Governance
How the OpenECU Alliance operates, makes decisions, and evolves the specification.
Overview
The OpenECU Alliance is an open community dedicated to standardizing ECU log data formats and building an ecosystem of interoperable automotive tools. The Alliance maintains the OpenECU Spec and coordinates development of Alliance Projects.
Guiding Principles
Openness
All specifications are freely available. Development happens in the open.
Consensus
Major decisions are made through community discussion and rough consensus.
Meritocracy
Influence is earned through contribution and demonstrated expertise.
Vendor Neutrality
The spec serves the community, not any single vendor or product.
Pragmatism
Working code and real-world usage inform specification design.
Organizational Structure
Roles
Steering Committee
Provides strategic direction for the Alliance. Approves major spec versions, accepts donated projects, resolves disputes, and manages trademarks.
Composition: 3-7 members with staggered 2-year terms
Maintainers
Have write access to Alliance repositories. Review and merge PRs, triage issues, ensure quality, and mentor new contributors.
Composition: Nominated by existing Maintainers, approved by Steering Committee
Contributors
Anyone who contributes through submitting adapters, proposing changes, reporting bugs, improving docs, or participating in discussions.
Composition: Open to all
Working Groups
Working Groups may be formed for specific focus areas and are created by Steering Committee approval.
Decision Making
Lazy Consensus Model
The Alliance uses a lazy consensus model for most decisions:
- A proposal is made (PR, RFC, or discussion)
- Community members discuss and provide feedback
- If no objections after the review period, the proposal is accepted
- If objections exist, discussion continues until consensus is reached
Review Periods:
Voting
When consensus cannot be reached, decisions may go to a vote. Only Maintainers and Steering Committee members may vote on formal matters.
RFC Process
Significant changes to the specification follow the RFC (Request for Comments) process:
Specification Versioning
The OpenECU Spec follows Semantic Versioning:
MAJOR (X.0.0)
Breaking changes that require adapter updates
MINOR (0.X.0)
New features, backward-compatible additions
PATCH (0.0.X)
Clarifications, typo fixes, no functional changes
Deprecation Policy
Features may be deprecated with at least one minor version of warning. Warning period of at least 6 months before removal in next major version.
Adapter Governance
Adapter Submission
- Create adapter following SPECIFICATION.md
- Validate against JSON Schema
- Submit Pull Request
- Adapter Working Group reviews
- Community review period (7 days)
- Merged if approved
Adapter Ownership
Adapters in this repository are owned by the Alliance, not individual contributors. This ensures:
- Long-term maintenance regardless of original author availability
- Consistent quality standards
- Freedom for any Maintainer to update
Original authors are credited in adapter metadata.
Code of Conduct
All participants must adhere to the Code of Conduct. Enforcement decisions are made by the Steering Committee.
Enforcement Levels:
Amendments
This governance document may be amended through the RFC process with a supermajority vote of the Steering Committee.