Mass Mesh is a volunteer-led organization focused on building community mesh networks in Boston and the surrounding area. Using off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software, Mass Mesh builds home-grown Internet infrastructure. Its aim is to give communities the tools they need to communicate securely online on their own terms.
To facilitate the growth of our project, set expectations about the way we operate, and keep us accountable to ourselves, we maintain our governance policies publicly in this Github repository. Here, you can find the rights and responsibilities of our core team, as well as information about how to get involved.
Everyone on the core team has certain privileges that other participants in Mass Mesh and the neighborhood networks do not. Core team members may:
- Initiate meetings on behalf of Mass Mesh
- Approve expenses on our Open Collective
- Make pull requests in this repository. All pull requests will be subject to review by the entire core team. This implies the ability to:
- Invite new core team members
- Draft new Mass Mesh policies
- Draft changes to the Network Commons License
Core team members are also eligible to administer Mass Mesh's online assets, including:
- The wiki
- Massmesh.org email addresses and mailing lists
- Social media channels
All core team members are expected to participate actively in the maintenance of Mass Mesh -- the organization and the network. Although not everyone will contribute in the same way, or with the same frequency, please keep the following in mind before accepting a core team membership.
- Participate in governance meetings on a regular (at least quarterly) basis.
- Participate in other meetups on a regular (at least monthly) basis.
- Approve/reject pull requests in this repository in a timely fashion
- May be asked to help manage access to the wiki and other online assets
- May be asked to help with maintenance of the community network(s)
Membership in the core team is by invite, and invites are vetted by consensus. If you are interested in joining the core team, please talk to one of the existing members in our Matrix chat. We'll be most likely to invite you into the team if you:
- Have an active interest in growing our network in your neighborhood
- Have contributed regularly to the project in the past
- Have an active interest in expanding our capacity in some very involved way (i.e. growing our legal capacity, overhauling our online presence, maintaining social media channels on our behalf, etc.)
Generally, if the things you're doing or hope to do involve putting substantial amounts of your time or reputation into the project, you should ask about becoming a core team member. We're trying to build an organization that is volunteer-led, and an inclusive, healthy core team is an important part of that.
Core team members may leave at any time -- participation is completely voluntary. Leaving the core team doesn't have to mean leaving Mass Mesh, either. In order to sustain the health of the group and avoid disruptions, though, we do ask that anyone leaving the core team do the following:
- Give some notice so that others can try to make adjustments to our processes, etc.
- Notify any external parties to whom you are the point of contact of where to get in touch with the group (if applicable)
- Hand off any assets that you are managing
- Return any shared equipment (if applicable)
If you believe that anyone on the core team is not living up to their responsibilities, has abused their privileges, or is in violation of our community norms at any time, you may either contact another core team member directly, or submit an issue on this Github repository. Depending on the severity of any wrong-doing, the following sanctions may be employed:
- Meeting to address the issue, and warning against further violations (1st violation/non-serious violations)
- Suspension from the core team for up to 1 month (2nd violation/serious first-time violations)
- Removal from the core team (3rd violation/very serious violations including theft, abuse, or misuse of shared funds)