In the light of a request to the PMC by a Jakarta sub-project to have its
own "top-level" wiki I thought of this...
Jakarta is attempting to put our house in order wrt oversight, this is
manifesting itself as incresed centralisation of oversight, and reduced
autonomy for sub-projects.
An issue we've discussed before is promotion to TLP of existing mature
sub-projects. This started off with an assertion that no-one from Ant would
be in favour, and ended up with Ant, Avalon, James and Maven all taking the
plunge.
One of the most obvious benefits of TLP to promoted sub-projects is their
own top-level infrastructure. Providing access to this from within Jakarta
seems wrong, it breaks the seperation of concerns, would provide ammunition
to the argument that this PMC doesn't have full oversight and blurs the
line between project and sub-project. If a project wants this it should
consider promotion as the route to achieve it.
I would like to propose (but this is not a proposal, just provoking
discussion) that we draw up some benchmarks for promotion, which could give
some indication that a sub-project is ready to *consider* promotion, and
probably should do so seriously.
These could be similar to the guidelines for adoption as a sub-project
(http://jakarta.apache.org/site/newproject.html).
some ideas are noted below (a little tongue-in-cheek in the style of a
lifestyle magazine).
Such checks need not compel a sub-project to apply for promotion, but I
would certainly like sub-projects to consider it as they grow in size,
maturity or scope, and perhaps an official checklist will remind people and
give them the confidence to raise the subject, and perhaps a target to aim
for.
1/ Community dynamic,
a) Is your community self sustaining and largely independant of other parts
of Jakarta?
Not the individuals, the community. Is it, for instance, so heavily
influenced by the direction of some other sub-project that membership of
both is virtually a pre-requisite for understanding.
b) Are many of your commiters also commiters of some other sub-project for
this, or similar, reasons?
2/ Project Management,
a) Does your sub-project need or get much direction from the Jakarta PMC
(or is it mostly handled by the comitters with lip service paid to the
PMC)?
3/ Community health,
a) Is your community highly dependant on one or two key people, or is
there a real mix of talent working as a team?
b) Is there generally an amicable, if hotly debated, concensus?
4/ Infrastructure resources,
a) Does your sub-project have aspirations to own its own top-level
resources (cvs, mailing lists, wiki, web-site)?
5/ Product seperation,
a) Is your product tightly bound to other Jakarta sub-projects (excluding
commons) or does it only supply a need or consume deliverables in the usual
way?
b) Does your sub-project contribute a lot of code to another, or receive a
lot of contributions from another Jakarta sub-project?
6/ Scope,
a) Has your sub-project outgrown it's original scope?
b) Does your sub-project have a need or desire to maintain it's own
sub-projects, incubate new ideas, or accept incubated projects from the
incubator?
7/
a) Are there any compeling arguments which can be raised to support
remaining within Jakarta?
Score 1 for each of the following answers:
1a yes
1b no
2a not much
3a real mix
3b generally amicable
4a yes
5a normal supply/consume relationship
5b not much direct contribution to or by other sub-projects
6a yes
6b yes
7a not really
Total 1-3 You probably belong here, consider staying.
Total 4-6 You might need to address some issues before you go.
Total 7-9 Promotion could be your path to further growth and maturity.
Total 10-11 You treat this place like a hotel, its time to think about what
you really want.
d.
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