+1 Regards, Alan
On Jan 26, 2011, at 10:05 PM, Troy Howard wrote: > All, > > Since posting the Lucene.Net Incubator proposal announcement on Jan > 12th, we now have three mentors signed up and would like to call a > vote to accept Lucene.Net into the Apache Incubator. > > The proposal is included below and can also be found at: > > http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/Lucene.Net%20Proposal > > Please cast your votes: > > [ ] +1 Accept Lucene.Net for incubation > [ ] +0 Don't care > [ ] -1 Reject for the following reason: > > Thanks, > Troy > > > = Lucene.Net - A .NET port of Lucene = > == Preface == > Lucene.Net is a sub-project which is being spun off from the Lucene > TLP but is not yet ready for graduation. We propose to address certain > needs of the project by transitioning to an Incubator Podling. > > == Abstract == > Lucene.Net will be a port of the Lucene search engine library, written > in C# and targeted at .NET runtime users. > > == Proposal == > Lucene.Net has three aims. First, it will maintain the existing > line-by-line port from Java to C#, fully automating and commoditizing > the process such that the project can easily synchronize with the Java > Lucene release schedule. Second, it will be a high-performance C# > search engine library. Third, it will maximize its usability and power > when used within the .NET runtime. To that end, it will present a > highly idiomatic, carefully tailored API that takes advantage of many > of the special features of the .NET runtime. > > == Background == > Lucene.Net, began as a independent project focused on creating a > line-by-line, API for API port of Java Lucene to C#. It continued > successfully in this way and eventually became a ASF Incubator project > in April of 2006 and graduated as a sub-project of Lucene in October > of 2009. > > The last year has been challenging for the project. The committers who > originally lead the project have stopped maintaining it and > development has stagnated since June of 2010. The user community has > spoken out requesting a change in philosophy and direction for the > project, but those requests have been unheeded. This has led to a > number of forks outside of the ASF. We would like to bring those forks > back in as branches and be responsive to the needs of community > without the need for multiple non-ASF forks. > > The Lucene PMC wants to see the project continue to thrive and has > indicated that a return to the Incubator is an appropriate step, with > the end goal of building a new team of committers and maintaining a > steady release cycle meeting the previously stated goals. Because > Lucene is working to move away from being an "umbrella project", a > long term goal of the Lucene.Net project is to graduate to an ASF TLP. > > == Rationale == > There is great need for a search engine library in the mode of Lucene > within the .NET runtime. Individuals naturally wish to code in their > language of choice. Organizations which do not have significant Java > expertise may not want to support Java strictly for the sake of > running a Lucene installation. Developers may want to take advantage > of C#'s unique language features and the .NET runtime's unique > execution and interoperability model. Lucene.Net will meet all these > demands. > > Apache is a natural home for our project given the way it has always > operated: user-driven innovation, lively and amiable mailing list > discussions, strength through diversity, and so on. We feel > comfortable here, and we believe that we will become exemplary Apache > citizens. > > == Initial Goals (to be completed before Feb 2011) == > * Build a new list of committers > * Make a 2.9.2 compatible release as quickly as possible (this > already exists, it just needs to be packaged correctly) > * Update website, documentation, etc. > * Create a well documented repeatable and fully automated language > porting process > * Start a ".NET style API" branch, either by incorporating some or > all existing fork projects or by starting a new branch to this end > > == Current Status == > === Meritocracy === > We understand meritocracy and will fully embrace this concept in our > project management methodology. One of the proposed committers, DIGY, > has been a committer on the current Lucene.Net project since November > 2008. Prescott Nasser has been a contributor on the project, > submitting patches, documentation, and website enhancements. Three of > the other proposed initial committers, Troy Howard, Chris Currens and > Sergey Mirvoda are both already actively involved in other open source > projects, either as committers of code or in coordination roles. Troy, > Chris, Sergey and Prescott are currently committers on a Lucene.Net > fork known as Lucere, and as such are intimately familiar with the > code base and share a vision for the future direction of the project. > Scott Lombard and Michael Herndon are passionate about Lucene.Net as > well and have already contributed significantly in terms of project > organization and direction and discussions on the mailing list. > > All of the proposed committers are familiar with the challenges faced > with starting and maintaining a project over time. We also understand > that opportunity is essential to an effective meritocracy and so will > remain transparent, open and actively engage the community to find new > contributors, include and review their contributions, and bring them > on as committers as appropriate. > > === Community === > There is already a well established, active and vibrant community > surrounding the Lucene.Net project. This is primarily a users > community, as the previous committers have not engaged the user > community to find or leverage would-be contributors. There is a lot of > talent available in the community to this end and many people have > come forth offering their time as contributors. > > There are a number of well established and significant .NET open > source projects which are widely used by the larger .NET community > which depend on Lucene.Net. There are also countless commercial > products which use, and are dependent on this project. The mailing > lists are active with numerous community members both asking and > answering technical questions. The status and activities of the > project are watched closely by the larger .NET development community > and regularly commented on in blogs and other discussion forums. > > Because of the size of the community and the fact that it's audience > is largely developers, finding new committers over time should remain > an easy task. The user base is also constantly growing, because > Lucene.Net is one of the very few high quality products in this space > (either commercial or open source). The ability to index and search > content is an essential part of many web-based applications which are > developed on the .NET framework, and Lucene.Net is widely used to > support that scenario. This will only grow with time. > > ==== Community Projects and Commercial Products ==== > > A brief list of open source projects depending on Lucene.Net (alphabetical): > > * iReaper - http://ireaper.codeplex.com/ > * Linq to Lucene - http://linqtolucene.codeplex.com/ > * Lucandra.NET - http://lucandranet.codeplex.com/ > * Mind``Touch - http://www DOT mindtouch DOT com/ (not sure why the > wiki disallows this) > * Orchard - http://orchard.codeplex.com/ > * RavenDB - http://ravendb.net/ > * Sub``Text - http://subtextproject.com/ > * Umbraco - http://umbraco.codeplex.com > > A brief list of known commercial products using Lucene.Net (alphabetical): > > * Autodesk - http://autodesk.com/ > * BBC UK Top Gear site - http://www.topgear.com/ > * Epro, Bluewire Technologies - http://www.epro.com/ > * Intelli``Enterprise Intranet Suite - http://www.adenin.com/ > * Koders.com, Black Duck Software - http://www.koders.com/ > * Oxford Analytica - http://www.oxan.com > * Paradigm - http://discover-e-legal.com/aboutparadigm.html > * Power``Search - http://datassimilate.com/PSindex.html > > > There are of course many, many more. > > > ==== Contributors ==== > > In addition to wide adoption of the existing code base, there has been > a strong interest from the community to contribute to the project. > Beyond the initial committers list of seven (7) people, the following > eight (8) people, who, despite being unable to fully commit to being > committers, have come forth and offered to be contributors on the > project (alphabetical): > > * Alex Thompson <pierogitus AT hotmail DOT com> > * Ben Martz <benmartz AT gmail DOT com> > * Frank Yu <frank DOT yu AT farpoint DOT com> > * Glyn Darkin <glyn AT darkinsystems DOT com> > * Peter Mateja <peter DOT mateja AT gmail DOT com> > * Shashi Kant <skant AT sloan DOT mit DOT edu> > * Simone Chiaretta <simone DOT chiaretta AT gmail DOT com> > * Wyatt Barnett <wyatt DOT barnett AT gmail DOT com> > * Karell Ste-Marie <stemarie AT brain-bank DOT com> > > This strong basis of support (fifteen initial contributors), if > leveraged correctly, will represent a strong development team and > create a spirit of productivity in the community which will encourage > more contributors to appear and maintain the project. > > > > === Core Developers === > The core developers are a diverse group of developers many of which > are already very experienced open source developers. Here are some > quick descriptions of the initial committers, their backgrounds and > qualifications (alphabetical): > > ==== Individuals ==== > * Chris Currens is a passionate developer who has worked on a number > of open source projects. > > * DIGY is one of the current committers on Lucene.Net and brings > extensive experience with this specifc codebase, as well as Java, C# > and other langauge knowledge. > > * Michael Herndon is the rare mix of a designer, software developer, > & tech lead thats has incorporated opensource software into both > commercial, educational (uva's > [[http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/resndev/blacklight.html|blacklight]]) > & government (saic's > [[http://www.saic.com/products/software/pathfinder|pathfinder]] C# > version & updated logo/images which is still in use.) and has worked > on a few opensource projects including mitre's > [[http://projectpophealth.org|pophealth]]. > > * Prescott Nasser is a product manager and lead software developer > focusing on back office workflow and process automation at a major US > financial institution. > > * Scott Lombard is an Automation Engineer who works in developing > applications to allow users to manage and understand data. He has > worked implementing various open source projects in websites and > applications to show plant floor data. > > * Sergey Mirvoda is a skilled developer with a strong interest in > unit testing. He is a committer on the Lucere project. > > * Troy Howard is an experienced developer and software project > manager in the commercial world. He has founded and been a committer > on numerous open source projects over the years, including most > recently, Lucere, a fork of Lucene.Net which he hopes to integrate > back into the main project. > > ==== Groups ==== > * Chris, Prescott, Sergey, and Troy are part of the core development > team on the Lucere project. They are eager to bring their passion for > Lucene.Net back to the main project, as well as integrate the Lucere > source into a new API for Lucene.Net. > > * Chris and Troy work together at their day jobs as well as having > worked together on two previous open source projects. They make a > solid and productive team no matter what project they are working on. > > > === Alignment === > Lucene.Net has been an ASF project since 2006 and has benefitted > greatly from that affiliation. We appreciate the careful oversight and > structure that Apache provides which ensures that the project stays on > track and productive. We also appreciate being associated with the > Lucene TLP and the sharing that provides. > > Beyond that, a very practical concern is that we would like to > continue developing Lucene.Net with its current name. The project has > built a hard earned reputation, and leaving the ASF would mean a > forced rebranding and losing that reputation in the process. This > would not be good for the health of the project. > > == Known Risks == > === Orphaned products === > The purpose of this proposal is to recover from the fact that > Lucene.Net has been orphaned by its current list of committers. There > are numerous reasons why that happened, such as; Project vision not > aligned with community needs, Committers not taking advantage of > contributors in the community, Committers not being upfront about > their ability or interest in maintaining the project, Lack of effort > to incorporate new committers from the community or engage > non-committers in the development process, Abandonment by > commercially-focused committers . > > Because we will be coming from the perspective of recovering from > orphaning, we will be strongly focused on building a community, team > of committers, and process to ensure our long term stability. We will > learn from the past and not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors. > > Beyond that, there is significant commercial interest in this project > which we believe can be converted to direct support in terms of > on-the-clock work by developers working for companies that have > software products which rely on Lucene.Net. The initial committers > list includes two such developers and we hope to attract more of them. > Because we understand that commercial support of this nature can be > fickle, we will also ensure that the team remains diversified and seek > out committers who are personally motivated. > > We also hope to incorporate the three existing forks of Lucene.Net > back into this project. Doing so would bring a large body of reliable > committers and contributors into the fold of this project (Lucere has > more than 10 active committers, Lucille and Aimee.Net are one-man > projects, both of which are very committed individuals). > > === Inexperience with Open Source === > The core developers all have significant experience with open source > development. We recognize that we lack PMC experience and seek to > address that deficiency by using the Incubator environment to educate > ourselves and prepare for responsible self-governance. > > === Homogenous Developers === > Our community is geographically dispersed, with members in many areas > of the USA, Canada, Russia, UK, and other countries. We all work for > different organizations. > > === Reliance on Salaried Developers === > We incorporate both salaried and non-salaried developers, from > multiple organizations. We feel this gives us the best of both worlds > and will increase our viability as a long-term project. > > === Relationships with Other Apache Products === > Lucene.Net's relationship with the Lucene TLP has been relatively > unidirectional until now. Lucene.Net has simply been porting the Java > Lucene code to C# using automated methods. We hope to change that and > feed-back more into the Java Lucene community both on the conceptual > level and in terms of API changes that we make. We have an interest in > possibly integrating the work of the Lucy project into Lucene.Net at > some point as well. There is also a strong interest in creating .NET > ports of ASF's Solr, Tika, Hadoop, and others. While that would fall > outside of the scope of this project, there may be overlap in terms of > the committers between those projects and sharing of code and > methodologies pioneered in the Lucene.Net project. > > === An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand === > Our desire to maintain Lucene.Net's affiliation with Apache has less > to do with the brand and more to do with our conviction that > developing the project 'The Apache Way' under Apache institutions is > in Lucene.Net's best interests. However, we have to acknowledge that > during its time as a Lucene subproject, Lucene.Net has not always > fulfilled certain key requirements for an Apache project. In > particular, it has failed to "release early, release often". Also, > despite making significant progress in expanding its user community, > it has failed to engage with the community and remain responsive to > community needs. > > By rebooting the project with a new list of motivated and enthusiastic > committers, we expect to avoid the trap that ensnared Lucene.Net's > first incarnation: we will release early, release often, accumulate > users, nurture contributors, and grow our community. > > == Documentation == > * Current Lucene.Net website: http://lucene.apache.org/lucene.net/ > * Current Lucene.Net Subversion repository: > http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/lucene/lucene.net/ > * Current Lucene.Net mailing lists: > http://lucene.apache.org/lucene.net/ (See info under "Mailing Lists" > heading) > > == Initial Source == > We will continue working with the existing Lucene.Net codebase located > at: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/lucene/lucene.net/ > > We will also attempt to contact the coordinators of the following > Lucene.Net forks and incorporate their work into the Lucene.Net > project: > > * Lucere - http://lucere.codeplex.com/ > * Lucille - http://lucille.codeplex.com/ > * Aimee.Net - http://aimee.codeplex.com/ > > == Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan == > All source code referred to in this project (existing codebase and > that of forks) is already licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. There > should be no conflicts in this regard. > > == External Dependencies == > The only external dependencies represented in any of the proposed code > are on unit testing and mocking frameworks, all of which have ASF > compatible licenses. > > == Required Resources == > === Mailing lists === > * lucene-net-dev > * lucene-net-commits > * lucene-net-users > > Lucene.Net already has lucene-net-dev, lucene-net-users, and > lucene-net-commits mailing lists under lucene.apache.org. While these > could be deactivated and the memberships migrated to the appropriate > lists under incubator.apache.org, leaving the lucene.apache.org > archives as read-only, we would prefer to keep the mailing lists the > same, rather than moving to incubator.apache.org. The purpose of that > would be to remain engaged with our community, with minimal > disruption. > > === Subversion Directory === > Lucene.Net already has a Subversion directory at > https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/lucene/lucene.net. In keeping with > naming conventions, it could be moved to > http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/lucene.net. > > === Issue Tracking === > Lucene.Net already has a JIRA tracker: Lucene.Net (LUCENENET) > > === Other Resources === > Lucene.Net already has a MoinMoin wiki at > http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-lucene/lucene.Net. It can be moved to > standard Incubator wiki placement. There is currently no content of > value in the wiki. > > == Initial Committers == > ||'''Name''' ||'''Email''' ||'''CLA''' || > ||Chris Currens ||currens.chris AT gmail DOT com ||Yes || > ||DIGY ||digydigy AT gmail DOT com ||Yes || > ||Michael Herndon ||mherndon AT wickedsoftware DOT net ||Yes || > ||Prescott Nasser ||prescott.nasser AT hotmail DOT com ||Yes || > ||Scott Lombard ||lombardenator AT gmail DOT com ||Yes || > ||Sergey Mirvoda ||sergey AT mirvoda DOT com ||Yes || > ||Troy Howard ||thoward37 AT gmail DOT com ||Yes || > > > == Affiliations == > * Troy Howard and Chris Currens both work for discover-e Legal, LLC > and will work on Lucene.Net as part of their paid work. discover-e > Legal uses the current Lucene.Net build in their products and so, has > a vested interest in seeing the project continue. Beyond that, the > reason Lucene.Net was chosen by Troy initially for the discover-e > Legal products is due to his strong interest in the project. This > interest was well established before working for discover-e Legal, and > is independent of its needs. The same is true for Chris Currens. So, > even though there is commercial support for their work on this project > it is not the primary reason or motivator for their interest. > > == Sponsors == > === Champion === > * Grant Ingersoll (gsingers AT apache DOT org) > > === Nominated Mentors === > * Gianugo Rabellino > * Stefan Bodewig > * Benson Margulies > > === Sponsoring Entity === > '''Lucene.Net is currently sponsored by Lucene as a sub-project. This > proposal advocates changing Lucene.Net's relationship with Apache from > existing as a Lucene sub-project, to existing under the sponsorship of > the Incubator. ''' > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
