Plone Foundation Board Minutes January 23, 2025

Call to Order

  • Meeting started at 20:05 UTC

Attendance

  • Present: Rafahela Bazzanella, Brian Davis, João Henrique Gouveia, Mikel Larreategi, Martin Peeters, and Guido Stevens
  • Excused: Eric Brehault

Approval of the minutes of

  • January 9, 2024: Mikel motions to approve. Brian seconds. All in favor.

Action items

  • Martin contacted Beth about Treasurer.
  • Martin contacted Fred about 1pw vault. Waiting for Fred.
  • Martin contacted TKim about Scribe. Transfer made. All done.
  • Martin prepared 1st version of Board Prioriies.

Incoming Correspondence

  • GitHub - 1099 tax form
  • SteveP - Copyright infringement (to be discussed)
  • pypi - Transfer and naming situation with new pas.plugins.authomatic release
  • 3 Sprint funding requests (to be discussed)
  • Data erasure request - Sender is not a Foundation member, and we don't keep any personal data. Seems like an automated request.

New Business

  • Copyright infringement
    • Board reviewed a copyright issue and the proposed resolution from the Volto Team.
      • Original PR was postponed when original contributor wasn't ready to sign the CPA.
      • Seems obvious that 2nd contributor doesn't speak Sweedish.
      • Possible that AI generated the code for the student, but ultimately he must validate it before submitting.
    • Analysis
      • We debated whether it was likely or even possible that the LLM was trained on the original PR. Maybe Copilot can really do it this fast?
      • Should remove the offending code, decide what action to take on the offending person, and plan how to manage this situation in the future.
      • Martin will contact SteveP and tell that that what they did was good and we approve that.
    • How to deal with the complaint (contrition matters)
      • We want to be seen as a welcoming commmunity, so let's avoid extreme penalties as a first step
      • Contact the offending party with a probationary warning, and encourage him to do the right thing.
        • Explain we do not accept that behavior, but give him second chance. Maybe he didn't realize what AI did?
        • If this happens again in the future, further actions will be taken.
        • And if you really want to contribute, join in other ways like community.plone, tune-up days, etc in order to gain some credibility.
      • Contact the original PR contributor
        • Apologize, tell him what action we've taken, and thank him for notifying us. (Also, send him a hard copy of the CPA!)
    • What is our policy in the future?
      • Is there a precedent? https://www.fsf.org/licensing/copilot/on-the-nature-of-ai-code-copilots
      • AI will tell you not to publish suggestions without ANY modification. That's probably how GitHub handles it.
      • Martin will draft a response on our new policy.
  • GSOC Students travel expenses reimbursment
    • Martin had message from Beth from the last Plone Conference
      • We will wait for Eric because we don't know what the student was told.
  • New Treasurer search
    • SteveP can review candidates, as he's helped other NFP before.
    • Working with Beth on accounts and transition.
  • Sprint Funding Requests
    • We will have to see what we have budget for.
      • Already received requests: Alpine City, Beethoven, Eau de Web in Romania
      • Anticipating: Salamina, Axolte
      • Last year we allocated 19.2: - (1) 8k mega - (1) 4k large - (4) small 1500 each - (3) small 300 each
      • Let's delay a full sprint-funding discussion until next meeting.
    • Guido proposes we allocate $1,500 to Alpine City Sprint now, then later allocate more later. Mikel seconds. All in favor.
    • Action items to keep this process moving:
      • Guido will contact Jens about Alpine City Sprint Funding Request.
      • Mikel will contact Alec at Eau de Web about Sprint Funding Request.
        • They will need help organizing, promoting. Who will key people be? What will be the subject? What are the travel expenses?
      • Martin will contact Jakob about Beethoven Sprint Funding Request.

Continued Business

  • Board priorities: Review document delayed until next meeting, but add comments and add your name on the topic you want to put your energy towards.
  • Zope Foundation funds: No new news.
  • PloneConf25
    • Mikel says first meeting last week, with new meetings every 2 weeks.
    • They have a budget started and we discussed ideas on how to organize sprints/trainings.
    • For the moment, everything is on the right track.

Review Ongoing

  • Mikel: Volto team will be taking measures (intended to be polite) on GitHub to handle the influx of GSOC PRs.
    • "The Volto Team has suspended its review of new pull requests from first-time contributors until the release of Plone 7". There is a PR from SteveP on documenting that response. https://github.com/plone/volto/pull/6613/files
  • Brian: Astrid taking over Marketing Team Lead. Rikupekka did handoff, Brian/Fred got her email and 1pw.
    • Martin says Marketing Team Lead is a elected position, so a vote is needed. Brian nominates Astrid. Martin seconds. All in favor.
  • Brian: Tune-up Day report = Group analyzed current Wikipedia paged and brainstormed possible edits.
    • Mikel has experience with WikiData, Brian will share doc. Martin suggests editor profile links to plone.org/board page for credibility.

Adjournment

  • Guido motions to adjourn. Brian seconds. All in favor.
  • Adjourned at 21:40 UTC.