Re: A Follow Up to My Original Note Re The Future of Boost

From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-08-03 00:21:43

I want to start by expressing my gratitude to Kristen, who kept an open and
friendly line of communication with me for the last several months. It is
unpaid volunteer work, difficult at times, and I appreciate her effort.

As a passionate contributor to Boost, I am excited to see renewed growth
and positive change in the project. The Boost Foundation has generously
offered that the community may determine if the Alliance should be the
steward of Boost’s shared resources. The term steward instead of owner is
deliberate, as the former reflects the behavior which respects the Boost
tradition of consensus-driven decisions.

In this communiqué I would like to explore what option 1 looks like from an
operational perspective (wearing my Alliance president hat) and then
outline my opinion as the author of four Boost libraries.

The Alliance is already the largest financial sponsor of the Boost project.
Going with the first option means that our relationship to Boost would
become formal. What would happen is this:

1. The Alliance becomes the registrant of the boost.org domain. This may
take time, but effectively immediately after going with option 1, the
Alliance shall fulfill our Domain Name Purchase Agreement under
substantially similar terms including the launch of the Beman Scholarship
Fund (if there is agreement). The Alliance shall reimburse the Foundation
for any and all reasonable legal expenses incurred for both changes of
domain ownership, including the estate fees.

2. The Alliance assumes all costs and responsibility to ensure that the
boost.org domain registration does not expire, the SSL certificates are
renewed and up to date, and that quarterly transparency reports are
published to the mailing list apprising the community on the status of its
registration.

3. The Alliance assumes all costs and responsibility for maintaining
Boost’s cloud services (“Services”). This includes but is not limited to
the wowbagger server, the new website, the new mailing list service, the
existing mailgun account, and other services which may be required to
support Boost’s infrastructure. The mailing list will be upgraded but
continue to function as it is currently. Quarterly transparency reports
will be published to the mailing list detailing the ongoing expenses and
condition of these resources.

4. While the Alliance is the steward of the domain and cloud services, the
content of the website and related web applications, such as the release
building process, is controlled by the Boost GitHub Organization. Including
but not limited to the repositories here:

https://github.com/boostorg/website
https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2
https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2-docs

Changes made to these repositories will go through the existing pull
request and review process, which requires community consensus. The Owners,
defined as the set of users in the Boost GitHub Organization which have the
Owner role, maintain the responsibility for determining consensus.

5. When the Boost community cannot achieve consensus, the responsibility
for making a directional decision shall pass to the Boost Software Commons
(“Commons”), a 501(c)(3) non-profit registered in Delaware on March 1,
2024, which is not controlled by the Alliance and whose board currently
consists of Boost authors. The Commons is now in hibernation until it is
needed.

6. The Alliance shall endeavor to help the Commons become capable of
independently financing Boost’s infrastructure. The Services cost about
$13,000 a year to run, excluding wowbagger and the downloads hosting costs.
Our plans include:

    * Establishing a Boost Patreon
    * Sales of Boost-branded products at conferences and by mail
    * Soliciting donations from corporate and private sponsors
    * Optimizing the Services to reduce cost

In all cases, proceeds from fundraising shall go directly to the Commons.

7. When fundraising levels reach the threshold necessary to finance the
Services, or earlier upon request by the Commons, the Alliance shall
transfer ownership of the boost.org domain to them. At the Commons’ option,
the Alliance may continue administering the Services.

Why The C++ Alliance?

I believe that the Boost Foundation’s governance rules and board
composition are simply not structured to put the best interests of Boost
first, as can be seen from their own published minutes. The Boost project
has been in decline for several years and the Alliance would like the
opportunity to do something about it, in a way that is consistent with the
project’s values. As our plans require significant financial investments
(which we are happy to make), changes are needed.

Option 1, Alliance stewardship of shared assets, provides Boost with the
opportunity to refresh the foundations of the organization with new ideas,
talent, and resources. It offers rescue from stagnation and the rare
opportunity to restructure itself to better reflect the project’s changing
needs from its inception 26 years ago.

While I am excited at the possibility of realizing a dream to increase
Boost participation, I am also mindful of the enormous responsibility this
comes with. Fortunately I will not have to bear this alone, as there are
many new and existing volunteers who are ready to support Boost going
forward and ensure its longevity.

Thank you for your support!