Planetary Software Organization Top-Level Projects (TLPs) are autonomous projects created and managed by their own Technical Committees (TC), not the Planetary Software Technical Steering Committee (TSC).
These are primarily software projects of various kinds which already exist separately. They benefit from being Planetary Software TLPs in the following ways:
- The TSC helps them adopt or formalize governance and community standards to foster their existance as an open source community.
- They gain the ability to easily reach out to the Planetary Software TSC for consultation or mentorship on technical or governance issues, and have the option to serve on the Planetary Software TSC.
- Being recognized as a Planetary Software TLP lets others know that their project conforms to community best practices which are likely to result in long-term success for their project.
Groups can submit applications for their project to become a TLP at any time but must go through the TLP lifecycle process and be approved by the TSC. The TSC never takes responsibility or any kind of ownership of the project. The TSC approves the submitted charter and governance documents, and works with the newly-certified TLP's TC as much or as little as the TC desires. As long as the TC continues to operate their project in a way that conforms with the TSC's values and requirements, it will continue to be a chartered Planetary Software TLP.
TLPs are not typically formed to begin a set of tasks but instead are transformed from existing projects where work is already underway and the contributors think it would benefit from formalizing an open source governance model, benefiting from TSC consultation, and/or participating in TSC activities.
That being said, the work need not be great, nor the contributors many, nor the commit history long to benefit from being a Planetary Software TLP.
To find out how to join a TLP, consult its Charter or Contributing document in the TLP's repository.
To submit a project as a TLP or start a TLP, become familiar with the lifecycle of a TLP, and read through the example documents to get started.