About the Governance category

TYPO3 Association Governance
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This is a place to ask questions, discuss how TYPO3 is governed, and learn more about the structures, processes, and decisions that shape the project and the Association.

The Rules and Regulations of the TYPO3 association are maintained in the central repository https://github.com/TYPO3-Documentation/Policy/tree/main/Documentation. Please use the repository to propose changes and discussion to specific topics.

Everyone is welcome to join the conversation.

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Everyone is welcome to join the conversation.

No, that is becoming more and more untrue:

  • The Association sends an email with the “State of the TYPO3 Market 2026 Survey” and you are forced to have a Google account (suggested solution: “Maybe you can use someone else’s account?”)
  • There was a new flyer about TYPO3. After offering to translate it the first question was to provide a Google account
  • The Association wants questions and feedback about their new plans for governance and restructuring and low and behold you need a GitHub account to participate

Voices around governments are becoming louder to use tools and infrastructure which does not rely on big tech and other countries but lately in the TYPO3 world those tools become mandatory.

We do have our own platforms (talk voor discussions, git, gerrit for reviews, and so on) but somehow third party tools seem to be preferred and are forced upon others.

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Hi Jigal,

You raise fair concerns about digital autonomy and our reliance on large platforms. We want to avoid depending on third parties, but we also have to balance that against the reality of running our own infrastructure.

Hosting and maintaining our own tools takes a massive amount of time and money. Other open source projects face this same problem. The Drupal Association spends $3 million annually just on their setup. We simply do not have the resources (volunteers and funds) to maintain custom tools for every task. We have to use the platforms available to us right now.

User experience is another factor. We want non-developers to participate in governance discussions. Asking everyone to learn Gerrit just to review a policy change creates a barrier. Relying on standard platforms makes it easier for the wider community to get involved.

Since our governance data is meant to be public, our current approach is to use what these platforms offer for free. We do not blindly trust them. We’re working on backup plans that make sure we can export our data if we ever need to leave.

This topic could easily fill a whole workshop. I know these infrastructure questions need more space than a single forum thread, so I plan to outline our strategy in a dedicated blog post soon.

Thomas

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Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the reply. I understand that it’s sometimes practical to use existing tools, even if they are supplied by large platforms (aka Big Tech) which have a questionable reputation in some areas.

The main problem that should be avoided is when this forces people to create an account for these platforms. There’s only two weeks left for the review period, so what alternatives does T3A offer for giving feedback without a GitHub account? The governance and restructuring subject seems important enough to block participation.