Thank you for the kind and intelligent responses I've received from members of this group. I appreciate and support what the Apache project is trying to accomplish, and I admire its sense of community.
I consider programming to be as much art as science, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I draw analogies between my work and my wife's more traditional artistic efforts.
Maria does art for her employer, at the direction of clients, in a collaborative environment; she also produces her own drawings and paintings, on her own time, to her own designs, for independent sale. The collaborative model shares the burdens and benefits across several people, at the cost of artistic freedom; her personal art is a pure expression of her vision. The models complement each other.
Over the decades, I've worked on many collaborative projects, both professionally and in the free/open source community; I also produce my own software, independent of anyone else. The two models complement each other.
Jisp is an example of a personal, non-collaborative project. While it has not made me rich, it has attracted a significant amount of business. As of version 3.0.0, I've relicensed Jisp under dual GPL and commercial licenses, which has placed it in conflict with Apache's license. Cocoon (and perhaps others parts of apache) use Jisp to a limited extent, and it has been suggested that I add Jisp to the Apache collective, or, at the very least, relicense it to eliminate the GPL conflict.
Jisp's license scheme will remain intact, for now. The model I'm using has been successful for myself and others. Identifying Jisp solely with Apache would, I believe, limit its scope and my freedom to develop it as I see fit.
As I've stated before, I am willing to work with Apache, perhaps reworking older versions of Jisp that were released under a libpng-style license. Or I could create a striiped-down variant of Jisp that is specific to the needs of Apache.
Cocoon is only one project that uses Jisp; I do not think it serves my userbase by focusing on Cocoon's needs. Nor do I see Jisp as an absolutely essential part of Cocoon; people seem to have already decided on its replacement, and, even in it's current usage, Jisp is a small, optional, and obscure part of Coccon.
Adding Jisp to the Apache collective would raise my profile in certain quarters; however, I don't think this is very pertinent to my business, given that my professional focus is not on web services or application servers. Other projects offer more exposure to my desired audience. Having limited resources, I must pick my contributions carefully.
Apache is a fine project, and its goals are worthy; if there is some way I can contribute to Apache -- without compromising my other interests -- I will be eager to do so. But at this time, my energies are focused elsewhere.
Thank you for your time and consideration; I hope we can find a way to work together in the future.
..Scott
-- Scott Robert Ladd Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com) Software Invention for High-Performance Computing
