Governance

piveau has emerged as one of the favoured solutions for the creation and management of data catalogues in Europe. The platform can harvest and transform data from various sources, making them accessible as data catalogues. Until now, the lion’s share of the piveau development has so far been done by Fraunhofer FOKUS and it has been supported through various research and development projects.

However, there is an increased interest from other actors to join the development and steering of the project. Against this background, it is a sensible step to further release the code with an open- source license and establish an open innovation process for it. Here it becomes key to clarify their relationship with the project as well as questions regarding intellectual property to effectively involve such actors into the development.

The following guidelines aim to establish a lean structure to regulate the organization and governance of piveau and allow individuals or institutions to participate and contribute in a meaningful way to its development. This is a pilot for broader open-source community and we expect the organisation and governance structure to evolve as the community grows.

Governance structure

The governance of piveau emerges against the background described in the introduction, where Fraunhofer FOKUS assumes an orchestrating role in the development of piveau, making efforts to effectively involve other actors in it. This governance structure is a first step towards the constitution of a broader platform, with the understanding that the success of the project depends on a healthy ecosystem and transparency among the actors.

To engage with new stakeholders, a piveau working group will be formed. This group will convene regularly to address current issues and drive the ongoing evolution of piveau. Initially, decisions concerning piveau's development will be made by Fraunhofer FOKUS based on discussions within the working group. As the project matures, decision-making processes can evolve in collaboration with established working group members.

In these early stages, Fraunhofer FOKUS will play a significant role by providing essential infrastructure and expertise, facilitating the necessary platforms for piveau's development. Furthermore, Fraunhofer will oversee the organization of the piveau working group and its activities. Being a leading applied research institute in Europe, Fraunhofer occupies a unique position in connecting research, public sector entities, civil society organizations, and the private sector in open innovation initiatives like piveau.

Working group meeting

It is a bi-montly meeting to discuss the strategic development of piveau. This meeting aims to establish an interchange between the organisations involved to identify common problems and conceive ways to solve them. A central task of the working group is to shape the roadmap of piveau, based on the needs and challenges of the members. The features can be developed depending on the capacities of the members.

On a governance level, the members can discuss how the organisation of piveau can evolve so that it can generate a healthy ecosystem for all members. The members can propose new formats or methods to improve their engagement. The meeting and the organization will evolve based on the discussions of the working group.

Community Call

It is a monthly meeting to discuss both technical issues and the further development of the software. During the meeting the contributors can discuss about current challenges, issues, documentation, and how to address the features planned in the road map. The contributors can also discuss the technical organization of piveau and the tools used. At the end of the meeting some priorities for the development can be recommended.