Governance Model for Hypothes.is
The governance model for Hypothes.is seems very centrally focused, resembling more of the "benevolent dictatorship" model than having it be consensus driven. In this case the dictatorship is more wholly controlled by the employees of Hypothes.is versus any one singular individual. There is a core group of about 6 individuals who typically manage and deal with the bugs list for the project. Most of the issues on the issue tracker are opened by the employees, assigned to employees, and have employees mostly active on the list. Issues List. In their Contributions documentation page, they openly stated that committers are the ones with push access to the repository and these seem more reserved for the employees than for other contributers.
However I do think they do try to give other "contributers" more voice on platforms that are away from github. For example, they offer an open forum where people can join and post forum topics about problems they've been having or questions for the group. Hypothesis Forum. This once again seems more driven by the employees of the company rather than other contributers or collaborators. It also also serves as a sort of Help Desk, where people post their problems more than analyzing critical parts of the product.
When analyzing and viewing their practices and the reasoning for why they are relatively closed, and I feel like it revolves a lot around the fact that the company really strives to deliver the best possible product they can. And while others may contribute in many small ways, larger roles and assignments (such as making commits and managing bug reports) fall back on the employees as "benevolent dictators". When observing the critical reasons for why they manage their commits and quality, there is probably a reputation and reliability structure that is framed more closely around those who are personally involved versus those who are intersted and want to contribute on the side. While I don't feel like a "second class" contributer, it certainly feels very siilar to being an outsider trying to bypass the hurdles of getting the initial foot in the door.
Despite this, I think it works really well for the group. While they are an open source project, it is central around the employees and company itself to produce the product. It helps regular the quality much more closely, and their openness is exemplified by the fact that they do refer to the community and their input to get the best possible product.