My presentation to the 5th Open Source China Open Source World Summit, 2010 Beijing

1. Open Source and the Apache Software
Foundation

2. Introduction
 Founding member & two term director of the Apache Software
Foundation
 IBM’s first official ‘commercial’ open source developer ( ?)
 Committer on Apache HTTP Server & Apache Portable Runtime projects,
Apache Incubator Project Management Committee member
 Electrical Engineer by training, Software developer by trade, Physicist at
heart, Sinophile by choice
 Advisor to founding of Linux Technology Center and Eclipse Foundation
 IBM Senior Software Development Manager, Apache Geronimo and
WebSphere Community Edition and WebSphere Open Source Strategy.

3. Agenda
 IBM and the Apache Group: Forging a Partnership
 Apache Software Foundation: The Organization
 Development at the ASF: The Apache Way

4. The Apache Group
1995 - 8 members organize around a website, mailing list and source
code repository…
Objectives:
 Resume development on the abandoned NCSA httpd server
 Core infrastructure required to build out internet ecosystem
 Permissive licensing (lower barriers to use and participation)
Origin of the name “Apache”
 The name 'Apache' was chosen from respect for the Native American Apache
Nation, well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and their
inexhaustible endurance.

5. IBM Partners with Apache Group
1998 - IBM stops development of their proprietary Web Server, chooses
Apache HTTP Server for their business needs
 Inside IBM, the decision was controversial & difficult
– Fear of ‘loss of control’
– Fear of legal liabilities & litigation
 Apache Group’s decision to embrace IBM was equally difficult
– Apache Group was open to corporate participation but …
– Didn’t expect a big company like IBM to show up
Could a partnership succeed? If so, it would be groundbreaking.

6. Forging a Partnership
The Contentious Issues…
IBM - large, impersonal, bureaucratic/process driven
 How to build business plans around ‘chaotic’ & ‘unpredictable’ open source?
 How do we know who really owns this code?
 How much will we pay in lawsuits for using this code?
Apache Group - small, highly individualistic, agile
 Would IBM dominate the community?
 Do corporate developers know how to write good code?
How to Bridge the Cultural Impedance Mismatch?

7. Bridging the Impedance Mismatch
Some lessons learned by IBM…
 Open source development is not ‘chaotic’ or ‘unpredictable’ ..
– Just different from the corporate ‘command and control’ style
– Very predictable, but requires careful observation and understanding
 Control (of a community) is not necessary … or even desirable ...
– ‘Influence’, which is earned, is sufficiently effective
– Diversity of ideas creates fertile ground for innovation
 It’s okay to ‘scratch your own itch’ and look out after your own interests ..
– Generalized solutions preferable to overly specialized solutions
– Developing directly in the community preferable to “power-planting”
 Trust is really important - best achieved by being transparent & open
– About goals and plans
– Discussing, designing and implementing code

8. Bridging the Impedance Mismatch
Transformational changes occurred inside IBM…
 Institutionalized developer open source training…
– How to be good open source community members
– Legal issues related to open source
• Licenses, Copyrights, Patents, Code Provenance
– Use of open source code in IBM products to achieve business objectives
 Fundamental change in how IBM Legal views open source…
– Transitioned from ‘zero tolerance’ for open source to acknowledging valid
business reasons to be involved in open source
– Developed business processes to manage risk

9. Bridging the Impedance Mismatch
Apache Group Key Insights ..
 Recognized an emerging opportunity to create a corporate friendly open
source ecosystem
 Demand for corporate friendly OS would require more formal
organization
 Developed new awareness of legal issues..
– Source code provenance is really important to ‘deep pocket’ users of OS
technology
– More nuanced understanding of patents and copyrights

10. Observations
 Apache Group’s early interactions with IBM provided catalyst for creation
of the Apache Software Foundation
 Began to articulate rules for running effective corporate friendly open
source communities (a.k.a. ‘The Apache Way’)
 Insights gained drove IBM internal transformations regarding how open
source was viewed
 Experience influenced creation of the Linux Technology Center and the
Eclipse Foundations

11. Agenda
 IBM and the Apache Group: Forging a Partnership
 Apache Software Foundation: The Organization
 Development at the ASF: The Apache Way

12. The Apache Software Foundation
So let’s talk a bit about the Foundation…
 Founding Principles & Mission
 Some Interesting Statistics
 Corporate Organization & Structure
 Contributions, Funding and the Apache Sponsor program

13. The Apache Software Foundation
1999 - Apache Software Foundation Incorporated
Founding Principles
 The Foundation exists to serve the development community
 “Let developers focus on what they do best: Code. The foundation exists to do
the rest” Justin Erenkrantz
 Not-for-Profit
 Not affiliated with or controlled by any government or commercial entity

14. The Apache Software Foundation
Mission Statement
The Apache Software Foundation provides support for the
Apache community of open-source software projects. The
Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative,
consensus based development process, an open and
pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality
software that leads the way in its field.

15. The Apache Software Foundation
Some Statistics
 21 founding members (1999)
 291 members (June 2010 - CAGR > 26%)
 ~2300 committers (June 2010 - CAGR > 50%)
 75 Top Level Projects (TLP) (June 2010 - CAGR > 48%)
 Over 30 projects in Incubation (transition state to TLP)

16. The Apache Software Foundation
Organization
Foundation Governance Board of Directors - Greg Stein
• 9 member Board of Directors • Shane Curcuru • Justin Erenkrantz
• Executive officers (Appointed by the Board) • Doug Cutting • Geir Magnusson Jr
• Roy Fielding • Brian McCallister
Chairman, President, Treasurer, Secretary,
• Jim Jagielski • Brett Porter
Executive Vice President
~75 Apache Top Level Projects (TLP)
Apache HTTP Apache Tomcat Apache Geronimo Top Level Project
R. Fielding (PMC Chair) M. Turk (PMC Chair) K. Miller (PMC Chair) ….. < > (PMC Chair)
httpd.apache.org tomcat.apache.org geronimo.apache.org <…>.apache.org
Each TLP is governed by a Project Management Committee (PMC)
• Individual projects have different policies for deciding PMC membership
The PMC Chairman is an Apache Vice President who reports to the Board

17. The Apache Software Foundation
Organization (cont)
Committees that report to the board
 Hardware and Infrastructure
 ConCom - Conferences, roadshows, etc
 Legal
 Public Relations
 Brand Management
 Fundraising

18. The Apache Software Foundation
More statistics
434 active apache mailing lists, recently accumulating 2,697 messages per day.
Courtesy of http://apache.markmail.com

19. The Apache Software Foundation
Even more statistics
Monthly http requests to apache.org domains by category (~8.5 M hits/day)
Courtesy of Vadim Gritsenko

20. The Apache Software Foundation
Funding and Contributions
The ASF is (mostly) a volunteer organization
 Apache does not pay developers
 Board of Directors and Officers are not compensated
 Most (but not all) developers are corporate funded ‘professional OS developers’
 2 paid system administrators
Apache Sponsor Program
 Primary source of cash contributions
Non-cash Contributions
 Code, design discussions, bug fixes, documentation, user support, testing, …

21. The Apache Software Foundation
Sponsors
Platinum ($100K/year)
Gold ($40K/year)
Silver ($20K/year)
– Basis Technology, Covalent/VMWare, Iona/Progress
Bronze ($5K/year)
– AirPlus International, BlueNog, Intuit, Joost, Matt Mullenweg,
– Two Sigma Investments

22. Agenda
 IBM and the Apache Group: Forging a Partnership
 Apache Software Foundation: The Organization
 Development at the ASF: The Apache Way

23. Development at Apache
“The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative,
consensus based development process…”
Goals of the Apache Development Process (a.k.a, “The Apache Way”)
 Reduce barriers to project participation
 Improve quality
 Achieve consensus and resolve conflict
 Balance needs of corporate interests with needs of individual contributors

24. Development at Apache
Characteristic #1: Open & Transparent Decision Making
Give anyone interested an opportunity to participate in and contribute to all aspects
of the project. Reduce barriers.
 All decisions should happen on the project mailing lists
 Discuss large changes, significant designs or other ‘big ideas’ on-list
– If a change could be controversial, discuss it on-list
– Okay to fix bugs w/o discussion (almost always…)
 Power of information sharing …
– More opportunities to receive feedback on design and implementation
– You might learn a key insight from an unanticipated source

25. Development at Apache
Characteristic #2: Scoped Contributions
Patch Contribution Guidelines to Reduce Barriers and Improve Quality.
 One bug one patch - do not fix multiple bugs in a single patch
 Avoid gratuitous source code changes
– Reformatting changes mixed with functional changes
 Decompose large function changes into multiple logically related commits
– Facilitate peer review
– Manage complexity

26. Development at Apache
Characteristic #3: Voting Process
Consensus confirmed. Conflicts Resolved.
 Vote on releases, decisions/ideas, code … just the big stuff
– +1, -1, -0, +0
– ‘-1’ - ‘I’m really not in favor of this but if no one else has a problem, I’ll go along’
– ‘-1’ - ‘I’m absolutely opposed to this’. This is a ‘veto’. Method of last resort to
resolve a conflict.
 Rule of 3 and 72
– Minimum of 3 voters - Encourage diversity and community
– 72 hour voting period - Time to review and consider the vote

27. Development at Apache
“The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative, consensus based
development process, an open and pragmatic software
license, …”

28. Development at Apache
Characteristic #4: Permissive Apache License version 2.0
ASF Code can be used & modified for commercial use w/o restriction
 Just don’t call your product “Apache”. That’s it!
Legal Due Diligence Processes to verify provenance of inbound code
 Contributors must sign an Individual Contribution License Agreement (ICLA)
 Code and Patent grants required for donations of large amounts of pre-existing code
 Click through agreement for submitting patches via JIRA
Reduces legal risk for ‘deep pocket’ users of Apache Software

29. Development at Apache
“The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative, consensus based
development process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a
desire to create high quality software that leads the way
in its field.”

30. Development at Apache
Becoming a Project Member
 Demonstrate Technical Competence
 Participate in discussions, make contributions, earn trust and respect
 Communicate effectively on project mailing lists
 Demonstrate understanding and appreciation for the community and Apache
project style
 Take time to mentor new contributors
 In a sustained fashion for a period of time
You will be invited to become a Committer and PMC member!

31. Development at Apache
Apache Incubator
 Apache Incubator: How new Apache Projects are started
 Incubator Objectives:
– Build a sustainable, diverse community - no solo projects
– Train new project developers in Apache style open source development
– A successful Incubator project (a podling) graduates to an Apache Top Level Project
 Interesting projects welcomed!
 Want to start a Project at Apache? Make an incubator proposal.
– http://incubator.apache.org/

32. Further Reading
How Big Blue fell for Linux
 http://www.salon.com/technology/fsp/2000/09/12/chapter_7_part_one
Rules for Revolutionaries
 http://incubator.apache.org/learn/rules-for-revolutionaries.html
Producing OSS by Karl Fogel
 http://producingoss.com/
How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People (And You Can Too) by Ben Collins-
Sussman and Brian Fitzpatrick
 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4216011961522818645
China Vector outline from: www.presentationmagazine.com

33. Thank you!

34. : 2010 8 14 15
: 825
: http://wiki.apache.org/apachecon/CFPApacheAsiaRoadShow2010
: http://www.apachecon.com/2010/Asia/cfp
: tonywu@apache.org
caijunj@apache.org
• Apache Justin Erenkrantz
• Apache VP Tim Ellison
•
• More to come…