While not all aspects of the Apache Way are practiced the same way by all projects at the ASF, there are a number of rules that Apache projects are required to follow – things like complying with PMC release voting, legal policy, brand policy, using mailing lists, etc., which are documented in various places. There are a few rules that I think may not be documented as succinctly as they should be.
A primary purpose of the basic requirements the ASF places on it’s projects are to help ensure long-lived and stable projects by having a broad enough community to maintain the project even in the potential absence of any individual volunteer or any sea change at a major vendor in that area. The Apache project governance model is explicitly based on a diverse community. This is different from other governance models, like the “benevolent dictator” idea or the often corporate-backed model that Eclipse uses.
Apache projects are independent
This is implicit in the fact that the Project Management Committee (PMC) runs the project, and the fact that PMC members are expected to contribute to the project as individuals, wearing their “PMC hat”. The concept of hats means that when a PMC member votes on project matters, they are casting their vote as an individual acting in the best interests of that PMC, and not as an employee or representative of some third party. There are also certain expectations of diversity within a PMC; the board may apply extra scrutiny to PMCs with low diversity (i.e. PMCs that are dominated by people with a common employer). Similarly, the ASF does not allow corporations to participate directly in project management, only individuals.
There are two important aspects to this independence: project management, and project use by end users.
Apache projects are managed independently
Apache projects should be managed independently, and PMCs must ensure that they are acting in the best interests of the project as a whole. Note that it is similarly important that the PMC clearly show this independence within their project community. The perception of existing and new participants within the community that the PMC is run independently and without favoring any specific third parties over others is important, to allow new contributors to feel comfortable both joining the community and contributing their work. A community that obviously favors one specific vendor in some exclusive way will often discourage new contributors from competing vendors, which is an issue for the long term health of the project.
Apache products may be used independently
All Apache projects must release their code under the Apache License, which clearly specifies the minimum restrictions that users of Apache software must agree to. Apache software is all about being able to use it for virtually whatever our users want: open source, proprietary, secret: we’re happy to have users take our software (although not our name) for virtually any purpose. While our legal guidelines allow certain other software licenses to be used for specific dependencies, the software we release always uses our license.
Extending this idea, users of Apache software should be able to find our software, learn how to use it, and actually apply it to all its common use cases solely by going to the Apache project’s own website. Apache projects should provide sufficient documentation, install features, basic user help (through mailing lists) and services for the common use cases to the user, without them having to rely on third parties. It is important that our users can both make use of our software freely – both in terms of not having to pay for the software, as well as not having to worry about IP claims or other more restrictive licenses on either the software or the configurations or other common materials required to actually use the software.
Apache projects are non-commercial
The ASF’s mission is to produce software for the public good. All Apache software is always available for free, and solely under the Apache License. While our projects manage the technical implementation of their individual software products independently, Apache software is released from the ASF, and is always meant to serve the public good.
We’re happy to have third parties, including for-profit corporations, take our software and use it for their own purposes – even when in some cases it may technically compete with Apache software. However it is important in these cases to ensure that the brand and reputation of the Apache project is not misused by third parties for their own purposes. It is important for the longevity and community health of our projects that they get the appropriate credit for producing our freely available software.
Reminder: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent positions, strategies or opinions of either my employer nor the ASF.”