(Adapted from http://www.dojotoolkit.org/community)
The Road To Becoming A Committer
Inside the Dojo community, there are two groups of people who contribute. The word "contributors" refers to anyone who submits documentation, bug fixes, or even bug reports and test cases. You can become a contributor by sending in a CLA and jumping into the fray! Demos, patches, docs, and tests are all warmly welcomed.
"Committers" are a subset of the contributor community who have been granted the ability to make changes directly to Dojo. Committers can also vote in Toolkit and Foundation matters. Committers are required to act as the front line of defense against IP pollution, follow community development standards, merge or reject patches sent in by contributors, vote, participate in weekly IRC meetings, and work on critical release issues. Becoming a Dojo committer is considered an honor as it means you've impressed a discerning group with the quality of your contributions and the team feels that they can get along with you.
So how do you go from "contributor" to "committer"?
The first step is to file a Contributors License Agreement, then...start contributing! There's no hard-and-fast rule for how many contributions it takes before you are considered for committer status, but in general you'll need to close important bugs, contribute significant amounts of documentation or demos, or in some other way show the team that you "get" how we work and that you respect others in the community. Committers make recommendations to the Foundation Board regarding people they think should be considered for commiter status, so working with a committer to assist him/her with issues that are important for an upcoming release is a great way to ensure that your contributions are integrated and that you will be considered for committer status.
The Contributors License Agreement
Most forms of contribution aside from providing support to other users requires that you sign and submit a Contributors License Agreement (or "CLA" for short) with the Dojo Foundation. All additions to this manual, for instance, require signed CLAs.
There are two versions of the agreement:
- The Individual CLA- use this version if you're working on Dojo in your spare time or can clearly claim ownership of copyright in what you'll be submitting
- The Corporate CLA - have your corporate lawyer review and submit this if your company is going to be contributing to Foundation projects
Summarized, the CLA asserts that when you donate fixes or documentation, you both own the code that you're submitting and that the Dojo Foundation can in turn license that code to other people. While the text on the agreement suggests that you fax it in, you can submit a valid CLA by:
- snail-mail to the address on the form
- fax to the number of the form
- or an email'd digital photograph of the signed document to <cla at dojotoolkit dot org>
Sending in a CLA is a one-time thing, and once it's done, you're in the clear to start contributing to all Dojo Foundation projects! To be effective, though, you need to know a little bit about how contributors coordinate their work.