Technical Advisory Group Terms of Reference

Islandora Technical Advisory Group (TAG)

The Islandora Technical Advisory Group (TAG) operates under the Islandora Foundation’s Bylaws, specifically Bylaw 35 (Committees). Advising on technical issues facing Islandora, and as stated on the Islandora.ca website, TAG:

Chairs the Weekly Open Tech Call
Organizes community sprints
Collaborates on technical challenges
Advises on future software directions

As with all the groups in the Islandora Community, this group must agree to abide by the Code of Conduct.

Further information about this group, including current membership, is available on the islandora-community wiki.

If you have recently joined TAG, fill out the Onboarding Form to be added to the governance group communication channels.

Communication Channels Checklist

Technical Advisory Group Google Drive
#tag on Slack
TAG meeting invitation
Added to islandora-committers@googlegroups.com

Purpose and Scope

Often there are issues of technical architecture and roadmapping that cannot be fulsomely discussed within the confines of the weekly open tech call. In these cases, TAG mobilizes around these issues, bringing together information and expertise to provide informed recommendations for how to proceed in the form of proposals.

TAG is not a formal decision making body, but rather serves as a dedicated group of committers and other interested parties willing to dig deep into issues that involve roadmapping and overarching technical issues (like semantic versioning and Drupal end of life software considerations). TAG also forwards proposals to the wider committers group, the IFLG and ICC groups where necessary.

Membership

Although meetings are open, the core membership of TAG will generally be made up of no more than 6 people. A person can become a core member by self-nomination and resulting commitment to the group. As a general guideline, being an Islandora committer is a prerequisite to membership on TAG, as this reflects a level of knowledge about Islandora code, and a commitment to the code-base.

Note: Institutions without a committer who wish to form part of the core TAG team are encouraged to nominate an Islandora committer, but should also feel reassured that:

a) there will be robust community consultation on issues that affect all Islandora users, and


b) TAG meetings are open meetings that anybody can attend, and that are posted on the [Islandora community calendar](https://www.islandora.ca/community#event-calendar).

Rotation of membership

TAG members are set for a fixed 1 year term with the intention of staggering terms, so as not to have all members rotate off at one point in time. The group share the responsibilities of TAG amongst themselves, as broadly defined at https://www.islandora.ca/community and outlined more specifically below.

TAG Roles and Responsibilities

The core group members are expected to attend all TAG meetings and most weekly tech calls.
One representative from the TAG core group is appointed to the Leadership Group (TAG LG Representative).
One member of the core group will take responsibility for maintaining documentation on behalf of the group in the TAG Google drive and on the community wiki (TAG Manager).
The Core Tag group individuals and their relevant roles will be identified on the Islandora community wiki page.
Proposals and working documents will be stored in the TAG Google Drive.

Responsibility 1. Chairs the weekly open Tech calls

TAG makes sure that the weekly tech calls are chaired, and that notes are taken.
TAG will be supported in this task by the active Islandora intern, who will take notes and create shell agendas.

Responsibility 2. Organizes community sprints

TAG Identifies and communicates with LG and ICC when a sprint should be arranged.
No sprint will be organized by the Islandora Foundation without at least one core TAG member as part of the organizing team.

Responsibility 3. Collaborates on technical challenges

TAG helps foster consensus in architecture of the project, and advises on required research and prototyping tasks.
TAG identifies discussion areas for technical issues and calls meetings on these topics.
TAG maintains a proposal log - namely a log of all proposals brought forth to the technical community and the resulting decision about the proposal. These will be stored in the TAG Google drive.

Responsibility 4. Advises on future software directions

Communicates with the ICC and ILG about the Roadmap and advises on its development.

Notes on Communication

TAG Meetings

TAG meetings are open to anyone and visible in the Islandora Community Calendar.
Meetings will be called by any core TAG member on an as-needed basis, to discuss any technical topic that’s on the community’s mind - be it that of any of the core TAG group, Leadership Group, ICC or attendees of the weekly technical meetings.
The topics discussed by the TAG can also be seeded by the Leadership group, ICC, the Tech meeting, or otherwise by the Community.
Topics will be architectural or technical in nature.

TAG Slack Channel

The TAG Slack Channel #tag is open to core members of the TAG group as well as IF staff. TAG has a responsibility to include others in proposals and update the committers group and others via the weekly open tech call and posts to the main Islandora communication channels (in Slack and via the Google Mailing list).

Representation on the Leadership Group

A member of TAG will be designated to attend and join the Islandora Foundation Leadership Group (IFLG) and become part of the private Slack group for Leadership. This member will make every attempt to regularly join IFLG meetings. When unable to attend, TAG will provide updates and proposals to the Leadership Group via the slack channel or current IFLG Chair.