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Mautic has experienced strong growth over the past years since the acquisition by Acquia of Mautic Inc.
We’ve seen a vibrant, welcoming international community coming together to build Mautic and support each other in being successful with Mautic. We’ve also made some great strides when it comes to developing the product.
Mautic is clearly on a strong trajectory of growth, which is very exciting to see!
Time for change
Currently the Mautic Community has quite a unique governance structure. Acquia features heavily in the governance model and has significant control in the project. Acquia also owns the Mautic trademark and brand.
Back in 2019 as part of the consultation process for establishing the first Community Governance Model, we added a clause for the Mautic Community Council to review with Acquia each year whether the model was still fit for purpose.
Until now we have not felt the need for changing the governance model, but increasingly myself and Acquia feel that it is the right time to consider some changes to our structure to support Mautic’s future growth as an independent, self-governing open source project.
Why do we believe this is the right step for Mautic?
Being supported by Acquia has given Mautic a great opportunity to establish our project governance model, develop teams to take up responsibility for areas of the project, and really start to drive the open source project forward.
Speaking personally, being able to work on a full-time basis for Mautic supported by Acquia since mid-2019 has been a huge privilege and has meant that a lot of things could get started and move forward to support the community’s growth which would not have otherwise been possible. Likewise, having Acquia engineer John Linhart’s expertise for half of his working time at Acquia has allowed us to focus on improving code quality and driving further improvements.
We have continued to make great progress since 2019, with both the uptake of Mautic-based solutions and community contributions increasing strongly. We have seen multiple businesses start and thrive in the Mautic ecosystem and this trend is continuing to grow. The project and community has a palpable momentum, and I feel that the time is right for us to step into our own space in the world.
Furthermore, Acquia has a clear vision for its product portfolio, and believes that in order for Mautic to reach the next level of its growth, it would be best for it not to be controlled by a single corporate entity. They support the view that for Mautic to truly grow to its full potential, we should do so as an independent open source project.
Moving forward together
The Mautic project and our whole community needs to move forward together.
I believe that the Mautic Community has the necessary resources to drive us towards a future of real and sustainable growth, and am excited for us to take the first steps on this path.
Acquia has offered to provide fixed-term seed funding to the Mautic Project to help us with establishing our future governance structure, and also to transfer the ownership of the trademark, brand and domains to the Mautic Community, to be held by the Open Source Collective on our behalf.
Our next steps are as follows:
- Share update with Mautic community (completed 18th April 2023 – this blog post)
- Research and review proposals for Mautic’s new organization structure and governance model (completed 11th May 2023 – see Working Doc)
- Finalize governance proposal and share with community (completed 29th June 2023 – see Google Doc, Forum Threads and Final Model)
- Implement new structure and governance model ⬅️ we are here (completed 18th December 2023 – Council elected and model adopted)
What does this mean for Mautic?
Project Lead’s employment
I (Ruth Cheesley, Project Lead) ceased to be employed by Acquia on 14th April 2023, and will become employed by the Mautic project, through the Open Source Collective’s employment facility, until such a time as the organizational structure and governance model are finalized. This will ensure that there is continuity, and the seed funding from Acquia will help to support this financially.
Organization and governance structure changes
We are proposing some substantial changes to the organizational structure and governance mode. We recognize that this needs to be done with careful consideration of Mautic’s long term future at the heart of everything we do.
We will be sharing research, proposals and decision making processes in the public domain, allowing everyone in the community to be involved in reviewing, discussing and providing input into the future of Mautic as we have done in the past.
Planning for the future
In November at Mautic Conference South America, I shared our mission and vision, and our longer term goals (check out mau.tc/future if you missed it!).
I also shared some of the areas we will be focusing on over the next three years – we plan to review these goals as part of the process, to ensure that they remain relevant given the new structures that we will be implementing.
We have ambitious goals for Mautic, and we will still need your support to achieve them, both financially and in terms of practical contributions. We will be sharing how you can get involved soon.
Questions (and answers)
Will Mautic continue to be open source?
Absolutely yes. We will continue to be an open source project, and the license will not change.
Who will now own the brand and trademark?
Acquia has agreed to donate the brand and trademark to the Mautic Community, which will be held under legal contract by an impartial third party – the Open Source Collective – who are currently our fiscal host.
A license will be granted to Acquia so that they can continue to use the term Mautic as they currently do, but the Mautic Community will be the owner of the trademark, its domain names and the brand.
The Mautic Community will continue to manage the use of our Trademark aligned with our Trademark Policy and will continue to take enforcement action against reports of misuse, with legal support from the Open Source Collective who we already partner with as our independent legal advisors.
Is Acquia stopping using or supporting Mautic?
Acquia continues to use Mautic in their Campaign Studio marketing automation product. There are no plans to change this.
They will provide seed funding to help us get started, and will continue to contribute code and resources to Mautic, and support John Linhart in his community contributions. They will also continue to be a Mautic Community Partner.
Acquia wants to see Mautic grow and thrive, and is committed to doing everything they can to ensure that our next phase is a success.
Will a non-profit organization be created for Mautic?
A non-profit organization is not being discounted, it will be one of the options that we review in the next steps of this process. There are several different options that we will be considering including whether a non-profit organization is necessary or not, and if deemed to be necessary, where to geographically locate the organization.
More questions?
I expect you have a lot of other questions about this which we haven’t covered above, and we’re setting up a series of webinars over the coming weeks to give our international community the opportunity to ask questions and share feedback.
Upcoming webinars
English language : Thursday 20th April at 2pm UK time
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87644421946?pwd=blBxSnBxTllYZEZqOUNXU2pjdjE2Zz09
Meeting ID: 876 4442 1946
Passcode: 263299
Portuguese language: Tuesday 25th April at 10am Brasilia Standard Time
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87893312489?pwd=T0ZBUC9nWDl6alV1QlJIM1owM3JtUT09
Meeting ID: 878 9331 2489
Passcode: 008835
Spanish language: Thursday 27th April at 6pm Central European Time
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83094600035?pwd=V2xmV2F6UmUrTjZ5V3hPb1NSV0x4dz09
Meeting ID: 830 9460 0035
Passcode: 751190
German language: Monday 24th April at 5pm Central European Time
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82620287734?pwd=V3JCVnVORmJ5Rmg5MUc5OXdKcWsxUT09
Meeting ID: 826 2028 7734
Passcode: 610725
French language: Tuesday 2nd May at 3pm Central European Time
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83248118998?pwd=LzBRNmJrZmhNN1ZiOVQ1Yy9CZXh4QT09
Meeting ID: 832 4811 8998
Passcode: 794064
Would you like to facilitate a session for your community? Drop Ruth an email at [email protected].
Project Lead Office Hours
I will continue to hold my regular Office Hours and have added a few more over the coming week. These are an opportunity to drop into a video call with me and chat about whatever you might be interested in discussing.
These are next on:
Wednesday, 19th April at 0700hrs UK time (my office hours are at this time every fortnight)
Video call link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87562856285?pwd=TEJSSFJUQkd1ODJXK1VGK3lDR0I0Zz09
Meeting ID: 875 6285 6285
Passcode: 210498
Thursday, 20th April at 1500hrs UK time
Video call link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87471995567?pwd=cXdNaXNjWFJWcGF5Tmg2R1BYdFp2Zz09
Meeting ID: 874 7199 5567
Passcode: 296492
Friday, 21st April at 10am UK time
Video call link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85052425009?pwd=OWIvTUNrUTBPYjIvT28xeUhOalFSQT09
Meeting ID: 850 5242 5009
Passcode: 148977
Thursday, 27th April at 2pm UK time (my office hours are at this time every fortnight)
Video call link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824099822?pwd=eWk1Q0NnMXQwOEdBQ21wbDdaeGhyUT09
Meeting ID: 868 2409 9822
Passcode: 535689
We have answered some of the questions that we anticipate you might want to know the answers to, but please do use the forum thread linked at the bottom of the page to share any further questions, ensuring that you bear in mind the Mautic Code of Conduct while doing so.
Translations of this article
Thanks to our awesome community you can find translations of this article in:
Spanish (Julio Roldos): Towards a future of independence [ES]
Portuguese (Rodrigo Demetrio): Towards a future of independence [PT]
French (Norman Pracht): Towards a future of independence [FR]
German (Ekke Guembel): Towards a future of independence [DE]
Japanese (Katz Ueno): Towards a future of independence [JP]
Albanian (Redon Skikuli): Towards a future of independence [SQ]
Would you like to translate this article? Please add a Google Doc in this folder and use the same naming convention as others have used. The English version can be found here.
