The organization of xml.apache.org

Mon, 02 Dec 2002 13:14:16 -0800

Hello all,
 
At ApacheCon I had a number of great discussions with people from all over the ASF.  One
of the many topics of discussion was around the organization of the ASF.  I'm going to try to
summarize the organization discussion below.
 
It seems that there are 2 major issues:
 
1. The ASF has a legal responsibility for oversight of the ASF projects.  In order to provide
some degree of legal protection for committers, the ASF needs to demonstrate that 
it is providing effective oversight of the projects.  Ultimately, this responsibility rests with the
ASF board and is currently implemented via PMCs.  However, within the ASF there is wide
variation in the implementation of the PMC concept.  In httpd there is a PMC for a single code
base and most of the committers are a part of the PMC.   Contrast that with XML and Jakarta
where there is a single (umbrella/container) PMC for many code bases, and a tiny fraction of
the committers are a part of the PMC.   There has been a movement in the ASF to move
projects out from under the umbrella PMC's and have them be their own projects.  Some people
believe that this will improve the board's visibility into the projects, others believe that this will
create an unmanageable amount of work for the board.
 
2. The ASF is currently membership-based, non-profit corporation.  The legal liability protections
of the corporation apply to the members.  In the event of a legal action against one of the committers,
the ASF would attempt to defend the committer, but the automatic liability protection of
the corpration would not apply.   At the moment the best way to provide protection to those working
on ASFprojects is via election to membership.  There has been some discussion that the ASF needs
to find a better way to provide legal protection for all contributors to projects.
 
So why am I sending this message?
 
I feel that the level of oversight that is being provided for the xml.apache.org projects is insufficient.
The ASF does not have the visibility into the projects that it should have, and the projects are not
getting the help/guidance/whatever that they need from the ASF.  Something needs to be changed.
 
There are a number of possible solutions -- not all of them are mutually exclusive:
 
1. Help any xml.apache.org project that wishes to become a top-level project to do so.  Each
top-level project will then have its own PMC which will report directly to the ASF board.
 
2. Expand the xml.apache.org PMC so that every project has a representative
 
3. Alter the structure of xml.apache.org to have an "administrative" PMC that takes care of legal type
stuff, and a "technical" PMC that focuses more on techical issues and oversight.
 
4. Some option that hasn't been thought of yet.
 
So, let's have a discussion about how to improve the situation. I'd like to hear people's opinions on the
options that I presented above, as well as any other suggestions for improvement.  
 
Please express your opinions!
 
Ted

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