| THE APACHE GROUP INCORPORATES TO BECOME THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION |
| |
| Non-profit corporation provides organizational assistance and |
| development frameworks for the Apache open-source projects, |
| including the world's leading Web server |
| |
| For Immediate Release -- |
| |
| Contact: Sally Khudairi |
| ZOT Group |
| +1.617.818.0177 <sk@zotgroup.com> |
| |
| http://www.apache.org/ -- June 30, 1999 -- The Apache Group today |
| announced the creation of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), to |
| formally shepherd the development of the #1 Web server |
| worldwide -- the Apache HTTP Server Project -- and other projects |
| under the Apache umbrella. This international volunteer effort is |
| dedicated to the support of open-source software projects based on |
| the collaborative model of the Apache HTTP Server Project. "This |
| is an important step forward for the Apache projects," said |
| Roy T. Fielding, ASF Chairman and co-founder of the Apache HTTP |
| Server Project. "The Apache Software Foundation will protect the |
| efforts of the community of developers working on our open-source |
| projects, while providing a pillar of strength and stability for |
| our customers." |
| |
| COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT |
| |
| The Apache Software Foundation will provide organizational, legal, |
| and financial support for the Apache open-source software |
| projects. The Foundation ensures the continuity of Apache projects |
| beyond the participation of individual volunteers, enables |
| contributions of intellectual property and financial support on a |
| sound basis, and provides a vehicle for limiting legal exposure |
| while participating in open-source projects. |
| |
| Although the Foundation will oversee all Apache activities, the |
| technical aspects of each project will be governed by its own |
| project team. The ASF requires that all its projects remain open |
| to new contributors via Internet collaboration, and limits the |
| distribution of software under its name to a set of approved |
| open-source licenses, but does not interfere with the day-to-day |
| operations of each project. |
| |
| "IBM is pleased to be a part of today's announcement, which really |
| helps to further drive collaborative, open source development |
| within the broader community," said Robert LeBlanc, Vice President, |
| IBM Software Strategy. "IBM will also be providing code and a |
| dedicated team of programmers to the Apache Software Foundation, |
| including the Jakarta Project and will use the resulting code in |
| its commercial products, similar to its use of the Apache Web |
| Server today. Setting up the Foundation ensures that both |
| commercial software customers and the community will benefit from |
| the broad range of skills and partners in the marketplace." |
| |
| CONTINUED LEADERSHIP BY COMMUNITY MEMBERS |
| |
| ASF membership is open to individuals by invitation. Candidates |
| are judged by their technical contributions and skills, and must |
| be active collaborators on one or more of the Foundation's |
| projects. At present, only individuals may become members; however, |
| companies may be represented in the Foundation by individual |
| participants. |
| |
| "We hope that the open-source community, especially Apache software |
| users, will view this new corporate structure in the spirit that we |
| held when working toward its existence," said Randy Terbush, |
| CEO/CTO of Covalent Technologies. "Our ultimate goal was to preserve |
| the longevity of the Apache open-source development efforts while |
| extending the same benefits to other open-source projects that |
| fit logically under the Apache Software Foundation umbrella." |
| |
| The members of the Apache Software Foundation have elected a Board |
| of Directors to oversee the corporation and ensure its responsiveness |
| to the needs of its projects. The Board is comprised of |
| widely-recognized contributors to the original Apache Group: |
| |
| Brian Behlendorf (O'Reilly and Associates) |
| Ken Coar (IBM Corporation) |
| Roy T. Fielding (University of California, Irvine) |
| Ben Hyde (Gensym) |
| Jim Jagielski (jaguNET Access Services) |
| Ben Laurie (A.L. Digital Ltd.) |
| Sameer Parekh (C2Net) |
| Randy Terbush (Covalent Technologies) |
| Dirk-Willem van Gulik (WebWeaving Consultancy) |
| |
| "The Foundation will be guided by the same people who have |
| maintained the vision, principles and continuity of the Apache |
| projects over the past four years," added Fielding. |
| |
| APACHE OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECTS |
| |
| Projects overseen by the Apache Software Foundation carry forth |
| the commitment to open collaboration, active participation from |
| the Internet developer community, and freely available software. |
| |
| The Apache HTTP Server Project, the Foundation's best-known |
| project, was founded in 1995 as a collaborative effort to produce |
| an open-source, commercial-grade Web server in sync with the |
| Internet standards for the Hypertext Transfer Protocol [HTTP]. |
| Software produced by the Apache HTTP Server Project serves over |
| 61% of all public Internet websites, according to the June 1999 |
| Netcraft Web Server Survey [http://www.netcraft.com/survey/]. |
| Hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code, and documentation |
| to the project. Every eight seconds another Apache-based website |
| joins the existing 3.5 million on the Web. |
| |
| "Apache has had 'sister' projects for quite some time. We are now |
| formalizing that relationship, and ensuring that these projects benefit |
| from the same operating framework that the HTTP Server Project has |
| and will continue to have," explained Brian Behlendorf, ASF President. |
| |
| One such sister project is the recently announced Jakarta |
| Project -- the collaboration between Sun Microsystems, IBM, |
| Oracle, and the server-side Java development community. Sun |
| Microsystems is donating a significant amount of code to this |
| project, and plans to use code from Jakarta in their commercial |
| products and services. |
| |
| "There's a lot of trust in the Apache name, and we want to |
| maintain that," added Behlendorf. "We want to do what we can to |
| make the open-source development model really work." |
| |
| ABOUT THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION |
| |
| The Apache Software Foundation provides organizational, legal, and |
| financial support for the Apache open-source software projects. |
| Formerly known as the Apache Group, the Foundation incorporated as |
| a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation to ensure that the |
| Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation of |
| individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual |
| property and financial support, and to provide a vehicle for |
| limiting legal exposure while participating in open-source |
| projects. For more information on the Apache Software Foundation, |
| please see http://www.apache.org/ |