On Sat, Nov 5, 2016 at 7:44 AM, Benedict Elliott Smith <bened...@apache.org> wrote: > All I am demanding is that these "not public" actions be made > "open" and public, inline with ASF ideals.
All of us on the Board feel very strongly about conversations happening in public -- in harmony with ASF ideals, the will of the Members who elect us, and the sentiments of the wider Apache community. In fact, a staple of Board's oversight activities is to scan private lists periodically looking for conversations that didn't need to be private and then to remind the participants that such conversations need to be shunted onto public lists. However, there is a limited selection of topics which are appropriate for the private lists: primarily those relating to open security issues, certain legal concerns, and personnel. People who have access to those conversations are expected to keep them in confidence. The recent conversations which took place on private lists regarding the Cassandra community are interwoven with passages which ought to stay private. It would extraordinary and inappropriate to simply make them public. Please bear in mind that there are actually several hundred people from a wide variety of backgrounds who subscribe to the ostensibly "private" board@apache list, so "private" is relative and the activities of the ASF Board are in fact overwatched by many conscientious and unshrinking participants. Furthermore, although there are not as many subscribers to the private@cassandra list, there are still hundreds of people with access to its archives. I am happy to state that a principle concern of mine as a Board member is ensuring that our projects are governed by independent individuals and that no one company exercises undue influence. This is imperative because vendor neutrality is fundamental to the ASF's value proposition, because it is a legal requirement of our status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, and because it has proven incredibly successful over time at fostering vibrant communities who produce great software. The principle of project independence applies to all Apache projects and requires ongoing effort by our PMCs. The wider Cassandra community should look to the Cassandra PMC as the entity primarily responsible for upholding this crucial principle. Marvin Humphrey
