The following is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between channelAustin, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and Portland Community Media, all of which are using the Community Media Difficult Starter Kit (DSK). Since a meeting held in Austin on May 31 and June 1, 2014, staff from these organizations are meeting by phone every other week tp coordinate joint development and use of the DSK.

Memorandum of Understanding

Between channelAustin, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and Portland Community Media regarding Drupal and CiviCRM software development

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is entered into by and between the following entities:

  • Public Access Community Television, Inc., doing business as channelAustin
  • Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN)
  • Portland Community Media (PCM)

I. Shared Mission

  • channelAustin manages the City of Austin’s public access television facility and resources.
  • MNN manages Manhattan’s public access television facilities and resources.
  • PCM manages Portland’s public access television facilities and resources.

All of these organizations have been engaged in the development and implementation of Drupal-based solutions and share the same Community Media Drupal code base. Specifically, they share the code base for set of modules within the Community Media Starter Kit (Difficult).

II. Requirements for Joining the MoU

Any organization that wishes to become a party to this MoU will need to communicate with the existing parties and ensure that the organization’s code base is currently compatible with the Community Media Starter Kit (Difficult). If the organization is not currently using the Community Media Starter Kit (Difficult), then the organization will need to demonstrate its plans to do so.

III. Purpose and Scope

The purpose of this MOU is to establish a collaborative agreement and framework between the parties regarding the continued development, implementation, and use of Community Media Drupal, specifically in regards to the Community Media Starter Kit (Difficult) as described on Drupal.org here: http://drupal.org/project/cm_starterkit_difficult

IV. Responsibilities

a) Each party shall appoint a person to serve as the official contact and coordinate the activities of each organization in carrying out the terms of this MOU. The initial appointees of each organization are:

Stefan Wray
General Manager
channelAustin

Craig Sinclair
Digital Media Manager
MNN

Aric Ruble
Web Development Coordinator
PCM

b) Each party agrees when hiring a contractor that if the contractor is not familiar with the Community Media Drupal initiative then the party doing the hiring shall provide a copy of this MOU to the contractor as well as communicate background information about this initiative to the new contractor such as described in the draft letter in Appendix A.

c) Each party shall make every effort to publicly share any code created by staff or contractors that could potentially benefit another community organization in a timely manner. Such sharing will be included in all scopes of work presented to contractors and reflected in proposals from contractors.

d) Parties understand that the newly developed code can be shared in a “work in progress” state using Drupal.org sandboxes, GitHub, or similar service or as a completed module that other stations can easily install and use from Drupal.org. The need to publicly share code will be part of any contract for Drupal or CiviCRM development these organizations engage in.

e) Parties also understand that “sharing” code also involves some degree of further explication, usually in the form of documentation.

V. Assurances

The overarching principle guiding this agreement is a maxim at the core of open source software development in addition to a variation of core principle of Drupal development:

  • Do no harm
  • Don't hack core, but if you have to hack it. . . do it openly

In the course of future development, implementation, and use of modules included in Community Media Starter Kit (Difficult) each party recognizes that while they all use the common code base, their workflows, playback server specific integrations, and organization specific needs will differ. Changes or updates needed by any organization should not negatively impact another organization's workflow. The following steps will be followed to ensure this

a) With the exception of security updates, any change in code or version needed for a module included in the kit will be requested by creating an issue or feature request for the Community Media Starter Kit (Difficult) on Drupal.org and by notifying the other parties.

b) After the request is made, the other parties are expected to review the request within 30 days. Because the Starter Kit approach allows the requesting party to use the change by overriding the version of the module, library, or other code included in the kit, this does not prevent progress, but provides a mechanism for reconciling those changes with the core code base in a timely manner.

c) If acceptable to the non-requesting parties, changes that cause problems for the non-requesting parties will be resolved by sharing the expense. If not, the changes to meet the non-requesting parties' needs will be made by the requesting party or the changes will remain forked. While forking is an option, all parties agree it is not desirable.

d) In addition, if any party wishes to develop a new module or theme – as opposed to simply creating a change or version update of existing modules – that has the potential of being included in the Starter Kit or that has the potential of superseding and replacing any existing modules in the kit, then that party shall follow a similar procedure as noted above to communicate with the other parties prior to creating a scope of work.

VI. Terms of Understanding

The term of this MOU is for a period of 2 years, from the effective date of this agreement and may be extended upon written mutual agreement. It shall be reviewed at least annually to ensure that it is fulfilling its purpose and to make any necessary revisions.
Any organization may terminate and withdraw from this MOU upon thirty (30) days written notice without penalties or liabilities.

VIII. Authorization

The signing of this MOU is not a formal undertaking. It implies that the signatories will strive to reach, to the best of their ability, the objectives stated in the MOU.

Linda Litowsky
Executive Director
channelAustin

Dan Coughlin
Executive Director
MNN

Cece Hughley Noel
Executive Director
PCM