[ObjectWeb Consortium] -> [Consortium Overview]

Consortium Overview

The Big Picture

The ObjectWeb consortium is embodied by an Assembly of Members. The Consortium Agreement was signed in February 2002 by the Founding Members: Bull/Evidian, France Telecom R&D and INRIA. It defines the rules of the ObjectWeb Consortium. Every new member of the consortium signs the ObjectWeb Membership Agreement (legal entities, individuals) and, by doing so, accepts the terms stated in the Consortium Agreement. Membership is open to legal entities and is free for individuals : the online registration wizard will help you through this process.

The Board of Directors is annually elected by the Assembly of Members. It oversees the general functioning of the consortium, its strategic directions, and the different actions the consortium needs to undertake to reach its goals. The Executive Committee is appointed by the Board of Directors. It is in charge of implementing the strategic directions, conducting the daily activities of the consortium, organizing conferences and meetings, industrial relations, promotional operations, and is your contact for more information about the consortium.

On the technical side, the consortium mentors a set of projects, that are proposed by the Members and accepted by a College of Architects. This college is composed of the leaders of all active projects plus prominent individuals coopted for their recognized expertise and knowledge of the code base.

The activity of the consortium is growing fast. Recent figures about the community and activity of ObjectWeb can be found in the archive of the newsletter.

Shaping the "Bazaar"

As pictured in the now famous paradigm from Eric Raymond's bestseller (“the Bazaar and the Cathedral”), ObjectWeb's community of developpers work on a broad bazaar of losely related projects. However, instead of letting chance or time operate natural selection, the consortium wants to be proactive in organizing the hive's frenzy. ObjectWeb proposes a sounder alternative to the struggle for life through the works of its College of Architects.

All projects can be found on the Forge facility. The projects that reached sufficient maturity are proposed as packaged solutions.

Beside immediate project management, the College of Architects works towards defining a new component-based development model, and implementing it into the code base. This is a work-in-progress that involves both researchers and developpers. Even though this architectural vision is intended to become an internal standard, ObjectWeb is not a standardization body.

Who's Who ?

Board of Directors

The Board is the top-level decision making organ of the consortium. It is in charge of defining the main strategic directions that the College of Architects and the Executive Committee would implement and to define the annual financial plan in accordance. The subscription fees are proposed by the Board and accepted by the INRIA Board of Directors, INRIA being the hosting entity of the consortium. Amongst strategic options, the Board decides on projects selection and defines which license is best suited to each. It officially appoints the members of the College of Architects and nominates the Benefactors according to the proposals of the President of the College.

The composition of the Board (year 2006) is:

The composition of the Board in 2005 was:

The composition of the Board of Directors in 2004 was:

The composition of the Board of Directors in 2003 was:

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is reponsible for the implementation of the directions defined by the Board, and reports to its President. The committee manages the on-line hosting infrastructure (web site, Forge, mailing lists, forums). It organizes the communication and promotion, including the annual conference, the press relations, and the involvement in conferences and tradeshows. It coordinates the industrial relations and promots the use of the base code and projects in higher education. It finally manages the relations with contributors, users and members and ensures the daily operation of the consortium.

Here is the composition of the Executive Committee :

You can get in touch with us by email (contact at objectweb.org) or see the contact page for further directions.

Consortium Agreement

• the English version of the Consortium Agreement signed in 2002.
• the French version of the Consortium Agreement signed in 2002.
• the French version of the Consortium Amendment signed in January 2005.
• the French version of the Consortium Amendment signed in November 2005.