# Business Design

Xalgorithms Foundation employs a free/open model with source code licensed Apache 2.0 (Rule authoring software and Rule sifting software components) and AGPL 3.0 (Xalgo Rule Reserve network service), while documentation is licensed CC-by 4.0  International. The foundation is resourced solely through financial and in-kind grants and contributions in four categories:

- Strategic implementer

   - Core funding as an Xalgorithms Alliance Member; 

   - Sustained collaboration in business and technical research; 

   - Vote and stand for election as a member of the foundation Board.

- Experimenting Implementer

  - Moderate ad hoc funding; 

  - Sustained collaboration in business and technical research; 

  - Can be invited to vote on the composition of the foundation board.

- Developers and Researchers

   - Ad hoc collaboration in applied and conceptual research; 

   - Can be invited to vote on the composition of the foundation board.

- Research and Development Donor

   - Grants and ad hoc contributions in support of business and technical research;

   - Can be invited to vote on the composition of the foundation board.

The value proposition for participation in free/libre/open works has three parts: augment benefits; manage risk; and reduce costs1. Efficient and effective projects leverage pragmatic capabilities and distribute cost and risk among multiple organizations and individuals, as each tailors their participation to complement their own priorities and objectives.2 

**Xalgorithms Alliance Membership**

Xalgorithms Foundation convenes Strategic Implementers through the Xalgorithms Alliance Accession Agreement (XAAA), a contract-based association of participating organisations with the motivation, financial resources and technical capabilities to advance and deploy:

- RuleSchema

- RuleMaker

- RuleReserve

- RuleTaker 

a. Xalgorithms Working Groups

Xalgorithms Working Groups convene business, government, academic and/or not-for-profit organizations, as well as informal civil society communities and interested individuals, to solve a category of problems though use of the oughtomation method. Each Working Group operates for the purposes and within the scope documented in their written charter. 

A Working Group under the Xalgorithms Alliance umbrella commences when its charter is supported in a resolution of the Board of Xalgorithms Foundation. A charter includes the following sections:

- Issue to be Addressed

- Outcome to be Pursued

- One Year Workplan

- Contact Information

The Working Group structure and resourcing model employed by Xalgorithms Alliance borrows elements from the management design of other established core Internet and Web technology initiatives, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), The Internet Society, the Free Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative, the Apache Foundation and the Linux Foundation. Xalgorithms Foundation's bylaws are designed such that the foundation itself cannot compete with commercial service providers. The Foundation’s only revenues are grants and contributions. Since the foundation does not offer fee-for-service contracting of any type, personnel may choose to refer enquirers to firms that provide commercial value-added services relating to its mission.

The governance style and expectations for Xalgorithms-hosted Working Groups is primarily modelled upon on the practices of IETF Working Groups: 

- https://www.ietf.org/how/wgs/

- https://www.ietf.org/about/participate/tutorials/process/working-group-leadership-training/ 

The funds apportioned to Working Groups under the Xalgorithms umbrella are managed directly as project funds of the Working Groups themselves.   However this budgetary allocation is informal to ensure that urgent matters affecting the core system can be addressed as necessary (e.g. response to a major cybersecurity issue). Overall accounting and independent audit of the hosted working groups remains a function of Xalgorithms Foundation. Notwithstanding the above, the participating entities of any Xalgorithms-hosted Working Group have the prerogative to set up an account and autonomously manage funds in a manner that is independent of Xalgorithms Foundation.

An annually negotiated apportionment from each Working Group is allocated to Xalgorithms Foundation to fulfill its core functions, as follows:

- Serve as the responsible technical steward of the Oughtomation specification and reference implementations, hosting the core Oughtomation Working Group to design, produce, test, maintain and document the specification and reference implementations, and to ensure that they operate well as a loosely-coupled system to express, publish and fetch computational algorithms on the Internet.

- On request, provide administrative support to all Xalgorithms Working Groups; 

- On request, provide research and communications support to all Xalgorithms Working Groups and their members. 

It is informally suggested than an Xalgorithms Working Group apportion one quarter of the financial contributions it receives, to Xalgorithms Foundation towards its development and maintenance of the core oughtomation specification and its three reference implementations, as well as to general administration.