Hyperledger can help build communities by gathering people sharing a common interest in developing blockchain related software. However, the only way to currently do so is to submit a HIP and launch a formal project in Incubation. This is a relatively heavy process which implies a level of endorsement by Hyperledger that is not suitable for cases where projects are immature from a code-complete, production-quality, or community building perspective, or experimental.
Labs will 1) lower the pressure on the TSC to start new projects and 2) allow for work to be done within a legal framework that eases the transition to a project in Incubation in cases where this ends up being the chosen path for the lab. In particular, this includes enforcement of the use of the Apache Software License and sign-offs on all contributions.
This new space will allow teams to experiment with new frameworks or new modules without the promise of stable code or MVP. It is a space suitable for innovation and testing of ideas.
Examples of possible labs: projects too early for TSC approval as an incubator because there’s not a lot of code; demos; documentation examples; sample code from hackathons, research projects, etc.
Hyperledger Labs have similarities with the Apache Labs and the W3C Community Groups.
Proposals
To submit a new proposal, please follow the process outlined at Hyperledger Labs. The lab proposal must meet the following:
The scope of the proposed lab fits within Hyperledger’s mission;
The proposed name is appropriate (e.g., not too generic, confusing, or conflicting with other labs or projects, etc);
Proposers have a Sponsor (i.e. a maintainer of one of the Hyperledger projects, a TSC member or a WG chair);
Proposers need to be active members of the Hyperledger technical community (as defined in Section 4.a.ii of the Hyperledger Charter).
You can find all Hyperledger Lab approved proposals at https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/hyperledger-labs.github.io/labs. You can also look at the pull requests for all submitted proposals.
Archiving
Stewards are responsible for curating the set of labs, moving to an archives space (see below) those that become dormant or unresponsive for an extended period (6+ months), or are explicitly deemed by the committers to be deprecated/obsoleted.
Deprecated, obsoleted, or dormant labs (as defined above) will be moved to a GitHub org “hyperledger-labs-archives” that signifies that the lab is no longer maintained. Labs in the archives are read-only, and they can be moved back out of the archives, if there is interest in reviving them.
Repository
https://github.com/hyperledger-labs - Github Organization
Communication
Mailing List
labs@lists.hyperledger.org for general discussions on Hyperledger Labs (subscribe - archives)
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