On Thu, Jun 20, 2019 at 3:42 AM Ross Gardler <[email protected]> wrote: > > "The mission of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is to provide software > for the public good. We do this by providing services and support for many > like-minded software project communities consisting of individuals who choose > to participate in ASF activities." > > We pay for operational activities in order to provide "services and support > for many like-minded software project communities". > > We don't pay for software development in our projects because our "software > project communities consist of individuals who choose to participate in ASF > activities." Paying people to produce the software is not creating > communities of people who choose, but rather (in part) people paid by us to > be present. This can result in the ASF deciding which projects win, rather > than the market doing so (as happens when external companies pay for > development) . By putting ourselves in a position of influence we can no > longer be independent of market forces and thus it becomes very hard to be > vendor neutral. A lack of vendor neutrality makes it difficult to "provide > software for the public good". > > Of course an argument can be made that paying for software development to > make our operations more efficient is acceptable. I believe it is. We already > do it since infra staff write software for us, regularly. Others are > concerned about this being a slippery slope to paying for software more > generally.
Excellent summary! Can I ask you to work to find some place where this information can find a permanent home on the ASF site? Perhaps either on or linked from https://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html? It is very hard to have a discussion about how to follow a policy that isn't documented. Also: if you can find some way to capture the "we can't fund development of Whimsy because it is a project" and "we shouldn't seek to have an intern for Whimsy because it is not a real project", that would be great! > Ross - Sam Ruby > Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36> > > ________________________________ > From: Awasum Yannick <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2019 12:21:01 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Why does the ASF not pay for development? > > Hi all, > > Why does the foundation not pay for development? > > Why do they pay for operations? > > Why do they pay for accounting? > > What argument lead to this core principles? > > I want to understand as am new to the Apache way. > > I know it might be taking us back or might even be the wrong list. Just > help me understand. > > Thanks. > Awasum
