Independent Publisher Connector Group "Manifesto"

Independent Publisher Connector Group "Manifesto"

The Independent Publisher Connector Group is a virtual team of Microsoft employees, MVPs, developers, and community members focused on helping the community make the best use of Microsoft Power Platform connectors. The primary goal of Independent Publisher connectors is to provide the opportunity for anyone to publish a connector to the official list of Microsoft connectors.

We believe that, by working together outside the bounds of our respective organizations, roles, or daily work, we can all learn more and perform better by sharing knowledge. That’s why the mission of the Independent Publisher Connector Group is to bring the best together. The best people, connecting great ideas to data, apps, and flows.

This document represents the "manifesto" for this group and anybody contributing to or being a part of this effort should be aware of and agree on its content.

Independent Publisher Connector General Rules

To ensure the initiative is successful, we have established a set of definitions and general rules.

1. Independent Publisher connectors are the GitHub repositories, the source code of projects, documentation, videos, and official blog posts.

2. Independent Publisher connector contents are the articles, videos, samples, etc. produced and shared by the community for the community.

3. Independent Publisher connectors are available for free through the premium license and adhere to the MIT licensing model.

4. Everybody can reuse all Independent Publisher connectors, and sell services (consulting, training, development, customization, etc.) or products built using Independent Publisher connectors, as long as it is done outside Independent Publisher connectors and in compliance with the MIT license.

5. Independent Publisher connectors and contents are supported only through publisher contributions; there are no Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for community connectors.

Rules & Best Practices

There are few rules members of the community must adhere to in order to be a part of the initiative:

1. Everyone must respect and promote the rules defined in this document.

2. People contributing to Independent Publisher connector repository deserve gratitude, patience, kindness, and respect from everyone. Most contributors have contributed to this initiative in their spare time with the intention of adding new Power Platform connectors, adding new functionality to Power Platform connectors, and resolving issues.

3. You become an Independent Publisher by submitting a new Independent Publisher connector or by contributing sufficient functionality to an existing Independent Publisher connector. As an Independent Publisher, you agree to maintaining that connector by resolving issues and being listed as one of the “code owners.” As a result, there can be more than one Independent Publisher for each Independent Publisher connector.

4. By adding functionality to an existing Independent Publisher connector without becoming an official Independent Publisher, solving an issue for an Independent Publisher connector, and presenting on an Independent Publisher community call, you are considered an Independent Publisher contributor.

5. It is important to reduce connector duplicates across the Power Platform to reduce the flow and app maker confusion. If a Certified connector or Independent Publisher connector to an end service already exists, it is highly recommended that those changes are submitted to the original Certified or Independent Publisher connector. In cases where the end service has a wide variety of endpoint types and functionality, you can submit an Independent Publisher connector to that service with a more specific name. For example, HubSpot is split up into Marketing, CRM, and CMS.

6. Microsoft doesn’t expect Independent Publishers to understand terms and conditions or other issues that may arise. As a result, Microsoft doesn’t have an obligation to publish your connector to the product. If Microsoft or the Independent Publisher Connector Group receive a complaint from the end service owner, Microsoft reserves the right to remove it from the Power Platform. Microsoft encourages publishers to submit Independent Publisher connectors to end services that we currently do not support to alleviate the risks of the connector having to be removed.

7. If an end service owner reaches out to Microsoft or the Independent Publisher Connector Group and requests that they want ownership of the Independent Publisher connector that connects to their end service, Microsoft reserves the right to provide them with maintainer rights.

8. The Project Coordinator Group is a team of Microsoft employees and Microsoft MVPs that defines and maintains the rules described in this document and organizes different open-source and community activities in GitHub. If you are an Independent Publisher or an Independent Publisher contributor and you are interested in joining this team, please email natalie.pienkowska@microsoft.com

9. A member of the Project Coordinator Group who is not a Microsoft employee or a Microsoft MVP is required to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) with Microsoft.

10. Project Coordinator Group membership will be reviewed on a yearly basis. Membership renewals are subject to regular contributions, active involvement, and following all the rules outlined in this manifesto.

Project Coordinator Group Members 2022

• Ahmad Najjar (Avanade)
• April Dunnam (Microsoft)
• Daniel Laskewitz (Sogeti)
• Fausto Capellan Jr (Vecaent)
• Mitanshu Garg (Schlumberger)
• Natalie Pienkowska (Microsoft)
• Nirmal Kumar
• Paul Culmsee (Seven Sigma)
• Rebekka Aalbers (Macaw)
• Troy Taylor (Hitachi)

Project Coordinator Group Members 2021

• Ahmad Najjar (Avanade)
• April Dunnam (Microsoft)
• Daniel Laskewitz (Sogeti)
• Fausto Capellan Jr (Vecaent)
• Natalie Pienkowska (Microsoft)
• Nirmal Kumar
• Paul Culmsee (Seven Sigma)
• Rebekka Aalbers (Macaw)
• Troy Taylor (Hitachi)