ShipOS is an edge computing platform for ships. The purpose of ShipOS is to enable a simple global development and deployment infrastructure. It empowers anyone to develop and deploy apps for ships. The vision is to enable democratic, crowd-sourced continuous improvement and innovation for the shipping industry.
The ShipOS Foundation is in charge of developing ShipOS. It has a simple structure with no bureaucracy.
There are two ways to shape the future of ShipOS:
- Get code developed and committed to ShipOS through own initiatives. Plugins to ShipOS is auto-included and maturity marked. Core code will be reviewed by the developers employed by the Foundation. Code that is deemed safe and complimentary to existing features will be included in ShipOS.
- Join the ShipOS Foundation. The ticket costs USD 50K per year. One ticket, one vote. Buy more tickets to get more voting power. A Member can add new feature requests to the Backlog. There is a form to simplify feature requests and ensure all details are captured.
Non-Members can request features, but they are only added to the Backlog by Members.
Every member can exercise their voting power once per month to vote for features in the Backlog. Features rise to the top of the Backlog as they receive votes.Developers employed or paid by the Foundation pick features from the top of the Backlog to work on each month.
Members vote every other year to elect the Foundation’s Director (must have joined at least 6 months before voting).
If any vote is a tie, the member(s) with the most voting power gets an extra vote; If still a tie, it’s a coin toss.
The Director manages the total income each year (membership fees and any other donations). The Director ensures the Foundation does not accrue any deficits. Any Member may request an emergency vote for a new Director if there is a deficit. The Director will keep quarterly accounting available to the Members.
The Director hires staff as needed and manages the Foundation throughout the year.
The Members may by a 2/3 majority vote decide to include a non-paying Member.
Memberships, Economy, feature requests, the Backlog and development progress are all publicly transparent.
If a conflict is not resolved by this charter, by empathy or logic, it is resolved by a simple majority vote
ShipOS is Open Source Software released under the MIT license. The ten core architecture principle of ShipOS are:
- Standardization: Clear standardization of all components
- Security: Secure by default - zero-trust environment
- Stability: Work toward Telco software stability - at sea, IT is notoriously hard to fix
- Development: Avoid design by committee through clear responsibilities and core principles
- Privacy: Your data is your own - data-owners should consent to usage and be able to see who can see their data
- Containment: “Walled garden” principle - control allocation of resources to avoid noisy neighbors and (Quotas)
- Technology: Built on a modern software and hardware stack
- Simplicity: Limit the surface area to create a predictable platform (Linux, Docker, Kubernetes - no VMs or Windows Servers)
- Connectivity: Connectivity is scarce and costly - QoS and prioritization needs to be on a ShipOS level
- Usability: Should be easy to use; think mobile app-stores for purchasing apps and capabilities
Any change to this charter requires a 3/4 majority vote.
