Hi Kelly- I can't speak to many of your questions as it's not my position to do so. What I can say is that at Apple we are doubling down on open source. We have tons of code in flight -- really big ones in fact -- many already out for review. Our list of enhancements we want to do grows all the time so there is no shortage of work to do. We also have a really great team built up with an incredible amount of in house knowledge.
The stuff we work on generally is focused on Avalon. The database and stabilizing it. I'm not sure how much "feature" work we will do in comparison (although things like SASI obviously is). It's unfortunate how things have played out -- but let's remind ourselves this is a database and we're in it for the long haul. The last thing we want is to have the project stagnate due to infighting. For the foreseeable future Apple and The Last Pickle will step up a bit more of an active role as much as we can. I have no doubt in my mind this will change the project. The rate of releases -- what gets worked on -- bandwidth to fix low hanging fruit tickets... but at least I see a path forward. So let's try to be positive here and lead by example. It's the only thing we can do right now. best, kjellman Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 4, 2016, at 9:47 AM, Kelly Sommers <kell.somm...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I think the community needs some clarification about what's going on. > There's a really concerning shift going on and the story about why is > really blurry. I've heard all kinds of wild claims about what's going on. > > I've heard people say the ASF is pushing DataStax out because they don't > like how much control they have over Cassandra. I've heard other people say > DataStax and the ASF aren't getting along. I've heard one person who has > pull with a friend in the ASF complained about a feature not getting > considered (who also didn't go down the correct path of proposing) kicked > and screamed and started the ball rolling for control change. > > I don't know what's going on, and I doubt the truth is in any of those, the > truth is probably somewhere in between. As a former Cassandra MVP and > builder of some of the larger Cassandra clusters in the last 3 years I'm > concerned. > > I've been really happy with Jonathan and DataStax's role in the Cassandra > community. I think they have done a great job at investing time and money > towards the good interest in the project. I think it is unavoidable a > single company bootstraps large projects like this into popularity. It's > those companies investments who give the ability to grow diversity in later > stages. The committer list in my opinion is the most diverse its ever been, > hasn't it? Apple is a big player now. > > I don't think reducing DataStax's role for the sake of diversity is smart. > You grow diversity by opening up new opportunities for others. Grow the > committer list perhaps. Mentor new people to join that list. You don't kick > someone to the curb and hope things improve. You add. > > I may be way off on what I'm seeing but there's not much to go by but > gossip (ahaha :P) and some ASF meeting notes and DataStax blog posts. > > August 17th 2016 ASF changed the Apache Cassandra chair > https://www.apache.org/foundation/records/minutes/2016/board_minutes_2016_08_17.txt > > "The Board expressed continuing concern that the PMC was not acting > independently and that one company had undue influence over the project." > > August 19th 2016 Jonothan Ellis steps down as chair > http://www.datastax.com/2016/08/a-look-back-a-look-forward > > November 2nd 2016 DataStax moves committers to DSE from Cassandra. > http://www.datastax.com/2016/11/serving-customers-serving-the-community > > I'm really concerned if indeed the ASF is trying to change control and > diversity of organizations by reducing DataStax's role. As I said earlier, > I've been really happy at the direction DataStax and Jonathan has taken the > project and I would much prefer see additional opportunities along side > theirs grow instead of subtracting. The ultimate question that's really > important is whether DataStax and Jonathan have been steering the project > in the right direction. If the answer is yes, then is there really anything > broken? Only if the answer is no should change happen, in my opinion. > > Can someone at the ASF please clarify what is going on? The ASF meeting > notes are very concerning. > > Thank you for listening, > Kelly Sommers
