Axis 7: Governance
GCC Articles of Association
The GCBoK is published by GitCover Commons gUG (GCC). GCC is a non-profit corporation under § 60a Abs. 1 AO, recognized by the Bad Homburg v. d. H. tax office (notice dated 27.05.2026).
The statutory purposes (§ 52 Abs. 2 Satz 1 AO):
- Science and research (No. 1)
- Education, general and vocational training (No. 7)
- Consumer advice and consumer protection (No. 16)
- International-mindedness and understanding among nations (No. 13)
Complete articles of association, recognition notice and donation information: on the GCC landing page.
GCC Community Rules
The GCBoK follows open-source principles:
- OSS-first - All specifications are open source
- CC BY-SA 4.0 (targeted) - Free dissemination with attribution
- Apache 2.0 - For code components
- Community review - Contributions via Gitea pull requests
- No vendor lock-in - Vendor-neutral reference
GCBoK Amendment Process
Changes to the GCBoK follow a defined process:
- Proposal - Issue in the Gitea repo
gcbok-content - Review - Community discussion, technical review
- Draft - Pull request with proposed changes
- Approval - Review by GCC management
- Merge - Integration into the main branch
- Release - Versioned release tag
Versioning
The GCBoK uses Semantic Versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH):
| Component | Meaning |
|---|---|
| MAJOR | Incompatible conceptual changes |
| MINOR | New chapters, new definitions (backward compatible) |
| PATCH | Corrections, clarifications |
Git-native and self-referential
The GCBoK is versioned in Git - the reference work on Git-native compliance is itself hosted in Git. This is a deliberate self-reference: the work about the work is versioned in the work.
Strategic Framework: IP Right of Use
AFJD (Axel Franz Johann Druschel), as a natural person, is the applicant, inventor and permanent holder of all protective rights. The IP remains with AFJD - it is made available to GCC for use on a contractual basis (no transfer of ownership).
| Aspect | Transfer of ownership (not chosen) | Right of use by contract (chosen) |
|---|---|---|
| IP holder | GCC | natural person |
| GCC as licensor? | Yes -> charitable status jeopardized | No -> GCC charitable status secure |
| Protection against takeover | Low | High (IP remains with natural person) |
Full details: See Protective Rights.