Code, Community, and Open Source
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The document provides an overview of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), its structure, mission, and guiding principles which include open source software development and collaborative community practices. The ASF operates as a non-profit organization that supports various open-source projects by offering organizational, legal, and financial resources. Key themes include meritocracy, community involvement, and a commitment to quality code through decentralized decision-making processes.
Code, Community, and Open Source
- 1. Apache: Code, Community and Open Source J i m J a g i e l s k i | | @ j i m j a g
- 2. Agenda Introduction Overview of the ASF The What and Why of “Open Source” The Lessons Learned by the ASF - The Apache Way This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 3. Introduction Jim Jagielski Longest still-active developer/contributor Co-founder of the ASF Member, Director and President Director: Outercurve and OSI Consulting Engineer with Red Hat This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 4. The ASF ASF == The Apache Software Foundation Before the ASF there was “The Apache Group” The ASF was incorporated in 1999 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 5. The ASF Non-profit corporation founded in 1999 501( c )3 public charity Volunteer organization (The ASF doesn’t pay anyone to work on Apache projects) Virtual world-wide organization - Membership of Individuals Exists to provide the organizational, legal, and financial support for various OSS projects - let the developers develop This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 6. Structure of the ASF - legal Member-based corporation - individuals only Members nominate and elect new members Members elect a board - 9 seats Semi-annual meetings via IRC Each PMC has a Chair - eyes and ears of the board (oversight only) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 7. ASF “Org Chart” Technical Oversight Organizational Oversight Development Administrative PMCs PMC Members (TLPs) ~2000 Members ~400 Elects Committers ~100 ~4500 Contributors Officers ~100 Appoints Reports Patchers/Buggers Users Creates Board 9 & Updates This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 8. Issues with Dual Stacks Despite clear differentiation, sometimes there are leaks eg: PMC chair seen as “lead” developer Sometimes officers are assumed to have too much power if they venture into development issues “hats” This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 9. The ASF’s Mission Provide open source software to the public free of charge Provide a foundation for open, collaborative software development projects by supplying hardware, communication, and business infrastructure Create an independent legal entity to which companies and individuals can donate resources and be assured that those resources will be used for the public benefit This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 10. The ASF’s Mission Provide a means for individual volunteers to be sheltered from legal suits directed at the Foundation’s projects Protect the ‘Apache’ brand, as applied to its software products, from being abused by other organizations Provide legal and technical infrastructure for open source software development and to perform appropriate oversight of such software This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 11. Vision Statement The Apache Software Foundation provides support for the Apache community of open- source software projects. The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative, consensus based development process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality software that leads the way in its field. We consider ourselves not simply a group of projects sharing a server, but rather a community of developers and users. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 12. Vision Statement, Take 2 Community created code Our code should be exceptional This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 13. Why Open Source? Access to the source code Avoid vendor lock-in (or worse!) Much better software Better security record (more eyes) Much more nimble development - frequent releases Direct user input This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 14. The draw of Open Source Having a real impact in the development and direction of IT Personal satisfaction: I wrote that! Sense of membership in a community Sense of accomplishment - very quick turnaround times Developers and engineers love to tinker - huge opportunity to do so This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 15. Open Source FUD No quality or quality control Prevents or slows development Have to “give it away for free” No real innovation This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 16. What is Open Source? Open Source Licensing OSI Approved Free Software As in Free Speech, not Free Beer Open Source Methodology (secondary) ala, the Apache Software Foundation This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 17. Open Source Licenses Give Me Credit AL, BSD, MIT Give Me Fixes (L)GPL, EPL, MPL Give Me Everything GPL - Dave Johnson http://rollerweblogger.org/page/roller?entry=gimme_credit_gimme_fixes_gimmem This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 18. The Apache License (AL) A liberal open source software license - BSD- like Business friendly Requires attribution Includes Patent Grant Easily reused by other projects & organizations This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 19. License Differences Mainly involve the licensing of derivative works Only really applies during (re)distribution of work Where the “freedom” should be mostly focused: the user or the code itself Be careful when mixing licenses! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 20. One True License There is no such thing Licensing is selected to address what you are trying to do In general, Open Standards do better with AL-like license If wide adoption is important to you: again AL. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 21. The Apache Way Although the term is deprecated, “The Apache Way” relates to how the ASF (and its projects) work and operate Basically, the least common denominators on how PMCs operate This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 22. Why focus on ASF ? http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/oracle-gives- openoffice-to-apache/9035 http://webmink.com/essays/#OBR This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 23. Basic Memes Meritocracy Peer-based Consensus decision making Collaborative development Responsible oversight Individual Participation This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 24. Meritocracy “Govern by Merit” Merit is based on what you do Merit never expires Those with merit, get more responsibility Provides incentive to Do More This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 25. Peer-based Developers represent themselves - individuals Mutual trust and respect All votes hold the same weight (no BDFL) Community created code Healthy communities create healthy code Poisonous communities don’t Feel as part of a community This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 26. Why Community -> Code Since we are all volunteers, people’s time and interests change A healthy community is “warm and inviting” and encourages a continued influx of developers Poisonous people/communities turn people off, and the project will die End result - better code, long-term code This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 27. Consensus decision making Key is the idea of voting +1 - yes +0 - no real comment -1 - veto Sometimes you’ll also see stuff like -0, -0.5, etc... This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 28. Voting The main intent is to gauge developer acceptance Vetos must be justifiable and have sound technical merit If valid, Vetos cannot be overruled Vetos are very rare This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 29. Commit Process Review Then Commit (RTC) A patch is submitted to the project for inclusion If at least 3 +1s and no -1s, code is committed Good for stable branches Ensures enough “eyes on the code” on a direct-to-release path This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 30. Commit Process Commit Then Review (CTR) A patch is committed directly to the code Review Process happens post commit Good for development branches Depends on people doing reviews after the fact Allows very fast development This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 31. Commit Process Lazy Consensus variant of RTC “I plan on committing this in 3 days” Provides opportunity for oversight, but with known “deadline” As always, can be vetoed after the fact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 32. Collaborative Development Code is developed by the community Voting ensures at least 3 active developers Development done online and on-list If it didn’t happen on-list, it didn’t happen This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 33. Collaborative Development Mailing lists are the preferred method Archived Asynchronous Available to anyone - public list This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 34. Collaborative Development Other methods are OK, if not primary Wikis IRC F2F Always bring back to the list This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 35. Responsible Oversight Ensure license compliance Track IP Quality code Quality community This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 36. Look Familiar? These concepts are not new or unique Best practices regarding how the Scientific and Health community works This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 37. Publish or Perish In Open Source, frequent releases indicate healthy activity What is collaborative s/w development other than peer review? Think how restrictive research would be w/o open communication This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 38. The Apache Incubator Entry point for all new projects and codebases Indoctrinates the Apache Way to the podling Ensures and tracks IP This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 39. Contributor License Agreement aka: iCLA (for individual) Required of all committers Guarantees: The person has the authority to commit the code That the ASF can relicense the code Does NOT assign copyright This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 40. Development The ASF never pays for development of projects Some contributors are corporate sponsored, some aren’t but as far as the ASF is concerned it makes no difference! Diversity == Independence git-like mega merges are counter-productive Code is one form of contributing, not the only form. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 41. Other Foundations Foundations (independent) are critical for widespread adoption of s/w ASF: totally vendor neutral - Sponsors don’t control/manage/direct the foundation nor projects “There are other ways of doing things, what we’ve been doing has simply be proven to be one of the best.” This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 42. Helpful links The Apache Software Foundation www.apache.org community.apache.org Red Hat, Inc (my employer) www.redhat.com CloudStack podling incubator.apache.org/cloudstack/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- 43. That’s It Thank you! Any questions? @jimjag | www.slideshare.net/jimjag [email protected] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.