ApacheSoftwareFoundation

The Apache Software Foundation - ASF

Pointers

• ApacheCon
• http://apache.org - main site
• http://wiki.apache.org/ - wiki
• http://www.apache.org/~user - user directories

My ApacheCon 2005 Notes

• presentation by Lars Eilebrecht
• also Cliff Schmidt

ASF

• registered non-profit organization
• incorporated in Delaware, USA
• all volunteers - nobody gets paid

why

• provide a foundation for open collaborative software development
• supplying hardware, communication, business infrastructure
• provide a means for individual volunteers to be sheltered from lawsuites directed at foundation projects
• independent legal entity - companies and individuals can donate resources and know they will be used for public benefit.
• protect the Apache brand from being used by other organizations

bylaws

• can only be changed by members of board or directory, not just president.
• 9 people - vote anually
• add new members by a majority vote

history

• 1995 - group of people got together to exchange software patches for NCSA open source web server
• called themselves apache group
• 6 months later - surpassed NCSA web server
• modularity - sister projects for web server modules gravitate around apache group
• apache group started to fear abuse and lack of legal protection
• Apache Software Foundation created in 1999

name

• 'a patchy' web server - just a pun
• reference to ASF's development philosophy: easter and western apache tribes - no centralized tribal organization, meritocracy

meritocracy

• govern of merit
• the more merit you have, the more power you get
• no old-men club because of openness
• chain - user > committer > project member => ASF member
• users - passive, active contributors
• committers - apache.org mail address and some ASF servers
• project member - vote, propose others for committership
• ASF member - shareholder of the foundation

foundation

• 9 directors
• 37 officers
• 138 Members - 33 more soon
• 13 emeriti embers
• 1152 committers - 20 to 30 added per month

board of directors

• manages assets - funds, IP, trademarks, support equipment
• allocates resources
• 9 members elected per year
• makes no technical decisions!

project management committee

• manages a project and subprojects
• establish own set of rules and procedures

communication

• mostly async - mail lists - irc not as useful due to time differences, etc.
• all archived
• allows geographic distribution

decision making

• lazy consensus - doesn't require the whole group involved
• voting rules: +1 (yes), 0 (abstain), -1 (veto)
• three +1 and no veto required for approval
• veto requires proposal of an alternative solution or explanation of reason
• all technical decisions are made in public

philosophy

• collaborative software development
• high quality software
• respectful, honest, technical based interaction
• faithful implementation of standards
• security as a mandatory part of software development
• open source

projects

• lots of high level apache projects
• auxiliary - do not distribute software
  • infrastructure
  • security
  • incubator
  • public relations
  • con planning
  • legal
  • java community process

incubator

• formed in october 2002
• entry point for all new projects
• provides guidance for new committers / projects
• incubating projects are not officially endorsed
• not necessarily a reflection of the completeness or stability
• focus on:
  • addressing legal issues with contributed IP
  • building healthy community around the project
• incubator disclaimer

incubator - considerations before proposing

• license under Apache license
• have a code base
• sign the Contributor License Agreement
• already have a community?
• ok with not having ultimate control of the development of your code base? - consensus-based decision making

incubator pre-poposal guidelines

• explore related communities
• posting to related dev lists for feedback
• find ASF member champion and mentor
• potential host in a Top Level Project (TLP) or popose a new TLP
• gather project's initial committers - should represent multiple

  interests

• clean up your code
• consider licensing issues
  • consider licensing as open source in advance
  • do you have the rights to do this
  • consider upstream or downtstream dependencies

incubator proposal

• use the template
• post proposal on the wiki and send email
• join in ~3-7 days of discussion
• subproject of an existing TLP

life in the incubator

• all legal issues resolved before leaving incubation
• logistics - docs and asking mentor/etc for help
• community management

leaving the incubator

• when the community thinks it's ready
• public vote on the email list

after the incubator

• no longer @incubator.apache - mailing list, web site, etc.
• subproject issues - join sponsoring project PMC
• TLP issues - determine PMC members, chair