BCC'ing all mentors Hi MXNet Community,
Apache MXNet (incubating) has been an incubating project since January, 2017[1]. Since then, the project has matured and adopted the Apache Software Foundation’s principles and philosophy around building and maintaining open source software. There is a thriving community of developers and users from all over the world that regularly contribute to the project. Here is a brief overview of the progress of the Apache MXNet (incubating) project and community since entering the incubator: Community - 37 new PPMC members were added, bringing the total number of PPMC members to 50 - 55 new committers were added (which include new PPMC members), bringing the total number of committers to 86 - The total number of contributors is now 870 and growing. - The dev@mxnet mailing list[2] currently has X subscribers, and all major project discussions happen there. Project - 18 releases[3] by 13 different release managers. All compliance issues have been resolved with the 1.9.0 and 2.0.beta releases. - MXNet website[4] is now compliant with Apache Project Website requirements[5] - MXNet has completed the project maturity self assessment[6] Concerns Although I think most of the issues noted below have been resolved, I did want to bring up a few problems that have been identified with the project in the past. Licensing and Branding Issues The IPMC brought up some release and branding issues and filed a JIRA ticket[7] back in June, 2020. The community addressed the concerns but the ticket remains open. We also went through an extensive license audit throughout the 1.9.0 release[8][9], switch from using a DISCLAIMER-WIP to DISCLAIMER and added automated license checking tools to prevent future licensing issues from being introduced. We are confident we now comply with ASF requirements and have the tools in-place to stay compliant. Distribution Rights and IP Clearance Our project status page[1] does not have dates under the Copyright and Verify Distribution Rights sections. Based on the ticket[10] when the source code was initially imported, an SGA was not required since MXNet wasn’t developed by a commercial entity. Since the code was already Apache 2.0 licensed, there was not a formal IP Clearance process completed. Based on the extensive license audit completed for the 1.9.0 release, I believe we can use the date when the release passed the general@incubator vote when the Distribution Rights were verified. Unless there are objections, I will get these dates set on the status page after this discussion has completed. Chair for Project In part of our draft resolution that we will create to be considered by the Apache Board, we must appoint a Chair to represent the project. Based on his long project history and continued involvement, I would like to nominate Sheng Zha as the project Chair. This discussion will be open for at least 72 hours. References: [1] https://incubator.apache.org/projects/mxnet.html [2] lists.apache.org/list.html?dev@mxnet.apache.org [3] https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/releases [4] https://mxnet.apache.org/ [5] https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/pmcs [6] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MXNET/Apache+Maturity+Model+Assessment+for+MXNet [7] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INCUBATOR-253 [8] https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/issues/20475 [9] https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/issues/20616 [10] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INFRA-13800
