Governance and development¶
The Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) is developed by Open Ownership, a non-profit organisation focused on beneficial ownership transparency, in partnership with Open Data Services.
Development of BODS has responded to the evolving needs of those collecting, sharing and using beneficial ownership data. BODS is not in active development at the moment.
If work continues towards a version 1.0, the processes by which BODS is governed and developed will be updated by Open Ownership (as the stewarding organisation) and Open Data Services (as the technical maintainer). This will be done in consultation with users, and potential users, of the data standard (the community). These processes will meet the Open Stand principles of standards development (see below).
Full details about development and decision-making processes are kept up-to-date in the BODS development handbook.
Feature requests and bug reports¶
To suggest changes or fixes, submit a BODS feature request or bug report via the issue templates available in the BODS GitHub repository.
Open Ownership and Open Data Services will respond to community feature requests or bug reports via comments on the GitHub issue.
Feature development¶
Feature development tickets are problem statements: they focus on user-need gaps in BODS. Open feature development tickets are listed on the BODS feature tracker. Once an issue is actively being researched or worked on, it will be moved to the relevant column by the standard’s technical maintainer.
After the user needs for a new feature in BODS have been described in a feature development ticket, anyone may make a proposal about how to implement the feature. Currently, GitHub Discussions are used to get feedback about implementation proposals.
Community members will be given at least two weeks’ notice to review a proposal. If broad consensus about whether or not to proceed with implementation as laid out in the proposal can’t be reached, the proposal will be suspended. Otherwise, the consensus will be noted and the implementation phase can begin.
Release tracking¶
For each new version of BODS, Open Ownership and Open Data Services will create a release tracker as a project of the Open Ownership GitHub team. They will draft onto the tracker the features, bug fixes, changes and updates which they propose are implemented in the new version. This proposed prioritisation will be announced via GitHub and other relevant channels.
Community members will have at least two weeks to review the release project board and suggest any changes. Broad consensus will be sought during the review period, after which work on the prioritised issues will proceed. For reference, here is the release tracker for BODS version 0.4.
Principles guiding BODS development¶
We aim to meet the OpenStand principles of standard development:
Due process. Decisions are made with equity and fairness among participants. No one party dominates or guides standards development. Standards processes are transparent and opportunities exist to appeal decisions. Processes for periodic standards review and updating are well defined.
Broad consensus. Processes allow for all views to be considered and addressed, such that agreement can be found across a range of interests.
Transparency. Standards organisations provide advance public notice of proposed standards development activities, the scope of work to be undertaken, and conditions for participation. Easily accessible records of decisions and the materials used in reaching those decisions are provided. Public comment periods are provided before final standards approval and adoption.
Balance. Standards activities are not exclusively dominated by any particular person, company or interest group.
Openness. Standards processes are open to all interested and informed parties.
Getting involved¶
You might be interested in BODS as a beneficial ownership policy expert, as a member of a digital technology team or as a data analyst. Whatever your role, you can help shape the development of the data standard.
Keep up with general news about BODS: sign up for Disclosure, Open Ownership’s newsletter.
Follow all technical development of BODS: watch or star the GitHub repository.
Follow discussion on specific GitHub issues: subscribe to notifications.
To follow or contribute via GitHub, you need to sign up for a free GitHub account. If you would like to discuss development of BODS with Open Ownership, email us at tech@openownership.org.