Ithaca, NY Open Source software development requires dedicated effort by many community developers, users and the institutions that both support them and benefit from software improvements. The DSpace Committers group extends a general call to the community for nominations of individuals to join the DSpace Committers group. New DSpace Committers may be nominated by anyone in the community at any time.

Roles and Duties of a Committer
Being a committer means participating in the evolution of the DSpace platform, typically by making changes to the source code, improving documentation, or managing the integration of contributions made by the community at large. But, it also means having a voice and an official vote on technical, administrative and release management issues, providing your expertise and guidance on mail lists, organizing testing and more.

We are mindful of the fact that this effort is voluntary. No specific time commitment is required or expected; in fact we expect that one's involvement will fluctuate over time with job duties. Nor is there any specified term of service - one's job responsibilities may change over time along with one's ability to devote time to DSpace.

Why Become a Committer?
Becoming a DSpace committer means that you have a voice and an official vote on decisions around the evolution of the DSpace platform. It also gives you an opportunity to develop leadership skills in an friendly, open source community.

Committer Requirements
Although there are no explicit requirements to become a committer, generally we look for individuals who have shown initiative and/or has been an active participant in the DSpace Community. Participation may be in the form of actively helping people on mailing lists, submitting code patches/features, presenting on DSpace at conferences, leading workshops, or generally volunteering time to help with any DSpace initiative.

It's worth noting that committers do not need to have highly technical skills. We only ask that you make a commitment to making DSpace better in some way. Anyone who shows the initiative and interest in making DSpace better is eligible.

How to Nominate Someone
New committers may be nominated by anyone in the DSpace Community at any time. You can even nominate yourself.

In your nomination, please explain why you feel this individual (or individuals) should be added to the Committers group. Generally, we are just looking for references to his/her active participation in the DSpace Community.

Send new committer nominations to DSpace Tech Lead, Tim Donohue ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), or any of the existing DSpace Committers. A current listing of Committers can be found on our wiki:
http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/DSpaceContributors.

Again, there is no specific timeline for nominations -- nominations are welcome at any time.