How does Apache, the world's largest open source foundation, work?

Arrangement | Su mi

Produce | CSDN（ID：CSDNnews）

The development of open source software is overwhelming , Many open source technologies from all over the world have appeared on the international stage , Become the collaboration of tens of thousands of developers 、 share 、 The cornerstone of progress . In a thriving situation , It is also inseparable from following the public 、 transparent 、 The leadership and governance of open source foundations with the concept of openness .

As the world's largest open source software foundation , According to the Apache 2021 The annual report for the fiscal year shows that , It manages 2.27 More than 100 million lines of code , also 100% Free to the public, the value is about 220 Billion dollar Software , These software are an integral part of almost every user's computing device , And benefit countless users around the world . Faced with such huge numbers and software ,Apache The software foundation has been established for many years , How to get to the present step by step , What kind of governance methods are used to promote the development of global open source software ？

2022 year 7 month 21 Japan , Sponsored by China open source software promotion alliance , Sadie media 、《 Software and integrated circuits 》 Co sponsored by the magazine ,CSDN Exclusive live “ The 17th open source China open source world summit ” On ,Apache President of the software foundation David Nalley brought 《Apache Latest progress 》 Keynote speech of , The answer for us .

David Nalley Express ,「Apache Now we adopt a decentralized leadership model , This means that the project itself can be self managed , This is also ASF The core of governance philosophy . Part of it means , We realize that some work （ Contribute ） People who , Often not in the same place , They may not be in the same time zone . Even if they are in the same area at the same time , We don't expect people 24 I have been following a project for hours , So we focus on all synchronous communication and decision making .」

besides ,David Nalley It also shared that China's influence on international foundations is becoming more and more important , Its point ,“4 Years ago, we had about 25%  Of the traffic comes from China , Now , That's more than 40%. We also see many projects from China , Joined the Apache Software foundation , It's exciting ！”

The following is a David Nalle The speech was recorded ：

First , Thank you for letting me speak today , My name is David Nalley, yes Apache President of the foundation . In today's speech , I want to talk about the history of the foundation 、 And about the development and future of open source .

Apache The software foundation 23 year

Apache The Software Foundation began with 1999 year , Created by a group of people who collaborate on the Internet and patch the source code of the web server , The source code is finally called Apache HTTPD project .

After that 23 Annual development , A lot of things happened , One of the highlights is that we have developed licenses , That is to say  Apache Software license version 2 , It's on 2004 Released in , And has continued to this day , Become one of the most popular open source licenses in the world .Apache 2.0 Grant users widespread use 、 Modify and distribute permissions , And has a very clear patent right , meanwhile , The obligation of license also makes it easy for open source developers to meet . This allows developers to Apache Under the software license , Ability to easily use and reuse code licenses .

In addition to providing licenses , Another bright spot is Apache The foundation formulated frame , This makes it easy for the project to understand what it wants in terms of governance . These guidelines and the structure of key projects , From need to reinvention , Determine who makes the decision , And how to make a decision .

How does the foundation manage ？

I have been engaged in open source projects for nearly 20 years , All of the above have been touched . I've seen many projects take months to manage , Even many enterprises 、 Organizations have spent years trying to figure out project governance .Apache The project saves a lot of time from governance , But more importantly , It enables projects to focus their time and effort on building software .

Now? 「 Let nature take its course 」 It's a thoughtful way of doing things , But this is just one of them . There are many other ways to build a community , And there are many effective ways to successfully run open source projects , But for the Apache For software foundation projects , We have defined and selected governance .

Of course , When I talk about governance , People usually ask me ,Apache How does the software foundation deal with project management and focus .

I tend to start by talking about the mission statement and obligations of the foundation .Apache The software foundation is a public charity , Have the obligation to serve the best interests of the general public , Our mission is to provide free software to the public .

Our public obligation is the ultimate goal of all work , Now look back , How do we do it , It's important to understand this . In the project , Our slogan is “ Community is better than code ”, Although brief , But this means that we should observe those who will do this work , We regard them as more important end products of software . The idea of people coming together to work is a common theme , It runs through Apache The governance process .

Apache The foundation focuses on contribution . Whether writing software 、 Document , Or do projects to give people influence and decision-making power , We don't ask employees which company they are employed by , I won't ask what their title is , contrary , We are concerned about their work and contributions in the project .

In short , Only those who participate in the contribution can make decisions , Even if I am Apache Chairman of the software foundation and CEO, I also have no ability to tell a project to adopt different technical decisions . I can't force them to make any technical changes , I can't say that employees and projects must do this , So I can't say to a project “ well , We know this is used C++ Written , But please rewrite this project in other ways ”. That's not within my authority .

Apache The foundation Now we adopt a decentralized leadership model , This means that the project itself can be self managed , This is the core of our governance philosophy . Part of it means , We realize that some work （ Participation and contribution ） People who , Often not in the same place , They may not be in the same time zone . Even if they are in the same area at the same time , We don't expect people 24 I have been following a project for hours , So we focus on all synchronous communication and decision making .

We use conventional tools that everyone can see for discussion and decision making —— Mailing list, . Now many people want to use things like Slack Or chat tools like wechat , They are really good for chatting , But it is not suitable for making decisions , Because others have to go back and look through the whole process . There is such a saying inside us , If it （ Decision process ） Not on the mailing list , Then it didn't happen , This is also a reminder to people , We intend to push decisions into the mailing list , Because most decisions are not made immediately . After announcing the purpose of something , It may cause some discussion , We will wait , And listen to other opinions . Because we realize that we make decisions too quickly , May exclude some people .

China's open source power has been continuously strengthened

In the past 23 In the year ,Apache Many changes have taken place in the software foundation , But the way of governance remains basically unchanged . Our scale has gone from 1999 One project in has grown to hundreds of projects today , These include some very well-known and successful projects , Such as Tomcat、Hedu、Spark、Kalin、Caassandra、Sky Walking wait . And about 30 A project is hatching , Incubators are those that incubate for Apache The software basic fund is still a relatively new project , So they can adapt to our process management , And prepare for becoming a top-level project after incubation .

Today, Apache Software foundations are also becoming more international , China is an important part of it .4 Years ago, we had about 25% Of the traffic comes from China , Now , That's more than 40%. These years , We have seen many projects from China join Apache Software foundation , It's exciting . It's not just because we have more projects and more people involved , But because we see a wider population , They will eventually make our software better .

I encourage you to join us , Contribute to projects that are important to you , Help us build the future of open source .

Thank you. ！

Click on 2022（ The seventeenth ） Open source China open source World Summit Forum -CSDN live broadcast , See more wonderful speeches ！