Participation and Governance

Participation

The Common Component Architecture Forum is an open standards body dedicated to accelerate scientific discovery in computational science and engineering by improving the software engineering technology that goes into these codes. Anyone interested in HPC component technology is welcome to participate in the Forum through meetings, working groups, mailing lists, developing or using CCA software, etc.

CCA Forum members come from a variety of backgrounds: mostly academia, and government research laboratories, but also from the corporate side of HPC.  Most participants are associated with R&D projects that use and/or develop CCA-based software and tools.  Funding for these projects comes from a spectrum of government agencies.  Though we are primarily US-based so far, we encourage, international dialog and participation.  Many CCA Forum members are also active in helping to organize an international workshop series on Component-Based High-Performance Computing.

Governance

We try to keep the formalities of the Forum to the minimum necessary to carry out our core mission, of maintaining the CCA specification. There is a modest organizational structure to help insure the quality of the CCA standard. Fundamentally, all matters of significance before the Forum are decided by a vote of those holding voting privileges at the time the question is called.

Voting Privileges

Voting privileges are given to those who participate in at least two of the three most recent CCA Forum meetings, thereby promoting active participation in the Forum. Attendance is taken at each Forum meeting for this purpose.  Remote participation (via teleconference and web sharing) in Forum meetings qualifies as participation for voting privileges.

Voting Procedures

Generally, proposals are initially discussed within the Forum, and when the time comes for a vote, we use a homegrown online tool called Quorum to manage the process.  Proposals are posted on Quorum and must be seconded before voting begins.  Usually a three week period is allowed for voting, and votes can be modified at any time until the poll closes.  Voting is for/against/abstain, and a simple plurality is required.  Attendance lists from CCA Forum meetings are entered into Quorum so that it can determine who has voting privileges.

CCA Review Board (CCARB)

The Common Component Architecture Review Board (CCARB) was established to oversee a more rigorous process for the CCA specification.  The CCARB membership is nominated by the Chair of the Forum and ratified by a vote of the membership.

Chair

Until relatively recently, the Forum operated quite well without any formal concept of a Chair.  However we eventually realized that it was useful to have someone to blame everything on.  The Chair serves a three year term, and their primary responsibility is to nominate the CCARB members.  The current Chair is Rob Armstrong from Sandia National Laboratories.