[Fwd: Jakarta Board report - March 2004]

[Jeff Dever <js...@apache.org>]

Notes to the board from the PMC.  Note the mention of the upcoming
HttpClient move to Jakarta top level, and the @author comments.

-jsd

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Jakarta Board report - March 2004
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 17:10:43 -0500
From: Geir Magnusson Jr <ge...@4quarters.com>
Reply-To: Jakarta Project Management Committee List <pm...@jakarta.apache.org>
To: Apache Board <bo...@apache.org>
CC: Jakarta Project Management Committee List <pm...@jakarta.apache.org>

Board,

The Jakarta community would like to mention an official thanks and warm
and heartfelt appreciation to our outgoing chair, Sam Ruby.  We
recognize that he was instrumental in guiding it through a sometimes
difficult period of high growth, and we all value his considerate and
thoughtful contributions.

Jakarta Project Report - March 2004
-----------------------------------

* As the board is obviously aware, the Jakarta PMC has changed chairs,
with the retirement :) of Sam Ruby and the appointment of Geir
Magnusson Jr.

* We officially added 37 committers to the Jakarta PMC.  These
additions were from the previous two months, and we are starting the
process of identifying new candidates and voting again.

* We feel we had a successful transition to the new Apache Software
License v2.0  The entire Jakarta Commons and commons sandbox has been
converted, and the community is very aware of the need to ensure that
both the spirit and letter of the boards instructions regarding the
license are followed.  Thanks to all at the ASF for help in clearing up
our questions regarding the process.

* The HiveMind codebase currently located in Jakarta Commons has
completed it's software grant from WebCT, the employer of the primary
author, and the Jakarta PMC has approved a proposal to make HiveMind a
new Jakarta sub-project.  Along with the PMC's support, the community
response to the proposal was very positive.  We have checked with the
Incubator PMC, and there have been no other issues raised preventing
this from happening.

* The Jakarta Struts sub-project has voted to apply for ASF top-level
project status.  The Jakarta PMC supports this and urges the board to
accept their proposal ASAP.

* The HttpClient component of Jakarta Commons has voted to apply for
Jakarta sub-project status.  We are waiting the formal proposal, and
don't foresee any problems.

* We recognize that our charter is woefully inadequate, and intend to
produce a revision to submit for board approval in the near future.

* The Jakarta PMC had a long and sometimes heated discussion about the
board's recommendation that author tags be removed from code.  I think
that we collectively understand the motivation and how a community has
to be careful that author tags don't lead to territorial ownership of
what is community-owned code.  However, I urge that the board do not
mandate their removal, allowing the individual communities to police
themselves on this issue.  Many of us, myself included, value the
author tags because we recognize that it's human nature to be proud of
one's work, and the author tag is [one] way in which new community
members can initially find value in contribution.  Finally, we would
appreciate some clarification on how removal of the tags changes the
legal exposure of the committers or the ASF.  I, for one, don't grok
the legal argument.

Geir Magnusson Jr.
VP, Jakarta

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: commons-httpclient-dev-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: commons-httpclient-dev-help@jakarta.apache.org