RFC 86 Phase 3: Community Feedback & 30-Day Notice Period

[jjgao]

Phase 3: Community Feedback & Notice Period

Part of: #8
Runs in parallel with: Phase 2 (#3) individual contributor outreach (both close Sep 20)
Feeds: Pre-Switch Sign-off Gate (#5)

Target window: Aug 21 – Sep 20, 2026 (30 days, fixed). Hard project deadline is 2026-09-30 (see epic #8). This 30-day window cannot be compressed. Phase 3 runs in parallel with the tail of Phase 2 individual contributor outreach — both close Sep 20.

Goal

Give the broader community — downstream users, integrators, and the public — a formal opportunity to review and comment on the proposed license change before it takes effect.

Required notice contents

• Exact license target (Apache 2.0) and the repositories/components in scope (per the Phase 0 manifest RFC 86 Phase 0: Release & Component Scope #1)
• Treatment of pre-switch history vs post-switch code
• The proposed switch release/commit, or the criteria for selecting it
• Summary of consent coverage and any remaining removals/rewrite plans (from Phase 2)
• Dependency / distribution-boundary decisions from Phase 1
• Comment window start/end dates with timezone (Aug 21 – Sep 20, 2026), the official feedback channel, the decision criteria, and who makes the go/no-go call

Tasks

• Draft the RFC/notice content during Phase 2 (in parallel, not after) so it's ready to post Aug 21
• Post a formal RFC / Notice and Comment on the cBioPortal GitHub with a 30-day comment window (Aug 21–Sep 20), containing all required notice contents above
• Announce on the cBioPortal mailing list with a link to the GitHub RFC
• Announce in relevant community channels (Slack, Google Groups, etc.)
• Actively monitor and respond to community questions during the 30-day window
• Summarize feedback received and document any issues raised
• Make a go/no-go decision at the end of the comment period (by Sep 20)

Definition of Done

30-day window has closed (Sep 20). Feedback summary published. Core team has made a documented go/no-go decision to proceed to the sign-off gate (#5) and then Phase 4.

[jjgao]

Process review note: The notice should be concrete enough for downstream users to evaluate the change. I’d add required notice contents:

• exact license target and repositories/components in scope
• treatment of pre-switch history vs post-switch code
• proposed switch release/commit, or criteria for selecting it
• summary of consent coverage and any remaining removals/rewrite plans
• dependency/distribution-boundary decisions from Phase 1
• comment window start/end dates with timezone, official feedback channel, decision criteria, and who makes the go/no-go call