Hi Joe,
Here is draft that I've promised. Can you please review it
and tell me if I can post it in "Success at Apache" and in
my personnal blog also (through a link to the ASF) .
Best
Etienne
title: *My experience with the Apache Way: a perfect
society ?*
🕥 7 min.
Introducion
I have been working in software engineering for more than
15 years. I've always contributed to Open Source software
as a user or a coder. But I've been contributing toASF
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>projects
such asApache Flink
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>,Apache
Beam
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>orApache
Spark
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>
for
nearly 6 years. It is long enough for me to say that I
find*the Apache Way* is almost the best way to collaborate
on software engineering.
I will not describe the Apache way here as there are a lot
of good content about that already. I will rather link
tothe official Apache documentation
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>.
I humbly suggest that you read what it is if you don't
know it already.
My point here is to describe the consequences of the
Apache Way as I see them. Of course, every Apache
community is different, but what I wanted to emphasize is
that applying the Apache Way by the book could lead to
what I'd call a "perfect society" even if this word seems
a bit naive and over optimistic or even utopian.
A perfect society
/Actually, working with the Apache way was a revelation to
me !/
The Apache Way leads in many ways to Open Source
Communities behave like a sort of perfect society:
The community is governed by merit: everything is about
what you do inside the community and at some point your
efforts are noted and you get credit for your work by
obtaining more rights (direct access to the project
repositories, election ofcommitters
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>etc..).
Merit also drives decisions, discussing solutions and
voting for the best one leads to the best possible state
of the project in the end. The best idea always wins in
the long term.
The software is not driven by money: no private
concerns should take over. When the incubation process is
well advanced, before graduation, theASF bord
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>makes
sure that the aspiring community is well developed (users
and developers communities are big enough), healthy and
also not owned by a single company and its private
financial considerations. This ensures best decisions for
the software itself but also a long term maintenance of
the software.
It is inclusive: every voice matters, everyone is
considered equal no matter your personal background, your
education, ethnic or nationality, every contribution is
good to take. Community members recognize that people
skills may be different and complementary to theirs. So
contributions might come from anyone, from anywhere and in
any form (blog post, documentation, talk, code, website...)
Communities are welcoming: they always search for new
talents to join their forces. Be welcoming is always very
important to build and grow a community. The Open Source
community is also a great place for people to grow. The
way people collaborate is generally by mentoring.
Experienced contributors help new comers or experts share
their thoughts with others. It is really also a good way
for mentors to share their passion and inspire mentorees.
Mentoring is even in the DNA of the ASF starting withthe
incubator
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>
when
the podling community profits from the experience and
advice of a mentor to grow in the Apache Way and become
atop level project
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>.
Communities are self-organised: there is no manager
but only technical leaders and mentors. People are
self-motivated and I must say that it is the best form of
motivation ever! Decision making is both simple and
efficient: there is no solely decision, feedback is always
very important. People are willing to share their thoughts
and solve the problems together.
Community members are always benevolent: they are always
willing to share their thoughts, review PRs, share advice,
accept change requests or bug tickets. People are wiling
to accept criticism without being defensive. The master
word is transparency.
Last but not least, people behave friendly: public
communication (one of the ASF master words is "what did
not happen publicly never happened") forces people to
communicate in a positive way: for example by asking
questions or suggesting rather than affirming or asking
for thoughts rather than disagreeing bluntly. An Open
Source contributor always tries to put himself in the
other person's shoes, trying to not hurt his feelings and
to not demotivate him.
=> Considering all of this, what I can tell is that it is
the way we all would like people and society in
general to behave, no ?
Daily life
The funny thing is that it goes even further, after some
years of applying this philosophy (I was told lately that
it felt almost like a religion 😄) at work on a full time
basis, you start applying it to daily life outside of
work. It becomes your standard way of behaving in society:
meritocracy becomes a second nature, for example you
reward your home builders with gifts and public credit
because they did a good job, you reward your kids for good
school work etc... You also start to give time to others
and share your knowledge, mentoring becomes a second
nature.Another big thing which is very visible is that you
now always take good care to give positive communication,
leading to positive and constructive thinking. Positivism
also becomes a second nature.
On a professional basis, an important thing is that
merit never expires. So, if you gain committership on a
project, or become aPMC member
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>or
even anASF member
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>,
it is for life ! So your skills are recognized by your
pairs for your whole career. This is an incredible credit
and a tremendous trust mark !
Can be a bit challenging
In order to avoid being seen as a total idealist 😉, I
need to temper a bit:
I remember when I first joined an Open Source community, I
felt intimidated. Community members are generally very
senior level and very high skilled developers. But,
remember what is written above: every contribution is good
to take. And, with time and mentoring, everyone deserves
his place inside the community.
The other thing I felt a bit difficult when I joined
is to find where to start: some projects are old enough to
have a large community so the amount of code is pretty
high. But here again mentoring comes into play: mentors
can give you pointers on hot topics, starter tickets or
simply areas that need maintenance. And within time,
you'll be recognized as an expert in a given area and the
exciting subjects will come to you. And if you feel like
you want to join a smaller community try joining a project
which is still in the incubator
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>
phase
!
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed these insights and I hope it gave you
the envy to join a Open Source community.
Le 25/02/2022 à 09:38, Etienne Chauchot a écrit :
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your answer and your views !
Yes, I'll send a draft webpage here before publishing.
Then, after review, we could publish to the ASF blog in
"Success at Apache" and I can definitely link to the ASF
blog post in my personal blog so that there is only one
publishing place.
Regarding the Apache Way, I mentioned it only for new
comers to be informed, but I totally agree, it would be
redundant. So I propose that we just link an article
about the Apache Way at the beginning of my article. Do
you have a good link to send me ?
I'll then describe my experience in the continuation of
the article, that was indeed the whole point of the article !
WDYT ?
Thanks.
Etienne.
Le 18/02/2022 à 19:23, Joe Brockmeier a écrit :
Hi Etienne,
Sorry for the delayed response - missed this the first
go-around.
Can you shoot a draft *before* posting to your site?
Ideally we'd post in one place. If not we can always
promote it on Twitter and LinkedIn.
From the initial email, though - I'd steer away from
describing "The Apache Way" and focus on your experience
instead. The Apache Way has been covered, at length,
already. I'd focus on what your success looks like.
Describing how The Apache Way has informed your success
would be great.
Thanks!
jzb
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 4:52 AM Etienne Chauchot
<echauc...@apache.org <mailto:echauc...@apache.org>> wrote:
Hi Bertrand!
Thanks. I totally agree. I'll post on my personal
blog post and send a
link here.
Best
Etienne Chauchot
Le 18/02/2022 à 10:48, Bertrand Delacretaz a écrit :
> Hi Etienne,
>
> Le ven. 18 févr. 2022 à 10:43, Etienne Chauchot
<echauc...@apache.org <mailto:echauc...@apache.org>>
a écrit :
>> ...Any news about this proposal ? Can I start
writing the blog post ? ...
> I don't have decision power on what's published in
"Success at Apache"
> but I'd say go for it!
>
> An actual draft is IMO the best way to convince
people, and if they're
> not convinced there's lots of other places where
you can post.
>
> -Bertrand
--
Joe Brockmeier
Vice President Marketing & Publicity
j...@apache.org <mailto:j...@apache.org>
