XWiki's Libre Software Manifesto

This is a XWiki SAS company statement regarding its vision and commitments towards open source and the open source projects that it is currently leading, XWiki Enterprise and its applications. We think that it is important for customers, community members and people around XWiki projects to have a clear vision of our involvement and commitment towards XWiki Enterprise and its applications. This Manifesto has been inspired by the Openbravo Manifesto which we have for long found a great and needed initiative in the Open Source World.

What we believe in

Here is a summary of the values XWiki believes in:

  • Transparency: We think that transparency is the key to working on an open source project and it is fundamental to boost collaboration among different project members.
  • Openness: We believe in open standards, open protocols and formats, and open source as a more efficient way of developing, operating and integrating software solutions.
  • Collaboration: We are open to any party that wants to collaborate with us, whether they are individuals, companies or institutions. We strongly believe in using cooperative ways of building business solutions.
  • Meritocracy: We believe we should gain people's respect and recognition due to our work. We shall always make sure that everybody has access to our open resources on an equal basis and we will accept contributors based on the merit of their work and their skills.
  • Leadership: We lead the XWiki projects - and potentially other future related solutions - leveraging our community through the coordination and management of processes instead of exercising them through authority.
  • Excellence: We put maximum effort, dedication and care in everything that we do. We always strive for excellence.
  • Gratitude: We are grateful for the active involvement and interest of our Community and for every contribution that we receive, regardless of origin, motivation, size and type.

XWiki Commitments

  • Open Source: A functional version of our software is always published under an open source license. Our goal is to enable people with the required skills to install, configure and use XWiki for themselves or in a production environment.
  • Open access to the development trunk: We guarantee ready access to the main development trunk for everyone. Commit access is provided to all people that have demonstrated technical skills.
  • Open Documentation: We will offer free product documentation for XWiki in the English language through www.xwiki.org to anyone. We believe that good documentation is a key factor to success for any open source project. We will keep investing in documentation and we hope that our community will continue helping us in this important area.
  • Infrastructure: We take the responsibility for providing the infrastructure that we deem necessary to make XWiki open source projects succeed, and to support a vibrant community around them. That includes the software development infrastructure, like bug tracking or source control systems, the hardware to operate them and the administration of all these services.
  • Legal defence: XWiki SAS is committed to defend XWiki in the event of any claim or infringement by third parties.
  • Attribution: XWiki SAS is committed to recognize people's contributions to its products. All the contributor's names are included as authors in the source code files that they create. Additionally, all project's contributors are listed in the contributor.txt file.
  • Intellectual Property: XWiki is committed to respect other parties' intellectual property rights. We will not knowingly infringe on other people's rights and we will take any reasonable steps to correct any unintentional violation as soon as it is discovered.

Additionally, XWiki SAS can and will at its own discretion devote resources to other areas that we identify as critical for the success of our company, like giving assistance to XWiki users in our forums, or any additional action that we consider necessary.

As the originator of the XWiki projects, XWiki SAS is strongly committed to funding the open source projects that it leads. XWiki SAS has already invested more than 50,000 men hours in the development of open source software.

XWiki's business model

XWiki SAS is a for profit organization. Its business model is based on selling high-added value services to customers and partners installing, deploying and operating XWiki solutions. Today, these services include second level support, custom development, training, specialized consulting.

In order to develop and support these services, XWiki SAS develops additional tools and infrastructure that make the operation of XWiki solutions more efficient. XWiki SAS reserves the right to give access to these tools and infrastructure on a commercial basis to its customers only, as long as doing so does not infringe any of the above commitments.

XWiki Company Structure

XWiki SAS is a company registered in the Paris, France registry of commerce. It is as of March 2014 fully owned by 11 of its employees, many of them being committers of the XWiki Software.

The majority shareholders of XWiki SAS are:

  • 62% Ludovic Dubost: initial creator of XWiki and founder of XWiki SAS, CEO of XWiki SAS;
  • 22% Vincent & Marie-Albane Massol: CTO of XWiki SAS and current leader of the XWiki Open Source Development community;
  • 16% owned by 8 other employees or former employees of XWiki SAS.