Future-Proofing Our Governance Together

Over more than twenty years, I have come to value many qualities of the TYPO3 community: Self-determination and self-fulfillment, freedom, autonomy, team spirit, and friendship. At the foundation, trust. Trust must be earned and deserved.

As long as the number of people is low, trust can be a product of personal relationships alone. The TYPO3 community has proven that this model works. However, this structure scales poorly and has very few transparent rules. We are reaching our limit. Conflicts arise more often and we have to invest more and more time in maintaining relationships.

A large ecosystem has grown up around our community and our successful product. Twenty years ago, TYPO3 was known for being able to solve almost any task, be it an online shop, PIM, blog, self-service terminal, or media center. Since then, we have become increasingly specialized. The community decided to focus on CMS functions, and today we must address the exacting demands that are placed on our product.

Our project’s structure must scale beyond its current limits, and a strategy and change process has been underway since 2022. It was presented at Team Leader Meetings in the past, but needs to be founded in a broader community consensus. Let me therefore try to explain the objectives and principles we are pursuing with this change.

A key component is governance. For everyone to feel safe and spend their energy in the right places, we need to clearly define how the organization is structured, how decisions are made, and what rules apply when we collaborate.

The basic idea is to collect related tasks and topics in a new unit structure, establish clear and actionable governance, and introduce more transparent and democratic decision-making processes. The aim is to promote and secure seven important tenets:

• Fair and representative: Rules should be the same and apply equally across the entire organization. In addition to members elected by the TYPO3 Association members, Units should also be represented on the TYPO3 Association Board to ensure involvement of subject matter experts at the highest level.
• Transparent: We want to ensure that leaders also have the legitimacy of the community. This means open and accessible information must be the rule. Everyone involved in decision-making processes must act openly and in accordance with the same rules.
• Clear responsibilities and expectations: Roles must be clearly defined and documented. This will ensure that everyone knows who is responsible, where the decision-making power lies, and who to contact for any given issue.
• Effective collaboration and decision-making processes: In order to scale the project and allow more volunteers to contribute, we must be able to delegate and divide tasks between ourselves in an asynchronous workflow.
• Conflict management: Professional complaints management with clear rules will help us resolve conflicts, address misconduct in a targeted manner, and ensure that consequences are enforced.
• Members at the heart of it all: With a new structure, our members should have a greater say at all levels. Also, where decision-making power is delegated, it should be easy to find and audit, with transparent opportunities for participation.

However, the governance process is only part of the journey. Rules and structures merely provide a framework. It is you and me, the people involved in the TYPO3 project — the community — who bring everything to life. We want to take practical steps to support the community.

• Community management: We will expand my.typo3.org and make it the central hub for the community. It should help us organize our work, automate tasks, and centralize information management.
• Easy contribution: Contributing to the project must become easier and involve fewer barriers. Better user experience on our platforms and dedicated contribution guides will help newcomers get started.
• Attitude and culture: Consistently upholding the Code of Conduct is perhaps the most important point. A healthy, non-toxic culture is built on psychological safety, mutual respect, and transparent communication. Strong and actively enforced, it prioritizes long-term integrity over short-term gains, ensures that all voices are heard regardless of hierarchy, and treats mistakes as natural opportunities for growth.
• Diversity and inclusion: Everyone should feel at home in the TYPO3 project. We want to promote appreciation for non-code contributions, and we must make greater efforts towards rejuvenation and diversity.

I’m part of a Governance Working Group that is developing practical proposals for collaboration and contribution. Under a mandate from the TYPO3 Association Board, we are looking at defining structures and rules in a way that can be accessible to everyone and easy to maintain. Members of the group are:

• Benni Mack (TYPO3 Core Team Lead)
• Frank Nägler (TYPO3 Company CTO)
• Oliver Bartsch (TYPO3 Core Framework Merger)
• Oliver Hader (TYPO3 Security Team Lead and Core Team Co-Lead)
• Mathias Bolt Lesniak (TYPO3 Project Ambassador)
• Stefan Busemann (TYPO3 Association Board Treasurer)

Anja Leichsenring and Christian Kuhn have also contributed.

Topic by topic, our proposals will first be submitted for review and discussion by the Team Leader Meeting and Board. Next, the proposals will be presented to all members and the community for discussion and feedback. More information about that will follow.

The aim is consensus, but we know that it will probably be impossible to reach a state where everyone agrees one hundred percent. But, with a bit of pragmatism, it is our goal to get as close as possible, to listen well, and answer all questions and address all concerns with the honesty and understanding you deserve.

Ultimately the Association's members will vote on the new structures and bylaw changes at an extraordinary general assembly planned for later this year.

We look forward to receiving your feedback and discussing your concerns with you.