When individuals or communities propose a project to the ASF incubator, it’s not uncommon to see reasons like “recognition” and “exposure to a wider community”.
While these are common reasons, they are not particularly good reasons.
Sure, the software created by many ASF projects is widely used. But, just as many, or more, are relatively unknown. ASF membership is not a ticket to ride. You still have to do the work.
The best reason for joining the ASF is because the development community supports the foundation’s mission.
Once upon a time, the NCSA web server lost its only developer. NCSA was slow to replace the developer, and the project stagnated. Many of the people using the web server needed to make changes in
order to improve stability and scalability. People were posting and discussing patches on the mailing list, but there was no one available to make changes.
Finally, some of the mailing list subscribers banded together, setup their own version of the code, and started to apply their own patches. Not wanting to repeat history, the group organized itself in away that would avoid dependencies on a single developer or a single company.
Over time, the group evolved the notion of the Apache Way, which we now like to call ASF culture. We strongly believe that a codebase belongs to the individuals who create and maintain it, and that a codebase should be a collaboration between individuals. When we put these two ideas together, we come up with the term “meritocracy”, to describe an organization that is run by the people who do the actual work.
The ASF culture contrasts the model of the benign dictator described in Raymond’s The Cathedral and Bazaar. It is also very different that the Linux hierarchy. It’s a model that says any number of people can participate in a project, so long as everyone involved is prepared to work well with others … especially when we disagree.
In a word, our mission is collaboration.
In practice, we fulfill that mission by fostering software development communities. Everything that goes into that, the Apache License, the legal shield, the distribution policies, all speak to the fundamental mission of enabling collaboration.
As to ASF rules, after six years, I’ve been able to identify eleven.
It’s true that working with others is often more work than going it alone. When the kids were young, my wife I would joke that the household chores take longer when the children help. But, nowadays, lo and behold, sometimes, the teens even do their own laundry!
It’s hard. But, it’s entirely worth it.
No Comments » | 
Struts | 
Permalink
Posted by tedhusted
