In a community source model, any firm is free to make in private any enhancements to the shared tools that it requires to meet its business needs. However, if a firm wants to share its corrections and enhancements with the community, it must follow a control process to ensure that the enhancements or corrections will not destabilize the existing product.

To provide this, "Diamond" members, who have full access rights to the development process, are eligible to participate in a periodic priority setting and enhancement approval meeting. At these meetings decisions are made on topics such as:

• Definition of overall product roadmap and feature set.
• Approval of defect corrections and minor enhancements
• Review and approval of major architectural changes

Gem is a participant and partner in these meetings, and provides input on topics such as cross-product coordination, architectural implications, testability, etc.

Gem "Emerald" members, who have access to source and executable software for major releases, are eligible to participate in a quarterly product update meeting at which status and plans for each product are discussed. At these meetings the members may provide feedback on the feature sets. "Emerald" members may also participate in software beta programs and participate in the approval process for moving a product to general release.

Gem "Ruby" members, who have access to executable versions of Gem software products, are also eligible to participate in quarterly product update meetings.