Hi all, I am, for the record, formally abstaining from this vote. My company Neighbourhoodie is the STA’s “Implementation Partner”, meaning: we get paid to do this work. On the one hand, that makes us extremely qualified to help CouchDB, on the other it means I cannot formally apply for this program and I am hereby excusing myself from this project decision.
Ronny, thanks for getting this going! Best Jan — > On 4. Sep 2025, at 10:07, Ronny Berndt <ro...@apache.org> wrote: > > Dear community, > > I would like to propose that we join the Sovereign Tech Resilience Program > [1] > that CouchDB benefit of modernisations of some of its parts to ensure > continued speedy > development including responding to critical security vulnerabilities. > > I would submit the following application (by lazy consensus) if no-one > objects > until Sunday, 25-09-07 23:59 (UTC+1). > > On behalf of the CouchDB PMC, > Ronny > > CouchDB STA Bug Resilience Program Application > > Category: Join the Sovereign Tech Resilience Program > Application Name: Apache CouchDB > Project title: Apache CouchDB > Link to project website: https://couchdb.apache.org > Link to project repository: https://github.com/apache/couchdb > > Where is your open source technology project being used (describe all user > bases)? (300 words): > CouchDB is used in all areas a database can be useful. It covers setups > from single-server databases for applications, to multi-node clusters for > large-scale and fault-tolerant setups for larger systems. CouchDB is famed > for its ease of use and operation and is used by non-profits and fortune > 500 companies alike. The one feature that sets CouchDB apart from other > databases is its unique data replication feature that allows for very > flexible geo-distributed operations. Together with Apache PouchDB it > provides the backbone for one of the most mature open source offline-first > and local-first set of applications. > > On the large-scale end, CouchDB is used by national broadcasters, triple A > game companies, global freight shipping operators, country-wide supermarket > logistics, in big-data sience and research as well has many large-scale > healthcare infrastructures. On the smaller end, in the non-profit sector, > CouchDB powers the search and rescue software used by SeaWatch e.V. that > has been adapted to help with humanitarian relief efforts in war zones. It > also is the backbone of multiple medical solutions that operate worldwide > to provide healthcare and vaccines to regions with little to no network > infrastructure. It played a pivotal role in the 2013-2016 Ebola response in > West Africa, provided the core infrastructure for all COVID vaccinations in > Bavaria when the first vaccines became available. It is being used in > agriculture and farming and it supports service technicians of all > varieties in the field. > > Why do you consider your open source technology project to be relevant and > critical? (300 words): > Derived from the obvious usefulness of the use-cases listed above, it is > obvious to us that CouchDB is a piece of load-bearing infrastructure for > countless humanitarian projects. Its benefit to businesses with large-scale > storage needs is also clearly demonstrated. Being able to choose an open > source and open governance project is critical for either type of > organisation and provides significant value. Every day, more people are > choosing CouchDB for these use-cases and we consider it important to ensure > its continued development. > > Should CouchDB cease to exist, it would cause considerable humanitarian and > economic upheaval for the organisations that have already chosen it for > critical infrastructure with no open-source and open-governance alternative > available. It would also close the opportunity for future projects and > products to benefit from its unique feature set. > > How does your open source technology benefit the public interest? (300 > words): > CouchDB’s ease-of-use allows people with little technology knowledge to > build reliable and sovereign data management solutions. For example it is > at the core of an architecture to allow the Iranian diaspora relay > non-censored news to people in Iran. Equally, the nature of > offline-first/local-first applications, especially in emergency > first-responder and medical fields is an essential piece of infrastructure > for scenarios where a reliable internet connectivity cannot be guaranteed. > It has been used in building inspection software for avalanche protection > routines in the Alps, where even the most modern mobile or satellite > network technology struggles to function at all. > > For technology experts, it provides an long-term stable and open source > development platform that allows to build globally spanning, highly > available big-data solutions. > > Please describe the history and state of development of your open source > technology (500 words): > CouchDB has been an Apache Software Foundation project since 2008 and has > had a steady release progress since. New feature versions come out roughly > once or twice a year with security and bugfix versions dotted in between. > Its current main release series is 3.x. with plans and development for 4.x > in progress. > > It is developed by a dedicated team of about ten people, some of which get > at least paid part time to work on CouchDB, with hundreds contributing > along the way. > > CouchDB’s core dependencies are the programming language Erlang, the > JavaScript engines Mozilla SpiderMonkey and QuickJS and the Unicode library > IBM Components for Unicode (icu). > > Which Sovereign Tech Resilience services are you interested in?: > [x] Direct Contributions > > Describe why your project needs those services? (optional) (300 words): > CouchDB can benefit of modernisations of some of its parts to ensure > continued speedy development including responding to critical security > vulnerabilities. The existing team currently focusses on feature > development and the STA funded work would make it easier for the team to do > that work as well as make it easier for newcomers to join the project. > > One extra note: The CouchDB Project Management Committee Chair Jan Lehnardt > is also a CEO at Neighbourhoodie Software, the implementation partner for > the Bug Resilience Program. To avoid a conflict of interest, Jan Lehnardt > is excusing himself from any official CouchDB project decisions with > regards to this application. Should additional statements or affidavits be > required, we are happy to provide them. > > [1] https://www.sovereign.tech/
