Re: PMC Nomination

[Leo Simons]

Hi peeps,

I am on the avalon PMC. I was a bit scared of the idea of being a PMC member at first, thinking about all the additional responsibility and all the additional things I would need to do.

Guess what? No need for that at all! The "additional" responsibility being on a PMC entails wasn't additional at all. I already participated in voting on releases, already tried to help steer overal direction, already took responsiblity for the things avalon did as a group, etc etc.

The main extra task I found was getting avalon.apache.org off the ground and setting up the extra infrastructure, which was something I did as a committer; there certainly isn't much "management" involved there! And with new top-level projects sprouting up, the process is pretty much streamlining.

OTOH, the setting up of avalon as a TLP has forced us to re-think what avalon is about, and we're now becoming more focussed again. Most jakarta subprojects don't really need the extra focus, but this change sort of nudged _us_ in the right direction. I also think we made life easier for the jakarta PMC, and our project more transparant for the board. Finally, the somewhat mythical idea I and others had about what constitutes a PMC is basically gone. [EMAIL PROTECTED] has just about no traffic :D

I have also not found my fear that avalon would seperate too much from the rest of jakarta mostly unfounded. Dynamics with james and cocoon (not jakarta :D) are good/better than ever, lots of people and projects are still helping us out (like forrest, maven, ant peeps providing infrastructure tools and support) avalon is participating in GUMP again, and I find myself going out of my way more than before to ensure less duplication between projects, particulary wrt commons. I guess the broader perspective gained from thinking about the apache/jakarta organisation made me care more for all of its projects in the end.



So in my experience so far, being a PMC member did take some extra time (basically because I needed to figure out what it ment), but less and less as routine settles in. And it has been a really positive and rewarding experience; I've learned a lot about apache in the process, and avalon as a project is on the right track again.



The situation is probably a little different with jakarta and its PMC as a whole, as it consists of lots of projects and it was pretty hard to be on the jakarta pmc in the past (though they've been doing commendably well considering), because of the huge size of jakarta being distributed on so few shoulders. The inclusion of more committers should make life easier for everyone.

I'm not an active committer to any jakarta projects atm, but I would not hesistate to sign up for the PMC if I were. Not saying anyone should, just that there is no (or not much, at least) need to be scared of responsibilities, overhead, or time consumption.

.02 euros only,

cheers,

- Leo



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