LDraw.org Standards Committee Final Draft

Overview
The goal of the Standards Committee is to foster increased coordination and direction in our common community effort to develop a better LDraw file format. The participants of this body will discuss, vote on, and adopt community-developed commands as Official LDraw.org standards, consisting of the original LDraw spec (1.0.0) plus meta-commands developed by various LDraw-compatible LEGO CAD programs.

Background
The LDraw community has existed as a minimally organized group of users, programmers, and parts authors since James Jessiman’s LDraw became widely used in the mid 1990’s. This community originated solely online and continues to use the internet as it’s primary medium of communication. LDraw standards have until this point only been semi-organized as well, with individual leaders in file format issues, but no defined processes for format evolution. This has caused confusion among both newcomers and long time participants, and the community recognizes the need for a group charged with adopting official standards and publishing official documentation.

Responsibilities of the Standards Committee
The LDraw.org Standards Committee (LSC) will be responsible for maintaining semi-regular internal discussions on pending file format issues, the overall progress of the LDraw file format and new or proposed developments made by different LDraw-based software authors. This group will be responsible for developing their own internal procedures on how to process and vote on proposals and how to write and publish documentation. The Committee will also be responsible for updating the greater LDraw community periodically of progress within the group. The Standards Committee will adopt new official standards by voting on them, and publish documentation on LDraw.org following such a decision. The LSC will document past, current and future LDraw File Formats.

Procedures
The procedures shall be determined by the LSC itself. Items that shall be attended to include (but are not limited to):

• Call for internal discussion on a proposal made internally (by another LSC member) or externally (by a member of the LDraw Community)
• Request for Final Comments (RFC) from the community before a vote
• Call for a vote to ratify a proposal as standard
• Drafting, reviewing, and publishing spec documents
• Procedure for filling an early vacancy of a member
• Number of votes needed to accept a proposal as a standard
• Appointing sub-committees

Voting
Each LSC member can cast one (1) vote on any issue brought up within the LSC.

Membership
Membership of the LSC shall be limited to 5 people, unless LSC members vote to create additional vacancies for a future election. The LSC also defines a procedure for voting to eliminate seats added in the future. The minimum number of seats on the LSC shall be 5.

Requirements for LSC Membership
To ensure only competent, dedicated, and active contributors are eligible to become members of the LSC, they shall have met one or more of the following requirements for nomination:

• Authored at least two LDraw parts subsequently released in an Official LDraw.org Parts Update
• Served as a reviewer on the Parts Tracker through at least 2 official parts updates, and posted at least 5 reviews in at least two updates since their initial participation
• Released a still available software program that is compliant with either the LDraw 1.0.0 spec or another spec published by the LSC
• Petition for nomination as an LSC candidate approved by 2 current LSC members
• Petition for nomination as an LSC candidate made to the LSC by at least 5 others eligible to be LSC candidates

In the event that an Official LDraw.org Parts Update has not been released for more than six months the following criteria substitute the activity on the LDraw Parts Tracker listed above:

• Authored at least two LDraw parts which have been submitted to the Parts Tracker and subsequently marked Certified
• Served as a reviewer on the Parts Tracker for at least one year, and posted at least 5 reviews in that year

LSC Discussion
The LSC shall have a mailing list or other communication method where only members can post, but the entire community can read. This allows the community to keep tabs on what is being discussed, and discuss LSC issues in public forums such as LUGNET’s CAD.* groups. The LSC should encourage this discussion, and should draw ideas and suggestions from non-LSC members in the community, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard. However, the LSC shall be the only group that votes to ratify a proposal as a standard.

Annual Summary
The members of the LSC will be responsible for publishing an annual summary to the community several weeks prior elections for the next year’s term. This summary shall outline the progress of the previous term, note all versions of the spec ratified during the term, and summarize the future goals and ideas of the current LSC members.

Terms
Terms on the Standards Committee lasts one year.

Nominations
The LDraw.org Steering Committee will call for nominations to the Standards Committee on the first day of October of that year. Nominations must be received and recorded by the 14th of October. Nominees must have accept or decline the nomination by the 17th of October. People can either self-nominate or nominate someone else. The nomination must reference the candidates eligibility from the list above.

Elections
Only LDraw organization members will vote on the nominees by privately listing the five (5) nominees they select for the position. Votes will be received and tallied by the LDraw.org Steering Commitee, who will be accountable to each other and to the community for accuracy. The LSC will consist of no more than 5 people, however the LSC will be able to create vacant seats to be filled at a future election if they wish. Elections will begin on the 17th of October and end October 31.

The current LDraw.org Steering Commitee will announce the results of the election within 6 days of the election, on or before November 7.

Inauguration
Elected members of the LSC will take office on November 15. This gives downtime for outgoing members and incoming members to discuss the published Annual Report and ensure a smooth transition.

Recurring Dates

October 1		Annual summary published. Call for nominations.
October 14		All nominations must be received and recorded
October 17		Nominees must have accept or declined the nomination. LSC Elections begin
October 31		LSC Elections end
On or before November 7		LDraw.org Steering Commitee announces election results
November 15		New LSC Members take office

* The dates may flex a few days in either direction due to the personal schedules of the site admins.

Glossary

LDraw.org Steering Committee
Five elected officers of LDraw.org collectively be known as the Steering Committee.

LDraw.org organization members
Defined, opt-in group of LDraw community participants who will have the right to vote on resolutions put forward by the LDraw.org Steering Committee.

LDraw.org Standards Committee (LSC)
Group of 5 parts authors, Parts Tracker reviewers, or LDraw-compatible software authors elected by peers within the LDraw.org Membership to ratify and publish the Official LDraw.org File Format Spec.

Version 1.0
Written by: Tim Courtney
Contributors: Kevin Clague, Wayne Gramlich, Paul Gyugyi, Larry Pieniazek, Orion Pobursky, Dan Boger
July 1, 2003

Version 1.1
Edited by: Willy Tschager
June 27, 2006

Version 1.2
Edited by: Willy Tschager
November 01, 2006

Version 1.3
Edited by: Willy Tschager
September 14, 2007

Version 1.4
Edited by: Willy Tschager
November 02, 2007