RSMP Nordic Charter

Revision: March 4, 2021

Definitions

Partner

An organization that has joined the RSMP Nordic partnership by signing the RSMP Nordic Charter.

Member or representative

A person that represents an organization and sits in the steering group, board, secretariat, working group or user group.

Supplier

A company or other type of for-profit organization suppling equipment, software, or services.

Road authority

A non-profit public entity, responsible for managing road or traffic.

Mission

RSMP Nordic is a partnership which helps road authorities reach their goals related to sustainable traffic, climate, quality of life, and other areas that make use of on-street equipment.

RSMP Nordic supports road authorities by developing and promoting RSMP (Roadside Message Protocol) as an open, modern, lightweight, flexible, and interoperable protocol for communication between traffic lights, road-side equipment and central traffic management and monitoring systems from different venders.

RSMP Nordic also supports suppliers and knowledge institution in implementing and maintaining high quality RSMP implementations for business or research purposes.

Main Activities

RSMP Nordic coordinates development of the RSMP specification and RSMP tools.

RSMP Nordic facilitates dialogue between road authorities, suppliers, research institutions and other partners.

RSMP Nordic facilitates RSMP knowledge sharing between road authorities.

RSMP Nordic promotes the use of RSMP by explaining the benefits and use cases.

Organization

Overview

Steering Group

Tasks

The steering group is responsible for overall coordination and strategic decisions.

The steering group must work in adherence to the mission described in the RSMP Nordic charter.

The steering group is responsible for confirming an activity plan once per year, covering the next year. It must include a resource budget and must specifying how partners expect to staff and fund the planned activities, i.e. show what each partner is expected to contribute. The steering group can delegate the preparation of plans and budgets to the board, the secretariat or working groups, but must confirm them.

The steering group should try to reach consensus whenever possible. In case of disagreement, decisions are taken by majority vote. In case of equal number of votes, the partner who joined RSMP first will decide.

The steering group appoints the board and the secretariat and can replace members at any time.

Members

The steering group has representatives from only public road authorities, or non-profit organizations representing road authorities.

The steering group can have no more than 11 members.

No partner can have more than one representative in the steering group.

Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland each have two permanent seats. The partners from each of these countries together decide who will represent them, and can change their representatives whenever they like. For example, the partners from Denmark chose two danish partner to represent them in the steering group. In case of disagreement, the two partners who joined RSMP Nordic first will represent them.

The permanent members can agree to invite any other RSMP Nordic partners to fill remaining seats, respecting the limitations described above. All non-permanent partners thus invited leave the steering group on the first coming March 1st, unless the permanent members agree to ask the partner to stay.

If a partner leaves the steering group, the remaining permanent members can agree to invite another partner as replacement, respecting the limitations described above.

Board

Tasks

The board is responsible for technical coordination and technical decisions and for maintaining the RSMP protocol, tools, and technical roadmaps.

Technical roadmaps should specify overall technical directions and should indicate when new version of the RSMP specifications are expected to be released.

The board must consult with the steering group regarding strategic decisions.

The board is responsible for initiating and terminating technical working groups. The board reviews technical proposals from these working groups and decides which proposals are accepted.

Members

The board has representatives from only public road authorities, or non-profit organizations representing road authorities.

The board can have no more than seven members.

The steering appoints members to the board.

Working Groups

Tasks

Technical working groups are initiated and terminated as needed by the board to work on technical topics.

Technical working groups produce proposals for review by the board, which takes the technical decisions.

The board can choose to delegate certain technical decision to technical working groups.

Other working groups related to e.g. communication, funding, organization, etc. can be initiated and terminated by either the board or the secretariat.

Working groups must have a task description and timeline when initiated and must work in adherence to these, but otherwise organize their own work.

Members

Working groups can have representatives from road authorities, suppliers, or any other RSMP Nordic partner.

In addition, working groups can invite anyone else to meetings, for example supplies or municipalities that are not yet RSMP Nordic partners

Working group proposals are drafted by the RSMP Nordic partners, while other invited participants have an advisory role.

User group

Tasks

The user group in an informal forum or networks for sharing knowledge about RSMP and its use. The user group also provide input and feedback to working groups.

The secretariat help facilitate user group activities, but participants are expected to be the main organizers and contributors.

Members

Anyone interested can join the RSMP user groups.

Secretariat

Tasks

The secretariat provides administrative and logistical support.

The secretariat is responsible for maintaining the partnership lists.

The secretariat helps organize meetings, organizes documents and handles other administrative tasks.

The secretariat is responsible for maintaining the https://rsmp-nordic.org website and facilitating user group activities.

The secretariat can delegate work to other (parts of) RSMP Nordic partner organizations, or external consultants.

Members

The secretariat has representatives from only public road authorities, or non-profit organizations representing road authorities.

Work can be delegated to consultants.

The secretariat is appointed by the steering group.

Governance

Informal collaboration

RSMP Nordic is an informal collaboration, not a separate legal entity.

Initiation

The RSMP Nordic partnership is initiated by the partners signing the RSMP Nordic charter and thereby agreeing to work in accordance with the charter.

Termination

The RSMP Nordic partnership can be terminated if the steering group vote unanimously to do so.

Changing the Charter

The RSMP Nordic charter can be revised by a 2/3 majority of the steering group.

Partnership

Any organization can become a RSMP Nordic partner.

To become a partner, an organization must fill out and sign the RSMP Nordic charter, thereby agreeing to work in accordance to the charter.

All partners are listed publicly on the RSMP Nordic website.

Organization can only have members in the steering group, board, or secretariat if they are an RSMP Nordic partner and have signed the RSMP Nordic charter.

A partner can choose to leave RSMP Nordic at any time.

There is no fee for being a RSMP Nordic partner.

Gender equality and non-discrimination

Gender equality and non-discrimination will be considered when selecting members for the steering group, board, secretariat and working groups.

All qualified persons should have the same opportunity to contribute.

Licensing and Copyright

RSMP is maintained as an open protocol. This means that the RSMP specification and related software tools are available publicly for free and can be used without licensing fees.

Specifications and software tools published as part of the RSMP Nordic partnership will:

• be attributed to RSMP Nordic

• have joint authorship, and all contributors will hold the same copyright

• be published using a license approved by the Open Source Initiative https://opensource.org. The MIT Open Source Licensewill be the default license used.

• be published on https://github. Contributions like commits and pull request will therefore be governed by the GitHub Terms of Service. The terms ensure that contributions will be governed by the license already specified in the relevant repository.

Funding

The RSMP Nordic partnership is run entirely by voluntary contributions by its partners, in the form of hours spend or costs covered.

All cost sharing related to RSMP Nordic must be agreed in writing before a cost is incurred.

RSMP Nordic does not sell any product or service.

RSMP Nordic is not a legal entity and cannot receive grants or funding. Grants or funding must go to partner organizations.