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GPJax Governance Document

The Project

GPJax is an open-source library that supports Gaussian process modelling in the JAX scientific computation ecosystem. The abstractions provided in GPJax are designed to mimic the underlying maths through, making the library easy to use for both researchers and practitioners alike.

GPJax was created by Thomas Pinder as a Single-Maintainer Houseplant project following the BDFL model of governance. We have since moved to the governance model of Specialty Library and benefited from a community of contributors. This document outlines the governance structure for the current status.

Roles

  • Contributors: Anyone who contributes to GPJAx is considered a contributor. This includes submitting code, filing issues, reviewing pull requests, and participating in discussions. They are listed under:
  • https://github.com/JaxGaussianProcesses/GPJax/graphs/contributors
  • Core contributors: Core contributors are contributors who have made significant contributions to the GPJax project, for example large modules or functionality.
  • GPJax gardeners: Gardeners are core contributors who are responsible for maintaining the project and making decisions about its future direction. GPJax gardeners have the ability to merge pull requests into the GPJax repository. GPJax gardeners also take on administrative tasks such as website maintenance.
  • Currently daniel-dodd@, henrymoss@, st--@, and thomaspinder@ are the gardeners of GPJax.

Responsibility

We cannot hold anyone responsible really since we are all doing free work here, but some general expectations are: * Contributors are responsible for following the project's code of conduct and contributing to the project in a positive and constructive manner. Contributors are also responsible for testing their code and ensuring that it meets the project's standards. * Core contributors are expected to review pull requests and provide feedback to contributors. They also make decisions about the architecture and implementation of the module/functionality they contributed to. Also the “if you broke something please fix it” applies. * Maintainers are responsible for monitoring the benchmark, the documentation and the website are up to date and built passed, update dependency and apply best practice

In addition to these specific responsibilities, all contributors are encouraged to participate in discussions about the project and to help out in any way they can.

Decision-making

Decisions about the GPJax project are made by consensus among the GPJax gardeners. This means that all GPJax gardeners must agree on a decision before it can be implemented. If a consensus cannot be reached, we will flip a (virtual) coin.

Communication

Communication about the GPJax project takes place in the following channels:

GitHub issues: Issues are used to track bugs, feature requests, and other tasks. GitHub discussion: Discussions are used to answer user questions, scope for features, and discuss solutions to bugs. GitHub pull requests: Pull requests propose changes to the GPJax codebase. Slack: The GPJax Slack Channel is used for internal communication about the project for core contributors.

Contributing

Anyone is welcome to contribute to the GPJax project. Contributions can be made in the form of code, documentation, or other forms of support. To learn more about how to contribute, please see the contributing guide.

Code of conduct

All contributors to the GPJax project are expected to follow the project's code of conduct. The code of conduct outlines the expected behavior of contributors and helps to ensure a welcoming and productive environment for all.

Any breaches of the code of conduct should be reported using our contact form.

Governance changes

This governance document is subject to change. Changes to the governance document must be approved by consensus among the core contributors.

Contact

If you have any questions about the GPJax project, please feel free to contact the maintainers or reach out over Slack.

This file was adapted from BlackJAX.