For those trying to understand the motivation of certain Apache policies

[Myrle Krantz <my...@apache.org>]

Hey all,

A discussion has started on the apache community dev list which I
believe may be helpful for those wishing to understand the motivation
behind some of Apache's policies (1).  In particular,

" "communities are expected to be open for new people to flow in" - this
is a requirement. A known anti-pattern is when one employer's employees
who are committers start doing project work while ignoring other
committers, and while freezing out (either in terms of code or new
committers being elected) anyone not from that company. That's when the
board will get involved, if the PMC can't self-correct." --Shane Curcuru

This statement isn't just true about companies, it's also true about
"sub-communities" of any sort.  No sub-group of committers or PMC
members should ever gain control over a project and then shut out the
remaining community members.  That would strangle the project in the
long term, since company's attention to a project, or non-profits
funding is fickle and unpredictable.

The rest of that thread is interesting and relevant too, as it
describes the tension between payed work and volunteer work, and the
reasons Apache has taken various decisions and approaches over the
years.

I'd encourage anyone interested in understanding the Apache Software
Foundation better to read that exchange.

Best Regards,
Myrle


1.) https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/9a0b1c318f3e29e3150217125c6387a511aba35e11e1f9577de331ff@%3Cdev.community.apache.org%3E