THE APACHE WAY
AOSS 2008
J Aaron Farr

The Apache Way
About the Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Way -- Our Philosophy
How Apache Works with Others

Apache Software Foundation
Independent US non-profit
Volunteer organization
Virtual world-wide organization
Currently hosts more than 50 software projects
More than 1000 contributors and almost 300 members
Began as the Apache Group in 1996
Incorporated as the ASF in 1999

Apache’s Mission
Provide open source software to the public
free of charge.

Apache’s Mission
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;

Apache’s Mission
provide a means for individual volunteers to be
sheltered from legal suits directed at the Foundation’s
projects; and,
protect the ‘Apache’ brand, as applied to its software
products, from being abused by other organizations.

Apache’s Mission
Provide legal and technical infrastructure
for open source software development and
to perform appropriate oversight of such
software.

Apache License
A liberal open source software license
Business friendly
Requires attribution
Includes Patent Grant
Easily reused by other projects & organizations

Apache Projects
HTTP Server Incubator
ServiceMix
ActiveMQ Jackrabbit
Shale
Ant Jakarta
SpamAssassin
APR James
STDCXX
Beehive Labs
Struts
Cayenne Lenya
Synapse
Cocoon Logging
Tapestry
Commons Lucene
TCL
DB Maven
Tiles
Directory Mina
Tomcat
Excalibur MyFaces
Turbine
Felix ODE
Velocity
Forrest OFBiz
Wicket
Geronimo OpenEJB
Web Services
Gump OpenJPA
Xalan
Hadoop Perl
Xerces
Harmony POI
XML
HiveMind Portals
XMLBeans
HttpComponents Roller
XML Graphics
iBATIS Santuario

Apache Projects
HTTP Server Incubator
ServiceMix
ActiveMQ Jackrabbit
Shale
Ant Jakarta
SpamAssassin
APR James
STDCXX
Beehive Labs
Struts
Cayenne Lenya
Synapse
Cocoon Logging
Tapestry
Commons Lucene
TCL
DB Maven
Tiles
Directory Mina
Tomcat
Excalibur MyFaces
Turbine
Felix ODE
Velocity
Forrest OFBiz
Wicket
Geronimo OpenEJB
Web Services
Gump OpenJPA
Xalan
Hadoop Perl
Xerces
Harmony POI
XML
HiveMind Portals
XMLBeans
HttpComponents Roller
XML Graphics
iBATIS Santuario

Apache HTTP Webserver
Since 1996, the most popular web server
world-wide

Apache Committers

Apache Members
Foundation shareholders
Elected by peers
Currently 272

Virtual World-Wide Org
North America
South America
Europe
Africa
Australia
Asia

Org Chart
FOUNDATION MEMBERS
BOARD
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
OFFICERS COMMITTEES
COMMITTEES
(PMC)
COMMITTERS

Org Chart
Board Members Committees
Legal
Security
Public Relations
Infrastructure
9 Members Elected Annually Conference Planning

The Apache Way
About the Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Way -- Our Philosophy
How Apache Works with Others

The Apache Way
Meritocracy
Peer to Peer
Consensus decision making
Open, online communication
Responsible oversight

Meritocracy
Govern of Merit
It’s about what you do.
Those who do, decide .

Roles
User Committer Member
Contributor PMC
Involvement & Responsibility

Peer to Peer
We work with people, not companies.
Committers and members should hold one another
with respect.
All votes hold the same weight.
Community over code.

Consensus Decision Making
Most decisions made on mailing list without voting,
sometimes by way of lazy consensus.
Voting rules
Yes Abstain No (veto)
+1 0 -1
For releases, 3 +1’s required, no vetos
A -1 veto requires proposal of alternate solution

Open Communication
Communication is done online.
Email lists are preferred form of communication.
Most communication is publicly archived.
Most lists are open to any subscriber.

Responsible Oversight
Security is mandatory
Ensure license compliance
Release only high quality software
No abuse of Apache brand or community

The Apache Way
Meritocracy
Peer to Peer
Consensus decision making
Open, online communication
Responsible oversight

The Apache Way
About the Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Way -- Our Philosophy
How Apache Works with Others

Apache & People
Apache committers work as individuals, independent
of company affiliation.
Individuals recognized for contributions.
Products are owned by project community.
Emphasis on community stewardship.

Apache & Companies
Business friendly license.
Encourage commercial adoption of our software.
A neutral ground where competitors collaborate.
Encourage open, collaborative standards.
Allow competition on value-added features and
services.

Apache in the Market
Web 2.0 Innovation
Software as a Service
Commercial Distributions
Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, ...
Apache MYSQL
Linux

Apache & Sponsors
New sponsorship program
Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze Levels
Annual contribution
Used for server hardware, bandwidth, professional
services (legal & accounting), marketing & PR, and
contractors to assist in routine operations.
http://apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html

Apache & Sponsors
Airplus International, Matt Mullenweg,
Tetsuya Kitahata, Two Sigma Investments

Apache & Open Source
Apache Incubator established to assist existing open
source software projects to join the Foundation.
Apache Labs for internal new projects and
experimentation.
We strive to collaborate with all other open source
projects, foundations, and groups.

The Apache Way
About the Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Way -- Our Philosophy
How Apache Works with Others

The Apache Way
Meritocracy
Peer to Peer
Consensus decision making
Open, online communication
Responsible oversight

How To Get Involved
Use Apache Software!
Join our mailing lists.
Attend Apache events. ( China event in December! )
Organize Apache User Groups.
Write articles, tutorials, translations.
Contribute patches, documentation, tests.
Provide a server mirror of our software.
Make a financial or software donation.

www.apache.org
J Aaron Farr -
farra@apache.org
www.cubiclemuses.com