[Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Urs Lerch <ma...@ulerch.net>]

Greetings All

I would like to formally propose that the ALOIS Project be considered
for inclusion in the ASF Incubator as a new podling. ALOIS is a log
collection and correlation software with reporting and alarming
functionalities (a so-called SIEM). The full details of this proposal
are available below. I hope that the length of the text doesn't prevent
you from reading it.

Furthermore, we are looking for Mentors, and any additional contributors
that we can get. And we gracefully ask the Incubator PMC for sponsoring
this project.

We were happy to receive your feedback about our proposal.

Best regards
Urs



Here the full text of the proposal:


= Preface =

ALOIS is a log collection and correlation software with reporting and
alarming functionalities. It has been implemented by the Swiss company
IMSEC for a customer about five years ago. GPL-licenced, implemented in
Ruby and completely based on other OSS-licensed components, it was
designed for the open source community right from the start. Now that
the software has shown its functioning over several years in production
with the one customer and one IMSEC-internal installation, it seems to
be the right time to open it to a wider community.


= Abstract =

ALOIS stands for „Advanced Logging and Intrusion Detection System“ and
is meant to be a fully implemented open source SIEM (security
information and event management) system.


= Proposal =

While almost all other SIEM software, be it closed or open source,
concentrate on the technological part of security monitoring, ALOIS is
aimed to monitor the security of the content. It intends to be
pro-active in the detection of potential loss, theft, mistaken
modification or unauthorized access. ALOIS works on log messages and
thus contains all the basic functionality of a conventional SIEM, as
centralized collecting, normalizing, aggregation, analyzing and
correlating of all log messages, as well as reporting all security
related events. Therefore it can be used as any other SIEM.

ALOIS consists of five modules interacting to ensure a scaleable
functionality of a SIEM:

  * Insink is the message sink, which is the receiving entry point for
all the different log messages into ALOIS. It is partly based on the
syslog-ng software. Insink listens for messages (UDP), waits for
messages (TCP), receives message collections (files, emails) and
pre-filters them to prevent from message flow overload.
        
  * Pumpy is the incoming FIFO buffer, implemented as a relational
database tables. which contain the incoming original messages (in raw
format). In a complex system setup, there may be several insink
instances, e.g. for a group of hosts, for specific types of messages, or
for high-avaliablity.
        
  * Prisma contains logic to split up the text of log messages into
separate fields, based on regular expressions. Actually, "prisma" is a
set of "prismi", each one prisma for one type of log message (apache,
cisco etc. Several prismi can be applied to the same message. This
allows for stacked messages, i.e. forwarded log messages contained in
compressed files contained in e-mail messages. The data retrieved form
the log messages is stored in a database called Dobby. Due to prisma
being written in Ruby, prismi can be applied interactively (when having
system access).
        
  * Dobby is the central log database. It should be separated from the
Pumpy database for availability and performance reasons. The current
implementation is based on MySQL.
        
  * The Analyzer contains the two sub-systems Lizard and Reptor. Lizard
is the analysis engine and user interface of ALOIS, implemented in Ruby
on Rails using AJAX. It allows for interactive browsing through the
collected data, exclusion/inclusion/selection of data, data sorting,
data filtering, creation of views, ad-hoc textual and graphical
reporting. Reptor allows for automatic activation of views and
comparison of these views' results to a predefined result (pattern
matching). In case of mismatch, Reptor sends the result to predefined
e-mail addresses.

Its modular design guarantees ALOIS to scale from little to large
organizations. Since there exists a Debian package, it's easy to build a
test system or even a productive system for small environments.

Although the software has been in productive use for a few years, there
is still a lot of desired functionality missing. The plugability of new
connected systems is given, but needs some revision. It is a given goal
of the project to allow modules in other programming language.
Furthermore, it has been discussed if parts of the existing
implementation may be replaced with other proven open source software,
e.g. the correlation engine or the web frontend. The other way round, it
has been discussed that the filter creation engine would make a good
tool for any kind of structured data, and thus could be separated from
ALOIS and standardized as a stand-alone tool.


= Background =

It's not simple to know what happens in a bigger network. There's a
multitude of applications, services and appliances working together.
Many of them provide some kind of events or state information. The
network administrator needs to get hands on all of them. But they come
in many different flavors and multiple canals. Therefore, it's hard to
get the big picture. Furthermore, we have learned that it's impossible
to protect a system against all malicious attacks and to keep all the
possible faulty handling away. A monitoring of the systems to guarantee
a pro-active handling is therefore needed..

Therefore, more and more organizations collect and analyze all logfiles
in a centralized system, called a SIEM (security information and event
management). The technology provides two major functions for security
events from networks, systems and applications: log management and
compliance reporting (SIM – security information management) and
real-time monitoring and incident management (SEM – security event
management).


= Rationale =

Why another security information and event management system? It's true,
there's already plenty of them. While the proprietary software is way
too expensive for smaller to mid-sized companies, we find that the open
source solutions are either too simple or not completely open. For
example, behind each of the well known systems “OSSIM” and “Prelude”,
there is a company that either closes central functionality for its own
business or has dual licensing and therefore asks the full copyright for
all contributed code.

ALOIS is aimed to be totally free and open for all contributions. The
openness provided for other programming languages is certainly proof of
this. The plug-ability - yet to be further developed - is meant to
guarantee that individual needs can be realized without stressing the
whole system too much. In our opinion, the Linux kernel is a good
example that this can work very well.

Since we are in accordance with „the Apache way“, we would be very
pleased if ALOIS could become part of the Apache community. In Addition,
the Apache Logging Services would be a perfect home for the software.
Furthermore, it's not the intention to compete with the already existing
log viewer and analyzing tool „Chainsaw“. Since Chainsaw is a relatively
easy tool, it meets a rather different need. Nevertheless, if the two
projects use synergies, both can profit.


= Initial Goals =

When this project started ins 2005, there was no proven SIEM open source
software and the commercial tools were way too expensive for the needed
environment. Therefore, we decided together with a customer of ours to
implement an open source SIEM tool from scratch. Now the software has
run in a production environment for several years and has proven its
functionality and reliabilty.


= Current Status =

== Meritocracy ==

As already mentioned, ALOIS is already in production use in two
organizations. All the code has been written by two persons of the same
company in a paid employment relationship. It is obvious that this is
way different from the open source approach within Apache. But
nevertheless, the two developers have always worked as a team and the
decisions were made in consensus whenever possible. But it is no secret,
that these developers have to learn to behave in an open community.
Understanding this potential problem, they already got support by a
freelance consulter, who has the corresponding experience and knowledge.

== Community ==

Until today there is no real community, because the project hasn't been
published officially, although it had been completely published on the
web site for a couple of months (until a server relaunch). Convinced by
the concept and design of the software, we are open and hope to reach
many contributors and users. We think that it is realistic, because the
SIEM issue has yet not been resolved in the OSS space.

== Core Developers ==

ALOIS was developed by Simon Hürliman and Flavio Pellanda, both employed
by the company IMSEC. Concerning Design and Architecture, Marcus
Holthaus, owner of IMSEC, gave his input as security specialist. Since
the beginning of this year, Urs Lerch, a doctorate on the subject of
commercial open source software development, supports the team with his
knowledge. Simon Hürlimann has left the company three years ago, but is
still active in the OSS environment (although not for ALOIS). Current
employee Daniel Lutz (a Debian Developer) has also contributed to the
project.

== Alignment ==

Besides that we strongly believe in the „Apache way“, we think that
although that Apache hosts the Logging Services and different security
projects, there is a gap when it comes to a superordinate security view.
We therefore think it a good idea to add our SIEM project to the Apache
repository. On the other side, Apache would become an even more complete
software repository.


= Known Risks =

== Orphaned products ==

Since the software is only maintained by employers of one company, there
is a severe risk of being orphaned. But, on the one hand, the company
has a sustained interest in keeping the project alive, because there are
plans to offer services on top of ALOIS, and IMSEC uses the software for
SIEM on their own systems. For this reason there exists a budget for the
development and support of ALOIS. On the other hand, we believe that
ALOIS is of great interest for other people and companies tied to IT
security. Therefore, our step to the Apache incubator is also a step to
a bigger community.

== Inexperience with Open Source ==

While ALOIS has always been licenced under the GPL, access to the source
code, bug tracker and version control system has been restricted to
internal users for most of the time. But the company has a strong
believe in the open source movement and therefore engages its employees
to take part in the community. Furthermore, it is also a strategic
decision to build services on top of linux.

We understand that the Apache Incubator is a great opportunity for us to
get assistance, when it comes to specific questions on the open source
development. Even more, the company has created a part time position for
the open source community work.

== Homogenous Developers ==

Although ALOIS has been developed by employees of only one company,
there is a thorough openness. The company is designed to stay small and
therefore works with several independent partners. Furthermore, its
employees work in geographically different parts of the country.
Therefore, it is no new experience for the developers to work in a
distributed environment and argue rather than to command. Already today
the employees are enforced to document all face-to-face communication in
the internal wiki. Sketches are photographed and stored in the project's
digital folder.

== Reliance on Salaried Developers ==

Until today all the development of ALOIS has been made in a paid
emplyoment. Therefore we know that this brings a significant danger.
Since it is our stated aim to encourage participation and recruit
commiters, we hope to eliminate this risk as soon as possible.
Furthermore, the employees of IMSEC are all open source enthusiasts and
are in one way or another active in the community. Although we have no
certainty, there is good indication that the current commiters would
continue their work on ALOIS, even if they wouldn't be paid for it.

== Relationships with Other Apache Products ==

The Apache Logging Service would be a perfect home for ALOIS as a
centralized logging collection and analyzing tool. Furthermore, we think
that we could share part of the code with the Chainsaw subproject, since
both need similar functionality in the web frontend. Since it is our
statet aim to replace our own code with proofen open source libraries,
we are open for any collaboration with other projects. For example, the
replacement of the MySQL with a NoSQL database might be useful for
performance reasons; therefore HBase is a good candidate.

== An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand ==

The Apache brand is in fact for its own a very good reason to join the
Incubator. But much more our desire to become part of the Apache
Incubator is our strong believe in open source software in general and
in the „Apache way“ in particular. We would love to learn from the
experience and knowledge of the foundation's members and participants,
which is an important part of the brand as well. The foundation has
shown many times, that it has the processes and people to succeed in
launching a project. We would be very proud to be part of this success
story.


= Documentation =

The documentation is rather weak and scattered. It has mainly been
maintained on a wiki and is open to improvement. Since we are totally
aware that this is a killer for a successfull open source project, we
have already started an internal project with its own budget to improve
this shortcomming. Once the project has been launched, writing a blog or
open a forum are other possibilities we already thought of.

Furthermore, as the employees are used to work in a geographycally
distributed environment, a lot of the internal communication happens in
a chat. Thus, opening a new chat channel for the community is scheduled.
(To document the discussions for all those who were off-line, we would
send the logs daily to the mailing list.)


= Initial Source =

Although the initial source comes from a project for a customer. it has
an open source licence since the beginning. Therefore it doesn't have
any propriatary code in it. A thorough revision before releasing it to a
public repository is recommend and is also in planning.

The initial source will be a snapshot of the version control system,
accompanied by a related debian package.


= Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan =

ALOIS is currently under a GPL licence. Since there are only two
contributors so far, both from the same company, there is no problem to
re-licence the code and contribute it to Apache. The commitment of the
company's owner has been granted.


= External Dependencies =

So far, no external dependencies are known. As mentioned before, a
thorough revision of the codebase is in planning. There it can be
controlled, that no other licence is affected by the code.


= Cryptography =

ALOIS does not involve cryptographic code.


= Required Resources =

== Mailing lists ==

The following mailing lists will be required:

  * alois-private
  * alois-dev
  * alois-commits
  * alois-users

== Subversion Directory ==

https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/alois

== Issue Tracking ==

JIRA ALOIS (ALOIS)

== Other Resources ==

We would like to open a chat channel. If this isn't possible within the
infrastructure of Apache, we would love to do this in our own already
existing infrastructure.


= Initial Commiters =

  * NAME             EMAIL                              AFFILIATION  CLA
  * Flavio Pellanda  flavio.pellanda at logintas dot ch IMSEC        no
  * Urs Lerch        mail at ulerch dot net             IMSEC        no
  * Daniel Lutz      daniel.lutz at logintas dot ch     IMSEC        no
  * Marcus Holthaus  marcus.holthaus at imsec dot ch    IMSEC        no


= Sponsors =

== Champion ==

  * Scott Deboy <sdeboy at apache dot org>

== Nominated Mentors ==

  * Scott Deboy <sdeboy at apache dot org>

== Sponsoring Entity ==

The Incubator PMC (requested)

Re: [PROPOSAL] ALOIS Project

[Urs Lerch <ma...@ulerch.net>]

Hi

A little more than a week ago I posted the proposal concerning the
incubation of ALOIS. Unfortunatly there wasn't much of a discussion so
far. Furthermore, we are still looking for mentors. Any feedback is
welcome!

Best
Urs

P.S.: http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/AloisProposal.



Am Samstag, den 14.08.2010, 10:31 +0200 schrieb Urs Lerch:
> Greetings All
> 
> I would like to formally propose that the ALOIS Project be considered
> for inclusion in the ASF Incubator as a new podling. ALOIS is a log
> collection and correlation software with reporting and alarming
> functionalities (a so-called SIEM). The full details of this proposal
> are available below. I hope that the length of the text doesn't prevent
> you from reading it.
> 
> Furthermore, we are looking for Mentors, and any additional contributors
> that we can get. And we gracefully ask the Incubator PMC for sponsoring
> this project.
> 
> We were happy to receive your feedback about our proposal.
> 
> Best regards
> Urs
> 
> 
> 
> Here the full text of the proposal:
> 
> 
> = Preface =
> 
> ALOIS is a log collection and correlation software with reporting and
> alarming functionalities. It has been implemented by the Swiss company
> IMSEC for a customer about five years ago. GPL-licenced, implemented in
> Ruby and completely based on other OSS-licensed components, it was
> designed for the open source community right from the start. Now that
> the software has shown its functioning over several years in production
> with the one customer and one IMSEC-internal installation, it seems to
> be the right time to open it to a wider community.
> 
> 
> = Abstract =
> 
> ALOIS stands for „Advanced Logging and Intrusion Detection System“ and
> is meant to be a fully implemented open source SIEM (security
> information and event management) system.
> 
> 
> = Proposal =
> 
> While almost all other SIEM software, be it closed or open source,
> concentrate on the technological part of security monitoring, ALOIS is
> aimed to monitor the security of the content. It intends to be
> pro-active in the detection of potential loss, theft, mistaken
> modification or unauthorized access. ALOIS works on log messages and
> thus contains all the basic functionality of a conventional SIEM, as
> centralized collecting, normalizing, aggregation, analyzing and
> correlating of all log messages, as well as reporting all security
> related events. Therefore it can be used as any other SIEM.
> 
> ALOIS consists of five modules interacting to ensure a scaleable
> functionality of a SIEM:
> 
>   * Insink is the message sink, which is the receiving entry point for
> all the different log messages into ALOIS. It is partly based on the
> syslog-ng software. Insink listens for messages (UDP), waits for
> messages (TCP), receives message collections (files, emails) and
> pre-filters them to prevent from message flow overload.
>         
>   * Pumpy is the incoming FIFO buffer, implemented as a relational
> database tables. which contain the incoming original messages (in raw
> format). In a complex system setup, there may be several insink
> instances, e.g. for a group of hosts, for specific types of messages, or
> for high-avaliablity.
>         
>   * Prisma contains logic to split up the text of log messages into
> separate fields, based on regular expressions. Actually, "prisma" is a
> set of "prismi", each one prisma for one type of log message (apache,
> cisco etc. Several prismi can be applied to the same message. This
> allows for stacked messages, i.e. forwarded log messages contained in
> compressed files contained in e-mail messages. The data retrieved form
> the log messages is stored in a database called Dobby. Due to prisma
> being written in Ruby, prismi can be applied interactively (when having
> system access).
>         
>   * Dobby is the central log database. It should be separated from the
> Pumpy database for availability and performance reasons. The current
> implementation is based on MySQL.
>         
>   * The Analyzer contains the two sub-systems Lizard and Reptor. Lizard
> is the analysis engine and user interface of ALOIS, implemented in Ruby
> on Rails using AJAX. It allows for interactive browsing through the
> collected data, exclusion/inclusion/selection of data, data sorting,
> data filtering, creation of views, ad-hoc textual and graphical
> reporting. Reptor allows for automatic activation of views and
> comparison of these views' results to a predefined result (pattern
> matching). In case of mismatch, Reptor sends the result to predefined
> e-mail addresses.
> 
> Its modular design guarantees ALOIS to scale from little to large
> organizations. Since there exists a Debian package, it's easy to build a
> test system or even a productive system for small environments.
> 
> Although the software has been in productive use for a few years, there
> is still a lot of desired functionality missing. The plugability of new
> connected systems is given, but needs some revision. It is a given goal
> of the project to allow modules in other programming language.
> Furthermore, it has been discussed if parts of the existing
> implementation may be replaced with other proven open source software,
> e.g. the correlation engine or the web frontend. The other way round, it
> has been discussed that the filter creation engine would make a good
> tool for any kind of structured data, and thus could be separated from
> ALOIS and standardized as a stand-alone tool.
> 
> 
> = Background =
> 
> It's not simple to know what happens in a bigger network. There's a
> multitude of applications, services and appliances working together.
> Many of them provide some kind of events or state information. The
> network administrator needs to get hands on all of them. But they come
> in many different flavors and multiple canals. Therefore, it's hard to
> get the big picture. Furthermore, we have learned that it's impossible
> to protect a system against all malicious attacks and to keep all the
> possible faulty handling away. A monitoring of the systems to guarantee
> a pro-active handling is therefore needed..
> 
> Therefore, more and more organizations collect and analyze all logfiles
> in a centralized system, called a SIEM (security information and event
> management). The technology provides two major functions for security
> events from networks, systems and applications: log management and
> compliance reporting (SIM – security information management) and
> real-time monitoring and incident management (SEM – security event
> management).
> 
> 
> = Rationale =
> 
> Why another security information and event management system? It's true,
> there's already plenty of them. While the proprietary software is way
> too expensive for smaller to mid-sized companies, we find that the open
> source solutions are either too simple or not completely open. For
> example, behind each of the well known systems “OSSIM” and “Prelude”,
> there is a company that either closes central functionality for its own
> business or has dual licensing and therefore asks the full copyright for
> all contributed code.
> 
> ALOIS is aimed to be totally free and open for all contributions. The
> openness provided for other programming languages is certainly proof of
> this. The plug-ability - yet to be further developed - is meant to
> guarantee that individual needs can be realized without stressing the
> whole system too much. In our opinion, the Linux kernel is a good
> example that this can work very well.
> 
> Since we are in accordance with „the Apache way“, we would be very
> pleased if ALOIS could become part of the Apache community. In Addition,
> the Apache Logging Services would be a perfect home for the software.
> Furthermore, it's not the intention to compete with the already existing
> log viewer and analyzing tool „Chainsaw“. Since Chainsaw is a relatively
> easy tool, it meets a rather different need. Nevertheless, if the two
> projects use synergies, both can profit.
> 
> 
> = Initial Goals =
> 
> When this project started ins 2005, there was no proven SIEM open source
> software and the commercial tools were way too expensive for the needed
> environment. Therefore, we decided together with a customer of ours to
> implement an open source SIEM tool from scratch. Now the software has
> run in a production environment for several years and has proven its
> functionality and reliabilty.
> 
> 
> = Current Status =
> 
> == Meritocracy ==
> 
> As already mentioned, ALOIS is already in production use in two
> organizations. All the code has been written by two persons of the same
> company in a paid employment relationship. It is obvious that this is
> way different from the open source approach within Apache. But
> nevertheless, the two developers have always worked as a team and the
> decisions were made in consensus whenever possible. But it is no secret,
> that these developers have to learn to behave in an open community.
> Understanding this potential problem, they already got support by a
> freelance consulter, who has the corresponding experience and knowledge.
> 
> == Community ==
> 
> Until today there is no real community, because the project hasn't been
> published officially, although it had been completely published on the
> web site for a couple of months (until a server relaunch). Convinced by
> the concept and design of the software, we are open and hope to reach
> many contributors and users. We think that it is realistic, because the
> SIEM issue has yet not been resolved in the OSS space.
> 
> == Core Developers ==
> 
> ALOIS was developed by Simon Hürliman and Flavio Pellanda, both employed
> by the company IMSEC. Concerning Design and Architecture, Marcus
> Holthaus, owner of IMSEC, gave his input as security specialist. Since
> the beginning of this year, Urs Lerch, a doctorate on the subject of
> commercial open source software development, supports the team with his
> knowledge. Simon Hürlimann has left the company three years ago, but is
> still active in the OSS environment (although not for ALOIS). Current
> employee Daniel Lutz (a Debian Developer) has also contributed to the
> project.
> 
> == Alignment ==
> 
> Besides that we strongly believe in the „Apache way“, we think that
> although that Apache hosts the Logging Services and different security
> projects, there is a gap when it comes to a superordinate security view.
> We therefore think it a good idea to add our SIEM project to the Apache
> repository. On the other side, Apache would become an even more complete
> software repository.
> 
> 
> = Known Risks =
> 
> == Orphaned products ==
> 
> Since the software is only maintained by employers of one company, there
> is a severe risk of being orphaned. But, on the one hand, the company
> has a sustained interest in keeping the project alive, because there are
> plans to offer services on top of ALOIS, and IMSEC uses the software for
> SIEM on their own systems. For this reason there exists a budget for the
> development and support of ALOIS. On the other hand, we believe that
> ALOIS is of great interest for other people and companies tied to IT
> security. Therefore, our step to the Apache incubator is also a step to
> a bigger community.
> 
> == Inexperience with Open Source ==
> 
> While ALOIS has always been licenced under the GPL, access to the source
> code, bug tracker and version control system has been restricted to
> internal users for most of the time. But the company has a strong
> believe in the open source movement and therefore engages its employees
> to take part in the community. Furthermore, it is also a strategic
> decision to build services on top of linux.
> 
> We understand that the Apache Incubator is a great opportunity for us to
> get assistance, when it comes to specific questions on the open source
> development. Even more, the company has created a part time position for
> the open source community work.
> 
> == Homogenous Developers ==
> 
> Although ALOIS has been developed by employees of only one company,
> there is a thorough openness. The company is designed to stay small and
> therefore works with several independent partners. Furthermore, its
> employees work in geographically different parts of the country.
> Therefore, it is no new experience for the developers to work in a
> distributed environment and argue rather than to command. Already today
> the employees are enforced to document all face-to-face communication in
> the internal wiki. Sketches are photographed and stored in the project's
> digital folder.
> 
> == Reliance on Salaried Developers ==
> 
> Until today all the development of ALOIS has been made in a paid
> emplyoment. Therefore we know that this brings a significant danger.
> Since it is our stated aim to encourage participation and recruit
> commiters, we hope to eliminate this risk as soon as possible.
> Furthermore, the employees of IMSEC are all open source enthusiasts and
> are in one way or another active in the community. Although we have no
> certainty, there is good indication that the current commiters would
> continue their work on ALOIS, even if they wouldn't be paid for it.
> 
> == Relationships with Other Apache Products ==
> 
> The Apache Logging Service would be a perfect home for ALOIS as a
> centralized logging collection and analyzing tool. Furthermore, we think
> that we could share part of the code with the Chainsaw subproject, since
> both need similar functionality in the web frontend. Since it is our
> statet aim to replace our own code with proofen open source libraries,
> we are open for any collaboration with other projects. For example, the
> replacement of the MySQL with a NoSQL database might be useful for
> performance reasons; therefore HBase is a good candidate.
> 
> == An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand ==
> 
> The Apache brand is in fact for its own a very good reason to join the
> Incubator. But much more our desire to become part of the Apache
> Incubator is our strong believe in open source software in general and
> in the „Apache way“ in particular. We would love to learn from the
> experience and knowledge of the foundation's members and participants,
> which is an important part of the brand as well. The foundation has
> shown many times, that it has the processes and people to succeed in
> launching a project. We would be very proud to be part of this success
> story.
> 
> 
> = Documentation =
> 
> The documentation is rather weak and scattered. It has mainly been
> maintained on a wiki and is open to improvement. Since we are totally
> aware that this is a killer for a successfull open source project, we
> have already started an internal project with its own budget to improve
> this shortcomming. Once the project has been launched, writing a blog or
> open a forum are other possibilities we already thought of.
> 
> Furthermore, as the employees are used to work in a geographycally
> distributed environment, a lot of the internal communication happens in
> a chat. Thus, opening a new chat channel for the community is scheduled.
> (To document the discussions for all those who were off-line, we would
> send the logs daily to the mailing list.)
> 
> 
> = Initial Source =
> 
> Although the initial source comes from a project for a customer. it has
> an open source licence since the beginning. Therefore it doesn't have
> any propriatary code in it. A thorough revision before releasing it to a
> public repository is recommend and is also in planning.
> 
> The initial source will be a snapshot of the version control system,
> accompanied by a related debian package.
> 
> 
> = Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan =
> 
> ALOIS is currently under a GPL licence. Since there are only two
> contributors so far, both from the same company, there is no problem to
> re-licence the code and contribute it to Apache. The commitment of the
> company's owner has been granted.
> 
> 
> = External Dependencies =
> 
> So far, no external dependencies are known. As mentioned before, a
> thorough revision of the codebase is in planning. There it can be
> controlled, that no other licence is affected by the code.
> 
> 
> = Cryptography =
> 
> ALOIS does not involve cryptographic code.
> 
> 
> = Required Resources =
> 
> == Mailing lists ==
> 
> The following mailing lists will be required:
> 
>   * alois-private
>   * alois-dev
>   * alois-commits
>   * alois-users
> 
> == Subversion Directory ==
> 
> https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/alois
> 
> == Issue Tracking ==
> 
> JIRA ALOIS (ALOIS)
> 
> == Other Resources ==
> 
> We would like to open a chat channel. If this isn't possible within the
> infrastructure of Apache, we would love to do this in our own already
> existing infrastructure.
> 
> 
> = Initial Commiters =
> 
>   * NAME             EMAIL                              AFFILIATION  CLA
>   * Flavio Pellanda  flavio.pellanda at logintas dot ch IMSEC        no
>   * Urs Lerch        mail at ulerch dot net             IMSEC        no
>   * Daniel Lutz      daniel.lutz at logintas dot ch     IMSEC        no
>   * Marcus Holthaus  marcus.holthaus at imsec dot ch    IMSEC        no
> 
> 
> = Sponsors =
> 
> == Champion ==
> 
>   * Scott Deboy <sdeboy at apache dot org>
> 
> == Nominated Mentors ==
> 
>   * Scott Deboy <sdeboy at apache dot org>
> 
> == Sponsoring Entity ==
> 
> The Incubator PMC (requested)
> 

Re: [Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Urs Lerch <ma...@ulerch.net>]

Hi

> IANAL either. At Apache we encourage the use of dependencies that are  
> licensed with an Apache-compatible license but we are not strict about  
> it. We have projects with dependencies on such things as Microsoft  
> Windows. We have had projects with hard dependencies on Java before  
> Java was open source.

Since we have learned that MySQL is not the best solution for our
purpose - i.e. tools with other backends get a better performance on
standard hardware -, the replacement of MySQL is on our roadmap.

> Since ALOIS is written in Ruby, it might be easy enough to add a  
> database-independence layer to remove the hard dependency on MySQL.

Craig, I too think it is a very good idea to implement a
database-independent layer. Even more, it is my designated goal to add
APIs to all of the five moduls, so we get more flexibility.

> Not a reason to turn away the project.

Happy to hear that!

Best regards
Urs

Re: [Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Craig L Russell <cr...@oracle.com>]

On Aug 15, 2010, at 11:52 AM, Urs Lerch wrote:

> Hi
>
> Thanks for the feedback.
>
>> If it's been GPL-licensed, you'll need the permission of all  
>> contributors
>> to re-license it.  Have you kept meticulous records of all  
>> contributions
>> over the lifetime of the project so you can expect to be able to  
>> contact
>> everyone?
>
> Since the software has been developed by only two persons, both in  
> paid
> employment, and the their employer has a declared interest in entering
> the Apache Incubator, I see no problem concerning the re-licencing.
>
>> What about the required OSS-licensed components?  You mention
>> MySQL - you'd (probably) want a specific exception for that, in the
>> manner of the APR's one.
>
> Although I am no lawyer, in my understanding the database is not  
> part of
> the software and therefore the licence of MySQL (or any other  
> database)
> is no subject here. Maybe someone with legal know how might clarify  
> this
> point.

IANAL either. At Apache we encourage the use of dependencies that are  
licensed with an Apache-compatible license but we are not strict about  
it. We have projects with dependencies on such things as Microsoft  
Windows. We have had projects with hard dependencies on Java before  
Java was open source.

Since ALOIS is written in Ruby, it might be easy enough to add a  
database-independence layer to remove the hard dependency on MySQL.

Not a reason to turn away the project.

Craig
>
> Best regards
> Urs

Craig L Russell
Architect, Oracle
http://db.apache.org/jdo
408 276-5638 mailto:Craig.Russell@oracle.com
P.S. A good JDO? O, Gasp!


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Re: [Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Urs Lerch <ma...@ulerch.net>]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback.

> If it's been GPL-licensed, you'll need the permission of all contributors
> to re-license it.  Have you kept meticulous records of all contributions
> over the lifetime of the project so you can expect to be able to contact
> everyone?

Since the software has been developed by only two persons, both in paid
employment, and the their employer has a declared interest in entering
the Apache Incubator, I see no problem concerning the re-licencing.

> What about the required OSS-licensed components?  You mention
> MySQL - you'd (probably) want a specific exception for that, in the
> manner of the APR's one.

Although I am no lawyer, in my understanding the database is not part of
the software and therefore the licence of MySQL (or any other database)
is no subject here. Maybe someone with legal know how might clarify this
point.

Best regards
Urs

Re: [Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Urs Lerch <ma...@ulerch.net>]

Hi

> For me, the challenge during Incubation would revolve mostly around
> community. Perhaps it is exactly what Logging project needs to infuse
> more interest and activity, and that we will see folks from that
> background joining in... I don't think the current "weak" community is
> reason enough to prevent incubation, only pointing it out as a
> substantial challenge which may slow down the process.

I am very thankful for this feedback. It is exactly what we think. The
SIEM market needs a truly open source tool. And in our opinion, open
source does mean, beside other aspects as the licence of course,
independence and community. And that is what lacks all existing tools,
at least as far as we know.

The company behind ALOIS is ready to give up the control on the tool. We
know that it is hard work to build a sustaining community, but we are
willing to face this challenge.

Best regards
Urs

Re: [Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Niclas Hedhman <ni...@hedhman.org>]

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 4:33 PM, Nick Kew <ni...@apache.org> wrote:
>
> On 14 Aug 2010, at 09:31, Urs Lerch wrote:
>
>>  GPL-licenced, implemented in
>> Ruby and completely based on other OSS-licensed components,
>
> If it's been GPL-licensed, you'll need the permission of all contributors
> to re-license it.  Have you kept meticulous records of all contributions
> over the lifetime of the project so you can expect to be able to contact
> everyone?

It is mentioned in the proposal that all the contributors are
well-known. In one place it says that only 2 people have written code,
and elsewhere a Debian developer has contributed as well. From my PoV
it sounds that the re-licensing should be a reasonable effort.

> What about the required OSS-licensed components?  You mention
> MySQL - you'd (probably) want a specific exception for that, in the
> manner of the APR's one.

The proposal also mentions an intention to move away from MySQL
towards a NoSQL implementation (of there are a couple here at ASF).
However, I have no clue how feasible this is for a Ruby app. I guess
CouchDB would be no problem to access, but Cassandra/HBase ??

Anyway, I think the licensing issues are well addressed in the proposal.

For me, the challenge during Incubation would revolve mostly around
community. Perhaps it is exactly what Logging project needs to infuse
more interest and activity, and that we will see folks from that
background joining in... I don't think the current "weak" community is
reason enough to prevent incubation, only pointing it out as a
substantial challenge which may slow down the process.


Cheers
-- 
Niclas Hedhman, Software Developer
http://www.qi4j.org - New Energy for Java

I  live here; http://tinyurl.com/2qq9er
I  work here; http://tinyurl.com/2ymelc
I relax here; http://tinyurl.com/2cgsug

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Re: [Proposal] ALOIS Project

[Nick Kew <ni...@apache.org>]

On 14 Aug 2010, at 09:31, Urs Lerch wrote:

>  GPL-licenced, implemented in
> Ruby and completely based on other OSS-licensed components, 

If it's been GPL-licensed, you'll need the permission of all contributors
to re-license it.  Have you kept meticulous records of all contributions
over the lifetime of the project so you can expect to be able to contact
everyone?

What about the required OSS-licensed components?  You mention
MySQL - you'd (probably) want a specific exception for that, in the
manner of the APR's one.

-- 
Nick Kew

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Re: [PROPOSAL] ALOIS Project

[Urs Lerch <ma...@ulerch.net>]

Greetings All

In addition to my posting of yesterday, I send you the link to the
proposal wiki page:

  http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/AloisProposal

Best regards
Urs


P.S.: Since the prefix of the subject in my first posting has been in
lower case, and I don't know if it is important if it is in upper case,
I've corrected that.