition, a new privacy policy came into effect. TWiki is now led by TWIKI.NET instead of its community; an undemocratic governance model has been explicitly selected by TWIKI.NET in order to allow TWiki's direction to be managed primarily by its founder. No core contributors have agreed to continue TWiki development under this governance model.Result: contributors split from twiki.org
Immediately after the announcement, a large group of community members joined forces to continue development of the TWiki project, under a new name: Foswiki. The goals of the Foswiki project include the following:- Found an association as a formal body for the project, including the reorganization of its governance, including operational matters.
- Guarantee a volunteer-friendly and democratic environment.
- Support upgrades from existing TWiki installations to the Foswiki product, maintaining TWiki compatibility for as long as it is practically feasible.
Follow up: the fork in the news
Follow up: reactions by email
We have received a couple of cheer-up mails, listed at Testimonials.Topic revision: r8 - 28 Feb 2010 - 17:34:25 - ArthurClemens
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