Re: Initial committers list for Incubator Proposal

[Ben Martz]

Hi all, After reviewing the committer/contributor guidelines and considering my current work and family obligations, I must regretfully offer my services as a contributor only at this point. My name is Ben Martz and I am currently the Chief Software Architect for a small startup in the Bay Area, California. Our product is written in C# from the ground up so I have been infused with all that is .NET and C# for the last 4 years or so. Prior to that I have extensive experience with C/C++/OO software design and development. Two particular strengths I have to offer to Lucene.Net are a strong background in string processing and process automation which I think could serve well in developing and debugging an automated porting process that would serve as the foundation for this project. All work have to take place outside of my normal work day which is why I can only offer myself up as a contributor at this point. Cheers, Ben Troy Howard December 30, 2010 4:01 PM All, I'm working on the Incubator Proposal now, and need to establish a list of initial committers. So far, the following people have come forward and offered to be committers (in alphabetical order): Alex Thompson Ben Martz Chris Currens Heath Aldrich Michael Herndon Prescott Nasser Scott Lombard Simone Chiaretta Troy Howard I would like to place an open request for any interested parties to respond to this message with their request to be a Committer. For people who are either on that list or for people who would like to be added, please send a message explaining (briefly) why you think you will be qualified to be involved in the project and specifically what ways you hope to be able to contribute. One thing I would like to point out is that in the Apache world there is a distinction between Committers and Contributors (aka developers). See this link for details: http://incubator.apache.org/guides/participation.html#committer Please consider whether or not you wish to be a Committer or a Contributor. Some quick rules of thumb: Committers: - Committers must be willing to submit a Contributor License Agreement (CLA). See: http://www.apache.org/licenses/#clas - Committers must have enough *consistent* free time to fulfill the expectations of the ASF in terms of reporting, process, documentation and remain responsive to the community in terms of communication and listening to, considering, and discussing community opinion. These kinds of tasks can consume a lot of time and are some of the first things people stop down when they start running out of time. - A Committer may not even write code, but may simply accept, review and commit code written by others. This is the primary responsibility of a Committer -- to commit code, whether they wrote it themselves or not - Committers may have to perform the unpleasant task of reject contribution from Contributors and explain why in a fair and objective manner. This can be frustrating and time consuming. You may need to play the part of a mentor or engage in debates. You may even be proved wrong and have to swallow your pride. - Committers have direct access to the source control and other resources and so must be personally accountable for the quality of the same and will need to operate under the process and restrictions ASF expects Contributors: - Contributors might have a lot of free time this month, but get really busy next month and have no time at all. They can develop code in short bursts but then drop off the face of the planet indefinitely after that. - Contributors could focus on code only or work from a task list without any need to interact with and be accountable to the community (as this is the responsibility of the Committers) - Contributors can do one-time or infrequently needed tasks like updating the website, documentation, wikis, etc.. - Contributors will need to have anything they create reviewed by a Committer and ultimately included by a Committer. Some people find this frustrating, if the Committers are slow to respond or critical of their work. So in your responses, please be clear about whether you would like to offer your help as a Committer or as a Contributor. Thanks, Troy