Overview of Proposal

Finding a lab sponsor has been a barrier to creating labs. This issue is not new and has been discussed at length multiple times. Despite several attempts to remedy this situation things have not improved. Only a small number of people qualify as sponsor and even fewer are willing to volunteer as sponsor. Yet, the role of sponsor as currently defined is very limited and in fact is already carried by the Labs Stewards. Indeed, despite varying expectations by some people, the role of the sponsor is defined as follows in the Process To Propose A New Lab:

The sponsor(s) are responsible for reviewing the proposal. Sponsors do not have a responsibility beyond this; ongoing work like contributing code or reviews is not tied to their role as sponsors. In reviewing the proposal, the sponsor(s) make sure that the proposal is cogent, and novel (in conception, proposed execution, or interested community).

So, the proposal is to simply eliminate the requirement to have a sponsor to create a lab and leave to the stewards to keep doing the initial filtering and possible hand holding of newcomers.

In addition, clear instructions on what is expected of the labs, such as what license to use, ought to be developed when missing and linked from the proposal template for full awareness.

See Sponsors For Labs-Proposal for additional background.

Formal Proposal(s)

Eliminate the requirement to have a sponsor to create a lab.

Develop clear instructions on what is expected of the labs, such as what license to use, when missing, and link these instructions from the proposal template.

Action Items

• Arnaud J Le HorsUpdate wiki: Hyperledger Labs Home, and Labs README
  
• @staff Update website: https://www.hyperledger.org/participate/labs

Reviewed By

• Angelo De Caro
• Arnaud J Le Hors
• Arun S M
• Baohua Yang
• Bobbi Muscara
• Danno Ferrin
• David Enyeart
• Gari Singh
• Grace Hartley
• Hart Montgomery
• Maria Teresa Nieto
• Mark Wagner
• Nathan George
• Tracy Kuhrt
• Troy Ronda