Why is it So Hard…

to submit patches to a project/podling? to become a committer on a project/podling? to release code to the public? to maintain trademarks for a project/podling?

This talk explains what common barriers are to accomplishing objectives of people and projects. It explains why The ASF has:

• licensing requirements for code contributions and releases,
• download, signing, and checksum protocols
• voting requirements for releases and project membership
• trademark requirements for web sites and documentation

With a better common understanding of the legal and technical reasons for apparently arbitrary requirements, people will have an appreciation for how things can be easier.

Speakers:

Craig joined Apache as a committer on the incubating JDO project in 2005 and became an Apache Member in 2007. I was appointed Assistant Secretary in 2009 and Secretary in 2010, where I served until 2019. I was elected to the Board of Directors in 2019 and served four terms as a Director.

I was originally attracted to Apache by its approach to governance, where the people doing the work decide what direction to take the project. This is exactly the opposite of how most corporations work, where “the smartest people in the room (managers and executives)” make the decisions.

Once my own project was accepted into Apache, I looked around to see what else I could contribute to, and joined a number of projects where I could help. I also started looking at the intellectual property model of licensing of contributions and licensing of the end products. That led me to start contributing to the Secretary role, processing the “paperwork” granting IP rights to the Foundation.

Recently it has come to my attention that people feel that the Foundation has “too many rules” which go against the free expression that people look for. Looking deeper into this issue, I found that there are some common themes that, if understood better, can make the experience easier.