DRAFT

(Nearly Done)

OpenNIC is chartered as a community interested in restoring the power of DNS back to the people who use it. OpenNIC accepts membership from anyone who can use a computer and who choose to use the services offered by OpenNIC.

Mission

To continue offering open access to DNS services to everyone.
To provide a foundation for further research and experimentation in areas related to DNS and the Internet.
To promote the benefits of an Internet that is open and free (as in "freedom") for all to use.

Organization

OpenNIC is governed as a democracy. No one person is in charge of OpenNIC, its voice is its members. All issues in regards to OpenNIC's operation is discussed via the mailing lists, and when decisions are needed a vote is called. However in the OpenNIC certain working groups are responsible operating parts of OpenNIC, thus some decisions in regards to OpenNIC infrastructure, public websites and so on, lie with the corresponding working group.

Membership

A member is anyone who participates on the OpenNIC mailing list and/or forums and uses the services offered by OpenNIC.

Voting

Any changes to OpenNIC will be discussed then voted upon by its members. This includes peering arrangements, new TLDs and policy amendments. The vote process starts by a 7 day discussion on the issue. Then a member of the OpenNIC community will motion a vote. This will then last for a 7 day period, where at the end votes are tallied up and a decision is reached. The voting mechanism is not set forth in stone, and thus not covered by the charter.

Contributions

OpenNIC is an open community, and as of such any contributions to OpenNIC must be Open Source. OpenNIC will not accept any contributions that are closed source. This includes;

Websites
Applications
Code
Documentation

Working Groups

OpenNIC has created working groups within the project to deal with certain operations within OpenNIC. These working groups are(with a brief description);

ArchitectureWG - Plans system changes and integration between the systems other teams create.
HostmasteringWG - Administers the DNS services and manages the zone files for the root and opennic.glue zones.
PublicRelationsWG - Responsible for OpenNIC's public relations.
WebmasteringWG - Runs OpenNIC's web services.
TranslationES TranslationWG - Translates OpenNIC's documentation into various langauges.

Any member of OpenNIC may join any working group, and membership to more then one working group is permitted. To have a say on any of the issues covered by a working group, a member must join that working group if a member wishes to help out. OpenNIC policies are not covered by a working group.

OpenNIC Wiki : OpenNICCharter

Revision [1708]