Add section about project ownership and emergency procedures

docs/about.md

@@ -40,6 +40,56 @@ All you wanted to know about GHCup.
 * [haskell.org](https://www.haskell.org/haskell-org-committee/) via CI and infrastructure
 * [Haskell Foundation](https://haskell.foundation/affiliates/) via affiliation
 
+## Project ownership and hierarchy
+
+The project at the time of writing (2024-04-22) follows the model of
+[benevolent dictator for life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_for_life), which is
+Julian Ospald at the moment.
+
+Ideally, the ownership should be shared across a core team of collaborators sharing the same vision and
+engagement in the future.
+
+I do not believe in people making decisions over projects they are barely involved in. Instead I believe
+in listening to end users needs very carefully and making decisions based on that. People who want a direct
+influence on the decision process have to both demonstrate they share the vision of GHCup and do the actual
+work.
+
+"Work" here doesn't have to be "writing code". There are many ways to be engaged in a project.
+
+### Transition plan in case of maintainer absence
+
+In case the current maintainer of GHCup (Julian Ospald) is unreachable for a prolonged period of time (3 months),
+the ownership of this project will be automatically transferred to the following individuals:
+
+- [Moritz Angerman](https://github.com/angerman)
+- [Andrew Lelechenko](https://github.com/Bodigrim)
+
+They will be tasked with finding new maintainers in whatever way they see fit (be it appointing themselves or asking HF for help).
+
+The appointed owners my choose to stay owners after the transition period (whether it's in a passive or active capacity) or
+fully transfer ownership to someone else or an organization.
+
+The community shall be informed about this process.
+
+If not otherwise specified by the newly appointed owners, the following principles shall apply to the *transition period*:
+
+#### During the transition period
+
+During the transition period, no other individual or organization is allowed to drive changes to
+[ghcup-hs](https://github.com/haskell/ghcup-hs) repository, unless they are explicitly allowed to do so by the appointed owners.
+
+The following people (in addition to the owners) shall have full write access to the
+[ghcup-metadata](https://github.com/haskell/ghcup-metadata) repository
+(all files) for the length of the transition period, unless otherwise specified by the appointed owners:
+
+- [Ben Gamari](https://github.com/bgamari)
+- [Hécate Moonlight](https://github.com/Kleidukos)
+- [Mike Pilgrem](https://github.com/mpilgrem)
+- [Jens Petersen](https://github.com/juhp)
+
+Contributions to the metadata are expected to follow a review process. If that turns out to be impractical due to lack of engagement, a wait
+time of 2 days before merging shall be followed anyway, except for the `-vanilla` files, which may be merged at any time.
+
 ## How to help
 
 * if you want to contribute code or documentation, check out the [issue tracker](https://github.com/haskell/ghcup-hs/issues) and the [Development guide](./dev.md)