Anyone can join

We have a variety of ways to get involved with the OSLC community, and you can participate however you want.

To keep up with the community, you can sign up for any of our mailing lists, see updates to our blog, or even follow us on Twitter.

You can also sign up for our forums and join the discussion that way.

To get involved in the creation of specifications or join a workgroup, you'll want to sign up for our Wiki. See below for more information about OSLC workgroups.

Who is involved?

Members of our community have a wide range of talents and perspectives. Our members include…

  • Software developers and project managers who have used tools (whether purchased or developed in-house) for software delivery that either don't speak to each other or don't integrate as strongly as promised.
  • Systems integrators who have developed, maintained, or used solutions for integrating software.
  • Software vendors, software buyers, and members of open source communities who understand the value – both in flexibility and cost savings – of open interfaces.

We are open to anyone, we collaborate in the open, and we want to make software development better. Learn more about our community or see what organizations are involved.

How to contribute to the OSLC community

Join a workgroup

To join an existing group, simply get in touch with the lead of any workgroup (start on the home page of the wiki). Anyone can join.

Write & review specifications

You can help us decide on the scope for a specification and make sure that a specification is accurate, achievable, and supportable.

Implement specifications

You can create a service – as a provider or a consumer – that uses a specification. You'll be validating a specification and proving that it can make software development better. Our tutorials can help you get started.

Propose a new workgroup

Do you have an idea for a workgroup? Get in touch with the OSLC initiative leaders and make a pitch. See more details on the wiki

OSLC Wiki

Wiki home

The home for workgroups and where specifications are written.

To join a workgroup, simply contact the workgroup lead.

Forums

Forum home

Use the forums to ask questions, discuss specifications or software, or comment on community activities.

Mailing lists

Mailing lists home

Every workgroup has a mailing list; or, subscribe to the Community mailing list to ask questions or keep up with announcements.

What do OSLC workgroups do?

Collaborate

Workgroups include individuals with a range of experiences and skills that have chosen to work on issues in software development such as change management or reporting.

Plan scenarios

Members explore specific scenarios to improve how software tools integrate and to limit the scope of a specification.

Write specifications

The workgroup produces a specification that supports their chosen services and scenarios. On the way, the group defines their own milestones to progress through several phases.

Guiding principles for OSLC workgroups

Tranparency

Anyone can participate. We communicate in the open, and all schedules and minutes are published on the wiki.

Scenario-driven

Our desire to solve real-world issues with software interopability drives the creation and improvement of our specifications.

Minimalistic

We write just enough specification to address our scenarios. We do not create specifications for their own sake.

Incremental

We work fast and deliver a specification in a relatively short period of time. Later versions of a speficication can expand their focus and address more scenarios.

Implemented

We seek to deliver real implementations with our specifications. Our specifications and our software can evolve together.

What goes into a specification

Scope

The workgroup proposes, documents, and prioritizes the scenarios and technical objectives that will be addressed in this version of the Specification.

Draft

Interested parties comment on and contribute to a proposed Specification through a series of drafts.

Converge

The broader community is invited to review and comment on the draft Specification. Meanwhile, implementations and prototypes are initiated and the draft Specification is refined.

Finalize

The Specification undergoes a final polish and thorough editing; identified errors or unclear language is corrected. A specification cannot be finalized without a working implementation. Once completed, the Specification is final and the wiki pages are locked.

Iterative development

As the specifications are used, it is likely that workgroups will propose new versions to address new ideas or expand the scope of the specification.

Proposals to standards boards

Although it not the focus of our community, specifications may be included in future proposals to formal standards bodies.

Attribution

Leave your mark: all Specifications include a complete list of people that contributed to the workgroup.

Patent covenants

To encourage others to adopt our specifications, we include patent non-assertion language in every specification. For more information, see the terms of use.