Mambo Foundation

Governing the Mambo open source software Project

The governing of a large and successful Open Source project with a substantial user base presents a variety of challenges. The Mambo Foundation has strived to address those challenges by creating a formalised organisational structure that is efficient without being overly bureaucratic. There are three tiers to the structure:

The Membership

At the root of it all is the Membership. While you don't have to be a member to be part of the community, to develop modules, components or templates, or to download and use the code, you do have to be a member to participate in governing the project. Membership is open to anyone with the inclination to participate and the willingness to stay informed on matters of concern to the project. The Members nominate and elect the Board of Directors. (see also, Membership)

Team Mambo and The MSC

Those members who chose to contribute to the project are called Active Members and they work alongside all other contributors to the project, in teams (collectively referred to as "Team Mambo"). Where individual teams are formed, each team elects a Team Leader and those leaders all sit on the Mambo Steering Committee (the 'MSC'). The MSC is largely responsible for what most people think of as "Mambo": From planning the Mambo Road Map, to development, to execution and advocacy, the MSC keeps the project moving forward.

Membership in the Mambo Foundation is not a pre-requisite for contributing to the Mambo project. Membership does, however, give you a voice in the strategic direction of the Foundation and all regular contributors are encouraged to join.

The Mambo wiki contains information about how to contribute to the Mambo CMS project.

The Board of Directors

Like any corporation, the Mambo Foundation has a Board of Directors. The Foundation has created a structure that vests the balance of responsibility for day to day project management operations in the MSC, while focusing the Board's efforts on governance and setting policy and strategic direction. The MSC, for example, controls the Road Map and the Release Schedules. The Board, in contrast, handles tasks like  IP management and corporate governance - tasks which tend to be time consuming and would in fact detract from development efforts if they had to be handled by the MSC.

See also: Governance vs Management

The current Board of Directors.