Conversation with Dirk

["Geir Magnusson Jr." <ge...@adeptra.com>]

Here is the note I sent to dirk on 5/4/02 :
Dirk-Willem,

If you have been paying attention to general@jakarta, I seem to have gotten
enough interest behind an idea for a new Apache subproject focused on
database-ish (we'll clarify) technologies, and was hoping that as a board
member, you could give us some insight into the best way to prepare a
proposal.

Currently, the embryonic idea is to form an apache project whose main axis
of interest is database-related technology.  The codebases we plan to start
with are in Java, but I think we wouldn't want to restrict along language as
this is a rich area for all sorts of tools in all sorts of languages (for
example, warehouse and datamart extraction done via Perl/Python/Ruby etc...)

The codebases are :

1) OJB : ObjectRelationalBridge : object/relational mapping tool, currently
at sourceforge.  We recently approved it's inclusion in Jakarta, but the
primary author (and we assume the community, by extension) are excited by
the idea of helping to form a db focused apache project.

2) Poolman : one of the most popular database connection pools.  Currently,
the stewardship of it has been turned over to me by the author, as time
prevents him from continuing.  I was going to keep it at sourceforge as
there was a negative reaction to bringing it to Jakarta (NIH, mostly), but I
think that it is a very valuable and widely-used tool, and would like my
first major action on the projec to be bringing it here if I can.

I expect that as this gains momentum, we will add more.  Some that we
suspect might join :

*  Turbine's Torque subproject

*  Common's DBCB (maybe)

And there was some interest from the Jakarta Avalon community, but that
didn't appear to be unanimous. :)

I have asked Sam for a public list to discuss these issues.

So the question is : what will be the key things to have for a successful
proposal to the Apache board?  We would want to model it exactly along the
lines of Jakarta, starting with a ruling junta of existing Apache/Jakarta
members as PMC for 6 months, with the addition of  members from  outside
projects that are brought in (Thomas, for example), and then hold elections.

Thx for any insight.

=========================================================================

Here was his response.  One personal comment to me ommitted :


On Sat, 4 May 2002, Geir Magnusson Jr. wrote:

> If you have been paying attention to general@jakarta, I seem to have gotten
> enough interest behind an idea for a new Apache subproject focused on
...
> I have asked Sam for a public list to discuss these issues.
>
> So the question is : what will be the key things to have for a successful
> proposal to the Apache board?  We would want to model it exactly along the