Application and Platform Formalization Proposals WG

Owned by Jenn Colt
Last updated: Mar 01, 2024 by Martin Scholz
2 min read

https://openlibraryfoundation.zoom.us/j/88432586375

Meeting ID: 884 3258 6375


Members:

Craig McNally (TC)


Maccabee Levine (TC)


Tod Olson (TC)


Jenn Colt (TC)


Marc Johnson (TC)


Kirstin Kemner-Heek (CC)


Ian Ibbotson (CC)


Kristin Martin (PC)


Charlotte Whitt (PC)

Wayne Schneider (Index Data)


Martin Scholz (University Library Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Charge

Accepted by the working group on November 29, 2023.

Given that the flower releases have grown to a size and complexity that is difficult to test, hard to customize for use, and  the deployment of FOLIO is becoming unsustainable for system operators, EBSCO has developed a proposal for the formalization of applications and platforms that they believe will help solve both of these issues while still continuing to allow FOLIO to grow and incorporate new functionality desired by users. 

The tri-council formalization working group will:

  • Describe, document, characterize, and evaluate  the risks and implications of the formalization proposals and develop paths forward to mitigate those risks and  maintain the FOLIO guiding principles
  • Communicate to the larger community the progress, implications, and decisions related to these changes, including providing community-wide updates as significant milestones arise
  • Dialog with the groups designing and implementing these changes in order to gather information for the community, help manage non-technical questions and issues, and provide a conduit for feedback from the community to the proposers and implementers
  • Monitor the progress of the Request for Comment (RFC) process for the RFCs related to these changes to assist in answering non-technical questions and to be able to act as sources of information for council updates and other activities

Tentative Deliverables

  • Answers to council questions generated previously
    • Categorize
    • Answer questions that can currently be answered
    • Remove duplicates
    • Suggest outdated questions for removal
  • Definitions related to applications, platform, core
  • Risk analysis with suggestions for mitigation that can be carried forward when defining processes or making recommendations
  • Process for how modules will be grouped into applications
  • Process for how platform core/functional/extended will be defined
  • Process for deciding what, if any, platforms should be governed by the community
  • Recommendations for updates to the application and module review processes
  • Documentation of group processes to help inform how large change proposals are handled in the future

Out of scope for this group:

  • Managing activities within each council
    • Managing the TC’s RFC process. TC members of this working group will provide regular updates on the RFC process to the group. Members of this group may also choose to participate in the RFC process and all members of the community may participate in the public review of RFCs.
  • Managing the development process or scoping development work. This group may provide feedback on timelines and priorities but development work is scoped and scheduled elsewhere. Product council members of the working group will communicate potential changes to the product roadmap stemming from these proposals to the community.

Background documents:

Initial council documents:

Google Drive folder:

Additional architecture documents: