Introduction

Contributions from members of the general db4o developer community play a key role in db4o's success. db4o thrives thanks to contributions in several areas such as source code, documentation, peer support and bug reports, as outlined in the db4o Contribution Guide. A major part are projects around db4o technology which are shared by community members in our ProjectSpaces. The CodeCommander program is designed to identify projects that are of particular importance to both the community and the direction of db4o and to assure the timely and successful completion of these projects.

Specifically the program defines a range of incentives such as collaboration with core team members (including pairing sessions), monetary rewards, access to development infrastructure for project support and marketing of successful projects to a large user community for fast adoption.

Process

The process for submission and acceptance of a project under the program is very simple:

1. Project Idea Collection and Ranking
   Project ideas are collected on the db4o's Incubator where community members can vote for each project

2. Project Selection
   The db4o Project Steering Committee (PSC) reviews and selects the projects for the CodeCommander program based on

   1. Project strategic importance
   2. Popularity (as defined by the db4o community at large)
   3. Effort required

3. Project Definition
   The project contributor and the PSC agree on:

   1. Scope: Set of deliverables and acceptance criteria of the specific project

   2. Reward: A typical reward would be in the range of $500-$3000 (other arrangements can be negotiated, including non-monetary rewards)

   3. Timetable: Predefined milestones and timetable

   4. Quality: Compliance with db4o coding guidelines
   5. Knowledge transfer: Assignment of a core team member for pairing sessions with project contributors
4. Project Execution
   1. The CodeCommander Program follows the framework defined in the Contribution Guide
      
   2. Depending on the project, you may have the opportunity to pair with a member of the core team to complete the required tasks
5. Project Publication
   The project is hosted in our ProjectSpaces and announced on db4o's Community News blog

6. Acceptance and Reward Release

   1. 50% of the reward is paid upon project delivery
   2. the remaining 50% is paid after the code has been peer reviewed by the PSC and the community (30 day period)
      

Selected Projects

Showcased projects under the program are the following:

-	Project	Description	Leader	Members
	Object Manager	A GUI tool and API to browse and query the contents of any db4o database file	Gisbert Avellan	-
	Mono Support	Provide db4o Mono binaries which are often updated to be in sync with the latest db4o release	JB Evain	-
	Maven Support	Maven repository support for db4o	Erik Putrycz	-

If you are interested in contributing to these projects (or new projects) under the program please contact our community manager.