Open Source is just about the source code—isn’t it?
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The document outlines the experience and principles of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) regarding open source software, emphasizing community involvement and project independence. It highlights the ASF's mission to provide support for software projects that benefit the public and operates as a nonprofit organization since 1999. Contributions to projects are recognized as encompassing a variety of efforts beyond just source code, reflecting a holistic approach to collaboration within the community.
Open Source is just about the source code—isn’t it?
- 1. Open source is just about the source, isn't it? “The Apache Way – 19 years of OSS experience in 40 minutes” Slides licensed under CC-By-NC-SA 4.0
- 2. Based on a talk I first gave at FrOSCon 2016, Apache Way talks by Lars Eilebrecht, Justin Ehrenkrantz, Brett Porter, Nick Burch, Rich Bowen, feedback from Shane Curcuru, input from Bertrand Delacretaz, Pieter Hintjens, Zaheda Bhorat, corrections from Sally Khudairi, Mark Thomas, Phil Steitz, Daniel Ruggeri, stuff I read in “Producing Open Source Software” by Karl Fogel, stuff I read in “Building successful online communities” by Kraut/ Resnick, stuff I read in “Social Architecture” by Pieter Hintjens, and numerous conversations on Apache mailing lists. And most likely many I forgot to mention above.
- 3. Isabel Drost-Fromm Open Source Strategist Europace AG http://www.europace.de (Board) Member Apache Software Foundation http://www.apache.org Co-founder Apache Mahout http://mahout.apache.org Co-founder Berlin Buzzwords http://www.berlinbuzzwords.de Co-founder FOSS Backstage http://www.foss-backstage.de Image by Thilo Fromm.
- 4. Image taken shortely before FOSS Backstage Microssumit Berlin @ Europace AG Batches were printed based on the names ppl used for registration.
- 5. Mission: Provide software for the public good by providing services and support for many like-minded software project communities of individuals who choose to join the ASF. Funding: Individual donations + corporate sponsorships. US 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization Established in 1999. https://www.apache.org/foundation/
- 6. Project users Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 7. Project users Yonik’s law of Patches: A half-baked patch in Jira, with no documentation, no tests and no backwards compatibility is better than no patch at all. https://wiki.apache.org/solr/HowToContribute Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 8. Project users Project committers Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 9. Project users Project committers Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 10. Project users Project committers Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Apache Software Foundation Members Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 11. Project users Project committers Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Board of Directors Apache Software Foundation Members Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 12. Project users Project committers Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Board of DirectorsOfficers Comittees Apache Software Foundation Members Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 13. Image taken at Open Source Summit 2017, Prague; talk by Zaheda Bhorat, https://osseu17.sched.com/event/ByN2/love-what-you-do-everyday-zaheda-bhorat-aws.
- 14. Image “Swiss Flag” by crackers93 https://www.flickr.com/photos/crackers93/2832784903 (CC-By-2.0) https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/success_at_apache_project_independence
- 15. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)
- 16. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)
- 17. Inspired by https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.en.html Copyleft OSS Non-Copyleft OSS Small enough so you don't care Libraries to push standards forward LGPL for libraries, especially if there are other similar libraries AGPL for server software GPL for everything else Projects to change established economics. I care about any and all of my downstream users to have all of “use”, “study”, “share”, “improve”: All I want to ensure is that my very own project gives the “use”, “study”, “share”, “improve” freedoms:
- 18. Inspired by https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.en.html Non-Copyleft OSS Small enough so you don't care Libraries to push standards forward Projects to change established economics. All I want to ensure is that my very own project gives the “use”, “study”, “share”, “improve” freedoms: Apache License 2.0 https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- 19. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)
- 20. Image “Dragon” by Joseph Wu https://www.flickr.com/photos/josephwuorigami/1367278646 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
- 21. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)
- 22. Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash
- 23. Image taken at Berlin Buzzwords.
- 24. Apache: Community over code. “A project without people is a dead project (or at least deep asleep).”
- 25. Project users Project committers Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Project Management Committees Board of DirectorsOfficers Comittees Apache Software Foundation Members Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.
- 27. Image “Newspaper colour” by NS Newsflash https://www.flickr.com/photos/62693815@N03/6277336776 (CC-By 2.0)
- 29. Mess Media Thanks to Bertrand Delacretaz for inspiration.
- 30. Mess Media Central Hubs Thanks to Bertrand Delacretaz for inspiration.
- 31. If it didn’t happen on the mailing list, it didn’t happen.
- 32. If it didn’t happen on the mailing list, it didn’t happen. user@ dev@ commits@ issues@ private@
- 34. Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
- 35. Image “Help Me. VTda.info” by vtdainfo https://flic.kr/p/7rrxxh (CC-By 2.0)
- 36. Photo by Thiago Victal on Unsplash
- 38. Those who do the work take the decisions. https://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#decision-making
- 41. Image “Stopwatch” by Search Engine People Blog https://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/4072462666 (CC-By 2.0)
- 42. “Reviewing code” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)
- 44. “Thank you card” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0) “ThankYou_rush's” (CC-By-SA 2.0) “merci” (CC-By 2.0) “Thank You Note” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)
- 45. Contributions include not only source code, but also documentation, constructive bug reports, constructive discussions, marketing and generally anything that adds value to the project. https://community.apache.org/apache-way/apache-project-maturity-model.html
- 46. Merit does not go away. https://www.apache.org/dev/committers.html#committer-set-term
- 47. Image “Money” (CC-By 2.0) by Tax Credits https://www.flickr.com/photos/76657755@N04/7027604401
- 48. Image “Hats” (CC-By-NC by arbyreed https://flic.kr
- 49. At Apache you participate as an individual. https://community.apache.org/projectIndependence.html
- 50. At Apache you pay with time and love.
- 51. Image “Doxy cares about my ergonomics” (CC-By-SA 2.0) by Abraham Williams https://www.flickr.com/photos/4braham/5153162831
- 52. https://s.apache.org/volunteeritis https://s.apache.org/youwillburnout Image “Flying Pigeon bakfiets loaded up for the bike move” by Umberto Brayj https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubrayj02/6917443031 (CC-By 2.0)
- 53. At Apache you pay with time and love … mostly.
- 54. Machines to host infrastructure. People to take care of these machines. Press, Legal, Admin, Travel support, Trademarks. Image “Server” (CC-By-2.0) by dariorug https://www.flickr.com/photos/darioruglioni/2613279524
- 56. You’re not alone. [email protected] [email protected] Use ApacheCon, come to Apache Roadshow, join FOSS Backstage.
- 57. Image “Fire Hose by Matthew Heun” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0) by Derrick Story https://www.flickr.com/photos/thedigitalstory/5106832748/
- 58. Image “Poison” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0) by Broken Clouds https://www.flickr.com/photos/34814824@N00/2805079971
- 61. Image “QR-Code” (CC-By-NC 2.0) by Daniele Devoti https://www.flickr.com/photos/dadevoti/8024176011/ People Licensing Trademarks Patents Marketing Education Documentation Design Event management Social media Support Funding Motivation Communication
Editor's Notes
- #4: FSFE fan, married to a Linux kernel geek
- #5: Why should I care? All I want is to launch my business. Get the product out while I still have enough runway. You are betting your core business on a piece of technology. How are decisions around it’s direction made? How timely are bugs being fixed? Can you get involved in it’s decision making process? What can I learn from participating – even if just reading?
- #6: The foundation exists to provide software for the public good by supporting it’s projects. If you are a user of our projects – the goal is to pull you in and turn you into an active supporter. Does what projects don’t like doing: Legal, finance, infra and administrative support for projects.
- #12: Board has no say in technical direction. It does have a say in project governance.
- #13: It ensures the running of the foundation.
- #14: Born out of NCSA HTTPd development Apache group took up development where NCSA was ceasing support. From the beginning international, globally distributed, volunteer based. A lot – but not all – of what is done at Apache is done on a volunteer basis. This does not mean nobody is paying for it. This does not mean it is all altruisitc w/o commercial interest.
- #15: Provides a neutral space for players to collaborate. How does that work?
- #16: Let's start with the easy to understand legal aspects
- #18: Typical set of choices.
- #19: At Apache there’s just one: Easy for downstream users. Think dependencies pulled into our projects. Think legal provenance of code donations. Think people contributing significant amounts of code and how that relates to their local employment status. Mixture of volunteers, pro bono support, paid services, knowledge within projects.
- #21: Sorry, I personally won't go into any details here.
- #22: As a user you want to be certain that what is sold as Apache X actually contains project x – instead of some viruses, malware, modified versions incompatible with upstream. Name should be unique, easy to remember, not conflict with existing projects/ products. Trademarks should be enforced. Annecdote about Hadoop/ Nutch: Kids are good in coming up with these names. Again mixture of volunteers, pro bono support, paid support and education for individual projects.
- #24: Let's continue with the messier people aspects
- #27: Projects go to where their users are. but they will pull them back into official channels.
- #28: Apache projects use the press: Press Releases, articles, books.
- #29: Often paid support is available – but from third parties. Honest invitation though: Joining one of the project communication channels is a great way to get help and support from those who built the software. Why: Grow community from users. Projects should be easy to get started – look for “how to contribute” pages, build system should be standard, version control should be standard, easy issues should be flagged as such, look for where the project communicates.
- #31: Mailing lists: Public Searchable Linkable Archived. Issue Trackers with additional structure.
- #35: “Public” has exceptions: People related discussions are private. Security related discussions are private. Security team: Covers reporting, dealing with issues, getting CVE numbers, communications.
- #36: The typical answer would be “patches welcome” Explicit help request – Mahout example. Get started issues in Hadoop project. Expectation management – Feature promise in all volunteer is hard.
- #37: Lazy consensus
- #39: Those who do the work are the ones taking the decision. Scratch your own itch. Taken to the extreme: I organise meetups. If you want to make sure the next meetup happens at a date and time that works for you, volunteer as a speaker.
- #41: Here's the patch. Often to scratch the your own own itch.
- #42: With Patch submission the clock starts ticking. There's only so much time you can dedicate to the patch esp. when done during working hours. Context switching takes time, so long back and forth switches aren't good. Often first feedback is automated. Often existing committers are helpful. In general the intention is to pull you in. Don’t work for hours and days – share early versions. Look for what the project actually wants.
- #44: Chocolate works: Swiss chocolate for me, Winterfeld Schokoladen for a certain Mahout PMC member.
- #45: I got a mention + thank you in the JIRA issue related to the patch (which I didn't even have to create), a thank you in the commit message, a thank you in the next release notes. None of that cost anything. All of that made the whole thing great and worthwhile – even for my employer who could then go and brag with their contribution. Thank you is cheap. And very common in OSS projects. Better yet – in good cases you get a qualified thank you that motivates further contributions.
- #47: Merit does not go away. But merit does not buy influence. It buys further priviledges (often called karma). It buys further responsibilities.
- #48: Merit only goes so far. Risk: Having people contribute a lot – after hours. Be transparent about your motivation, about what you need next – talk if you need support getting paid for what you do for a project: Consulting Getting hired Giving Trainings
- #49: Speaking of finding money: You will end up wearing multiple hats. Be sure not to confuse them. Be sure to tell others which hat you are wearing at which time. Anecdote: A keynote at Berlin Buzzwords.
- #53: Link to volunteeritis mail by Roy
- #55: Hosting – code, communication, website. All communication since the beginning of the foundation. Without lockin. Machines and people to take care of them are paid for their work by the foundation.
- #59: Poisonous ppl by Brian Fitzpatrick/ Ben Collin Susman Dealing with flamewars by Kristian Köhntopp.
- #61: Anecdote: Berlin Buzzwords handover Document – not only how things are done, but also what has to be done for what reason. Delegate. Great way to get started: Try out getting started docs and show where they don’t work.
- #62: It’s more than just code. This was the manual. Go out there, get your hands dirty and get involved.
- #63: Learn more about Apache and other foundations here in Berlin in Summer