Has your open source software project started to become reused, and do you see more people taking an interest in contributing? Or did it grow very quickly, and you are taking decisions a bit ad hoc? Is the community quite diverse, and is it a bit unclear who really is in control? If any of these situations sound familiar, you probably need to improve your governance.
The Governance game is a tool to help a community think about the governance of their codebase.
As the inventor of the game, and with five years as a codebase steward at the Foundation for Public Code, I have plenty of experience running game sessions and getting people to discuss.
Would you like to run a session in your community? You’ve come to the right place!
Session offer
I will come to your office and run a game session with your group. I will bring the governance game and paper and markers for annotation. I can either run generic game sessions with you, using the scenarios and calamities straight out of the box. This is a good way to learn to think about governance in a safe, neutral environment and also a good team bonding activity. Optionally, I can run a customized session with you around a specific codebase of yours. Then we will first have a video call where I get to know where you’re at and what your needs and challenges are. This will replace the scenario from the deck. I will also, in collaboration with you, design calamities relevant to you to use in the game.
A note on participants: since the results are best when there is a high level of interactivity from each participant, I recommend small groups.
What to expect from a session
I will briefly explain the rules and goals, with cards as a guide. Throughout the session, I will be a game guide to ensure that things are moved along and that people are understanding what is happening and what to do next.
The game usually takes around 30-45 minutes for a generic session (depending on the group) and for a customized session, we can adapt it to be anything between 30-120 minutes depending on what you would like to achieve.
After the game has been played, we have a short session to reflect on the challenges and what stood out to them. In a customized session, I will take notes with particular focus on suggested changes that seem to have strong consensus in the group and share them with you.
Price
| Organization type | Generic session | Customized session |
| Non-profits | €250 | €500 |
| Public organizations | €500 | €900 |
| Commercial entities | €900 | €1,500 |
All prices exclude VAT and travel costs.
If this is interesting, contact me!
