When Docker began life as a Linux container-based deployment tool 13 months ago, even the project’s creator, Solomon Hykes (who is also founder and CEO of DotCloud), couldn’t have foreseen the need for an open-source governance advisory board. But after just over a year of growth, this open-source project and company of the same name has enticed heavy hitters like Google, IBM and Red Hat into using Docker-driven Linux containers.
As a result of this growth, Docker announced today the formation of the Docker Governance Advisory Board. The board will function as a tool for feedback from the communities that use Docker, but will not have any actual control over the project itself.
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That’s entirely intentional, said Scott Johnston, senior vice president of product at Docker. “It’s a crawl, walk, run approach,” he said. “We’re not jumping right to a full-on foundation. We’re starting with an open governance advisory board, which doesn’t have decision authority, but can give feedback.”
The idea is to model the Docker governance process after that of the Linux kernel, said Johnston. “We really like how Linus Torvalds, at top of the Linux world, has conducted himself. He has a structure that’s open and transparent, but also guided and correct. Our radical transparency and merit-based participation are taken from his best practices,” he said.
To that end, Johnston said that the 15-member advisory board will consist only of persons and corporations that invest in Docker. That means only existing contributors to the project will likely find themselves with a seat.
Four of those seats will go to the top contributors to the project. Hykes will lead the board with a seat of his own, and two other top contributors who work for Docker will also have seats. After that, Johnston could not say which specific corporations or individuals would be included, but he did state that Google, IBM, Rackspace and Red Hat have all heavily invested their internal use of Docker.
The Docker Governance Advisory Board members will be formally announced at the first Docker Conference, which takes place in San Francisco, June 9-10.
