Axis 7: Governance
GCC Charter
GCBoK is published by GitCover Commons gUG (GCC). GCC is a non-profit corporation under § 60a Abs. 1 AO (German Fiscal Code), recognized by the Bad Homburg v. d. H. tax office (decision dated 27.05.2026).
The charter purposes (§ 52 Abs. 2 Satz 1 AO):
- Science and Research (No. 1)
- Education, Popular and Vocational Training (No. 7)
- Consumer Advice and Consumer Protection (No. 16)
- International Attitude and Völkerverständigung (No. 13)
Full charter, recognition certificate, and donation information: on the GCC landing page.
GCC Community Rules
GCBoK follows open-source principles:
- OSS-first — All specifications are Open Source
- CC BY-SA 4.0 (target) — Free distribution with attribution
- Apache 2.0 — For code components
- Community review — Contributions via Gitea pull requests
- No vendor lock-in — Vendor-neutral reference
GCBoK Amendment Procedure
Changes to GCBoK follow a defined process:
- Proposal — Issue in the Gitea repo
gcbok-content - Review — Community discussion, substantive review
- Draft — Pull request with proposed changes
- Approval — Review by GCC management
- Merge — Integration into main branch
- Release — Versioned release tag
Versioning
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 Self-Referential
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 Usage Rights
AFJD (Axel Franz Johann Druschel) is the applicant, inventor, and permanent holder of all protective rights as a natural person. The IP remains with AFJD — it is made available to GCC on a contractual basis for use (no transfer of ownership).
| Aspect | Ownership Transfer (not chosen) | Usage Rights by Contract (chosen) |
|---|---|---|
| IP holder | GCC | AFJD (natural person) |
| GCC as licensor? | Yes → Non-profit status at risk | No → GCC non-profit status secure |
| Protection against takeover | Low | High (IP remains with AFJD) |
Full details: See Protective Rights.