Overview

The goal of the Standards Board 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 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 Board

The LDraw.org Standards Board (LSB) 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 Standards Board will also be responsible for updating the greater LDraw community periodically of progress within the group. The Standards Board will adopt new official standards by voting on them, and publish documentation on LDraw.org following such a decision. The LSB will document past, current and future LDraw File Formats.

Procedures

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

• Call for internal discussion on a proposal made internally (by another LSB 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
• Number of votes needed to accept a proposal as a standard
• Appointing sub-committees

Membership

Membership of the LSB shall have a minimum of 3 people. The LDraw.org Steering Committee (SteerCo) can add or remove members when needed or remove a vacant seat if desired. There is no incompatibility for serving in both bodies the SteerCo and LSB. One seat is reserved for a current LDraw Library Administrator. If there is more than one LDraw Library Administrator then the LDraw Library Administrators will self select a member to represent them on the LSB. The other vacant seats will be appointed by the SteerCo following a public call for volunteers

Requirements for LSB Membership

To ensure only competent, dedicated, and active contributors are eligible to become members of the LSB, 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 spec or another spec published by the LSB
• Petition for nomination as an LSB candidate approved by 2 current LSB members
• Petition for nomination as an LSB candidate made to the LSB by at least 5 others eligible to be LSB 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

LSB Discussion

The LSB 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 LSB issues in public forums such as LUGNET’s CAD.* groups. The LSB should encourage this discussion, and should draw ideas and suggestions from non-LSB members in the community, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard. However, the LSB shall be the only group that votes to ratify a proposal as a standard.

Annual Summary

The members of the LSB 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 LSB members.

Terms

Members will be appointed to one year terms. Should a member desire to leave before their term is up then the SteerCo will appoint a new member to fill out the remainder of the term. Each LSB member seat will be formally replaced, reappointed, or removed (provided the minimum membership is met) via public forum when the term for that seat has expired. The normal term expiration date will be 1 month after the inauguration of the currently sitting SteerCo. In the event that the SteerCo fails to appoint new members within 1 month of its inauguration, the sitting LSB will continue in its role until such time as new appointments are made.

Inauguration

Elected members of the LSB will take office immediately

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 Board (LSB)

Group 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.