Charter of the Open Website Alliance

Version: 1.0

1. Name

The name of the organization is: Open Website Alliance (hereafter referred to as the Alliance)

2. Legal form and responsibility

The Alliance is a collaboration body and not a legal entity. The Alliance cannot directly represent, enter into contracts, or make decisions on behalf of its members.

3. Purpose

The Alliance is founded to facilitate collaboration between Content Management Open Source Projects, in order to further education about and advocacy of open source benefits and principles. The Alliance's members seek to promote and defend the rights of open source projects and ultimately aspire to create a better web. (See Appendix I: Open Web Manifesto)

The Alliance's members commit to jointly encourage prospective website owners and developers to always choose open source software over proprietary systems, and to educate why this decision is the first and most important one in a website project. Through this advocacy, we are expanding opportunities for all open source CMS projects.

The Alliance is a community of communities, built on and furthering openness, trust, and quality. This community is a platform where members can share and discuss best practices to benefit the public perception of open source projects, the reliability of open source software, the quality and safety of open source communities, as well as other relevant topics.

Whenever possible, the Alliance should support third party open source projects and communities upon which our projects depend.

4. Members

Members of the Alliance are free and open-source web content management projects, represented by the legal entities of their respective international community organizations.
All web content management systems must be distributed exclusively under one or more licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
By applying for membership, the prospective member organization agrees to the Alliance's Open Web Manifesto (see: Appendix I).
Only a single organization can represent each project within the Alliance.
All member organizations must be a legal entity, not an individual person.
All member organizations must assign one or more contact persons who will receive meeting invites and represent the organization in meetings or delegate such representation to another organization member where appropriate.
Membership applications are made to the President. Memberships commence immediately upon a successful vote to admit the member. If the vote is not successful, the Alliance will provide relevant information where available to the applicant organization. The applicant may reapply after 12 months if they so choose.
A membership lasts until a decision to leave the Alliance is communicated to the President by the organization's contact person or until a successful vote to exclude the member.
The Alliance members may vote to give any organization status as an Alliance Affiliate. Affiliates may be invited to attend and speak at meetings, but do not have voting rights.
An organization's own legal structure, bylaws, and/or mission take precedence in case of any conflict with this charter. The organization must disclose these areas of conflict to the Alliance as soon as they are aware of such a conflict.

5. Presidency and leadership

Only founding members and members with at least 12 months membership are eligible for the presidency.
The presidency of the Alliance rotates among the member organizations, following an alphabetical membership list.
The presidency will rotate on a regular basis, subject to approval by the other members. The default term will be 1 year but can be extended by unanimous consent of the members in increments of 6 months. In the event the person holding the role of president chooses to resign, the organization they represent will have the option to: (i) transfer to another representative of the organization, or (ii) call for the position to rotate early to the next organization.
Before their presidency begins, each organization must assign a person who will be assigned the role of President. This person is the contact person for the Alliance and takes on the practical tasks of the presidency.
The President may call upon the previous and next President to join in a leadership group to help plan meetings and to follow up on issues between meetings.

6. Meetings

Meetings can be held physically or through an online medium. Members have the right to join any meeting through an online medium.
Meetings of the Alliance are called by the President, who is also responsible for the agenda.
The Alliance should meet at least once every quarter.
Meetings must be called with at least two weeks notice, unless the members vote to call an exceptional meeting on shorter notice.

7. Voting

Votes can only be made by the organization's assigned contact person or by a proxy declared by that person.
Votes can be made in meetings or in writing by email.
Decisions require unanimous votes, excluding abstentions. A member should abstain from voting if the decision is not relevant to that member's project.
A member cannot vote on its own exclusion.
Votes to change this charter can only be made with at least four weeks notice.

Appendix I: Open Web Manifesto

The following is a declaration of this Alliance's commitment to the open web and our belief in its power as a digital public good.

The open web is more than a technology-it is a cause.

It is built on freedom: You don't need permission to learn, build, or advance open web technology. Anyone, anywhere can contribute to making it better.

It is defined by decentralization: No single person or entity controls the open web.

It thrives on inclusion: Everyone in the world, regardless of background, identity, ability, wealth, or status, has a home on the open web as a user, creator, architect, and innovator.

It requires participation: The open web is a shared resource and a shared responsibility, sustained by deliberate choice and collaborative effort.

It exists for empowerment: The open web is fueled by humanity's collective quest for information, connection, and progress-and strengthened by every individual's right to choice, privacy, and security.

To live up to that definition, an open web must not be built on proprietary technology.

It must be designed to protect-not exploit-personal data and public discourse.
It must enable the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to compete effectively.
It must be resilient to a changing world and not controlled by a select few.

The open web must be more than an ideal or a set of principles: to achieve its full potential as a global, digital public good, the open web must prove that it is a better web.

That means embodying the limitless innovation that can only come from collaboration; integrating with the best technology available; and earning people's trust.

Our community and our users create the code, solve the problems, and form the bonds that sustain it.

Our creativity enables flexible, seamless digital experiences for creators and users alike.
Our diversity unlocks solutions and new opportunities for innovation.
Our integrity ensures independence and inclusion for all.

Every level of our community is both a beneficiary of the open web and a participant in building it:

The individuals, governments, educational institutions, nonprofits, and enterprises that rely on our software.
The makers who contribute to and volunteer their time and energy to create and sustain it.
The people who use our software every day-even if they don't realize it.

Together, we're shaping the foundation for how the digital world operates, and how future generations will live, work, connect, and express themselves.

As long as our software exists, that foundation will be an open web that is open source, open access, and always open to improvement.

Credit: This manifesto is based on the Drupal Association's original Open Web Manifesto.