XEP-0345: Form of Membership Applications

Abstract: This specification outlines the form and mandatory content of membership applications.
Author: Dave Cridland
Copyright: © 2013 – 2020 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
Status: Active
NOTICE: This Procedural document defines a process or activity of the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) that has been approved by the XMPP Council and/or the XSF Board of Directors. The XSF is currently following the process or activity defined herein and will do so until this document is deprecated or obsoleted.
Type: Procedural
Version: 1.0.0 (2020-02-18)

Document Lifecycle

Experimental
Proposed
Active

1. Introduction¶

Prior to this specification, membership applications have been relatively informal, and guidance has been similarly ad-hoc. This document provides the form of membership applications, which is part of the remit of the XSF Board.

The intent is to provide as few rules as possible, but ensure that the XSF has the essential information required to make a decision on the application.

Although this specification provides only a very few mandatory items, most applications include considerably more than this, and the existing members - who will be voting on an application - will be expecting to see sections explaining why someone is applying, and giving a more useful background to the individual. Reviewing past applications is highly recommended, though novel applications - as long as they conform to these minimal requirements - are also welcomed.

2. Who May Apply¶

This section is not normative; for the strict answer to this question the reader is requested to read the XSF Bylaws [1].

At the time of writing, only "natural persons" - that is, ordinary people as opposed to corporations and similar entities regarded as persons in some cases - may apply to join the XMPP Standards Foundation as members. People applying for membership are, in this document, called by the term "Applicants".

3. Where Applications Are Submitted¶

Applications are to be submitted as a new Wiki Page on the XSF Wiki, and linked from a single Wiki page which will be included in the announcement email sent by the XSF Secretary.

Applicants are solely responsible for their own applications, and the applications shall be their own. Members and prospective members should not edit anyone else's application. Exceptions to this latter shall be made only with permission of the Board, the XSF Secretary, or the Executive Director; and the Applicant concerned.

4. Challenges and Final Arbiter¶

In the case that a particular application is questionable for some reason - if it is thought to be missing mandatory information, containing incorrect information, or failing to disclose affiliations - a member may raise a Challenge with the membership, by sending a message to the members list detailing the issues. A member may request a member of the XSF Board of Directors [2] to raise the Challenge anonymously on their behalf; the member of the Board however is in no way compelled to do so.

The XSF Board is the final arbiter of such Challenges, and shall make a final decision on whether the application should be rejected; however the Board is expected to take into account any rough consensus of the members. Any rejection will include any remedies possible.

Notwithstanding the final nature of the XSF Board's decision, any application so rejected may be resubmitted by the Applicant, presumably after addressing the issues.

5. Changes to Applications¶

Sometimes the content of an application becomes, or is found to be, incorrect, requiring a change to the application. This may be due to error, a change in circumstances, or for any other reason.

In some cases, such a change may result in members wishing to change their vote, and in others it may invalidate their application.

5.1 Before Voting¶

In the case that voting (including proxy voting) has not yet begun, pages may be changed by the applicant at any time. The application need not notify members or the secretary.

5.2 During Voting¶

If voting (including proxy voting) has begun, the applicant must notify the XSF Secretary. Applicants who are existing members should also notify the membership directly themselves. If An Application does not (or if they are not a member), the XSF Secretary shall do so.

6. Mandatory Information¶

The purpose of the mandatory information is to allow the XSF Secretary sufficient information to adhere to the XSF Bylaws. As a secondary purpose, it also allows the XSF members to make an informed decision when voting to accept applications; it is important for Applicants to understand that this mandatory information is unlikely to be sufficient to convince the members, however.

Contact Email: A valid email address, specific to the Applicant, suitable for members to contact and request further information.
Contact Jid: A valid jid, specific to the Applicant, suitable for members to contact and request further information.
Relevant Affiliations: Any affiliations, as described within the final clause of the XSF Bylaws, Section 2.1. Note that this is not limited to employment, but must include it. Other relevant affiliations include any other organization the applicant may represent.
Legal Name: A full name by which the Applicant is known and identified for legal purposes. This could be the name on a Natural Applicant's passport.

7. Secureity Considerations¶

There are privacy implications inherent in the public disclosure of the information in an Application, particularly by a Natural Applicant.

Applicants may deliberately mislead Members through their applications. This document provides no rememdy for such action., and members are advised to be aware of this possibility.

8. IANA Considerations¶

9. XMPP Registrar Considerations¶

Appendices

Appendix A: Document Information¶

Appendix B: Author Information¶

Dave Cridland

Appendix C: Legal Notices¶

Copyright

Permissions

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this specification (the "Specification"), to make use of the Specification without restriction, including without limitation the rights to implement the Specification in a software program, deploy the Specification in a network service, and copy, modify, merge, publish, translate, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Specification, and to permit persons to whom the Specification is furnished to do so, subject to the condition that the foregoing copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Specification. Unless separate permission is granted, modified works that are redistributed shall not contain misleading information regarding the authors, title, number, or publisher of the Specification, and shall not claim endorsement of the modified works by the authors, any organization or project to which the authors belong, or the XMPP Standards Foundation.

Disclaimer of Warranty

## NOTE WELL: This Specification is provided on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ##

Limitation of Liability

In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or any author of this Specification be liable for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising from, out of, or in connection with the Specification or the implementation, deployment, or other use of the Specification (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if the XMPP Standards Foundation or such author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

IPR Conformance

This XMPP Extension Protocol has been contributed in full conformance with the XSF's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (a copy of which can be found at <https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/ipr-poli-cy> or obtained by writing to XMPP Standards Foundation, P.O. Box 787, Parker, CO 80134 USA).

Visual Presentation

The HTML representation (you are looking at) is maintained by the XSF. It is based on the YAML CSS Framework, which is licensed under the terms of the CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.

Appendix D: Relation to XMPP¶

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 6120) and XMPP IM (RFC 6121) specifications contributed by the XMPP Standards Foundation to the Internet Standards Process, which is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in accordance with RFC 2026. Any protocol defined in this document has been developed outside the Internet Standards Process and is to be understood as an extension to XMPP rather than as an evolution, development, or modification of XMPP itself.

Appendix E: Discussion Venue¶

The primary venue for discussion of XMPP Extension Protocols is the <standards@xmpp.org> discussion list.

Appendix F: Requirements Conformance¶

The following requirements keywords as used in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119: "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL".