On Saturday, September 6, 2003, at 05:11 PM, Dain Sundstrom wrote:
Another challenge facing us is how to grow the committer base. There is some perception of a cathedral clique of insiders, whereas in reality, many of the project management issues have arisen because the current committers are not used to working together and are new to the Apache Way. With the initial startup phase behind us, we will be looking to expand the project rapidly over the next couple of months.
One of the key aspects of the Incubator is to *ensure* that the project does incorporate and "embrace" the core ideals of the "Apache Way." Even if this means being a bottleneck on growing and expanding. Within the Incubator, the prime considerations be:
1. Is this a worthy and healthy project 2. Does it truly fit within the ASF framework 3. Do they "get" the Apache Way.
It's obvious that #1 and #2 are a resounding "Yes", but it is still too early to answer #3 yet. Moreover, more effort must be placed on doing this, now that the initial startup is complete. This should start being more a focus within the project. For example, although the infrastructure requirements for ASF projects are minimal, it's usually expected that ASF projects will use ASF infrastructure almost exclusively. The move to Codehaus' Wiki, although acceptable (IMO, else I would have complained), could give a wrong impression.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but an ASF Project is more than just the ability to have the "Apache" name associated with it or an "alternate" place to drop your code. It's a organic and collaborative environment of code and coders that have that common vision which is what the ASF is all about. I have no doubt that this will be the case, but I'd be amiss by not making sure everyone knows that acceptance as a ASF Incubated project does not ensure graduation into an actual ASF project. If any committer or developer is curious, I'd really urge them to check out www.apache.org and incubator.apache.org
