| THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION'S "APACHE WAY" |
| CONTINUES TO GAIN MOMENTUM, RECOGNITION, AND INFLUENCE |
| ON THE FUTURE OF OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES |
| |
| FOREST HILL MD – 17 June 2008 – The Apache Software |
| Foundation (ASF) -- stewards, incubators, and |
| developers of leading Open Source projects -– today |
| announced that both the organization's community and |
| its meritocratic process (known as "the Apache Way") |
| continues to gain recognition as one of the most |
| influential, prominent, and innovative leaders in Open |
| Source. |
| |
| A midyear review of the initiatives underway at the |
| all-volunteer Foundation showed that not only does the |
| Apache HTTP Server continue to be the world's most |
| popular Web server software, but numerous ASF Projects |
| lead the way in Open Source technology, and the ASF |
| community is also playing a vital role in championing |
| the collaborative development of consensus-driven, |
| enterprise-grade solutions. |
| |
| "The demand for quality Open Source products continues |
| to grow," said ASF Chairman Jim Jagielski. "A |
| significant number of organizations depend on |
| Apache-developed solutions. As the landscape continues |
| to evolve, through our thought leadership, |
| well-established process, and ability to spearhead new |
| projects while maintaining an active, healthy |
| community, we're poised to successfully deliver |
| software that meets the demands of the marketplace and |
| helps our users achieve their business goals." |
| |
| The newly-redesigned ASF Website |
| (http://www.apache.org/) reflects how the Apache Way |
| is realized through its new tagline, "Meritocracy in |
| Action": more than 1,500 ASF Committers and countless |
| contributors and users collaborate to the development |
| of Apache-related activities across the Open Source |
| landscape. The ASF are responsible for millions of |
| lines of code and roughly one dozen servers comprising |
| its infrastructure; nearly 500 community-driven |
| modules have been developed to extend functionality of |
| the Apache HTTP Server alone. |
| |
| 2008 ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE |
| |
| Board: The ASF recently held its Members' Meeting that |
| included the election of the following Members to the |
| ASF Board of Directors: Bertrand Delacretaz, Justin |
| Erenkrantz, J. Aaron Farr, Jim Jagielski, Geir |
| Magnusson Jr., William Rowe Jr., Sam Ruby, Henning |
| Schmiedehausen, and Greg Stein. |
| |
| The annually-elected ASF Board oversees the management |
| of the Foundation; in turn, the Board appoints a set |
| of officers to manage the day-to-day operations and |
| oversee ASF Projects and initiatives. |
| |
| Membership: The founding 21 individuals who oversaw |
| the development of the Apache HTTP Server formed the |
| Foundation's core membership. The group grew with the |
| addition of "Committers": developers who contributed |
| code, patches, or documentation, and were subsequently |
| granted access by the Membership to: 1) "commit" or |
| "write" directly to the code repository; 2) to vote on |
| community-related decisions; and 3) propose an active |
| user for Committership. Committers who demonstrate |
| merit in the Foundation's growth, evolution, and |
| progress are nominated for ASF Membership by existing |
| members. |
| |
| The ASF as a whole, including its Board, Officers, |
| Members, and Committers, is composed of individuals |
| participating solely on behalf of the Foundation. |
| Whilst corporations are unable to qualify for |
| Membership, those contributing to ASF projects who are |
| employed by corporate entities are able to participate |
| in ASF activities during "work time", but are expected |
| to act as individuals, independent of their employer, |
| unless stated otherwise under very specific |
| circumstances. A key strength of the ASF is that |
| affiliations do not cloud personal contributions – a |
| prescript that applies to all Members. |
| |
| The recent ASF Membership vote closed with the |
| election of 17 new Members, totaling 276. |
| |
| Sponsorship: The ASF is a private, 501(c)(3) |
| non-profit charitable organization, funded solely |
| through tax-deductible contributions from |
| corporations, foundations, and individuals. To help |
| offset day-to-day operating expenses, The ASF created |
| its Sponsorship Program in late 2006. The Foundation |
| welcomed two new sponsors: |
| |
| - Silver Level: IONA Technologies (NASDAQ: IONA), and |
| - Bronze Level: Matt Mullenweg |
| |
| … to the following organizations and individuals whose |
| generous contributions continue to help advance the |
| work of The ASF: |
| |
| - Platinum Level: Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo! |
| (NASDAQ: YHOO) |
| - Gold Level: HP (NYSE: HPQ) |
| - Silver Level: Covalent |
| - Bronze Level: AirPlus International, Tetsuya |
| Kitahata, and Two Sigma Investments |
| |
| |
| ApacheCon: Now in its tenth year, the official user |
| and developer conference, trainings, and expo of The |
| Apache Software Foundation continues to explore some |
| of the hottest topics in Open Source. The continued |
| interest and increased adoption of Open Source |
| technologies in Europe is reflected in the success of |
| ApacheCon Europe held in Amsterdam in April, which |
| boasted an increase in participation by 40%. ApacheCon |
| US will be held in New Orleans on 3-7 November 2008, |
| and will feature several enhancements to bring the |
| Apache community of developers and users together, |
| including expanded tracks, more Fast Feather |
| presentations, the OFBiz Symposium (a dedicated |
| "track" to the Apache Open For Business Project's |
| suite of enterprise applications), as well as |
| CampApache (a one-day, ad-hoc gathering with |
| discussions, demos and interaction from participants |
| to share and learn in an open environment). |
| |
| Community Outreach: For the third consecutive year, |
| the ASF is participating in the Google Summer of Code. |
| As part of its ongoing mentorship on "the Apache Way", |
| 32 ASF representatives have paired up with student |
| developers from Algeria, Austria, Brazil, China, |
| Croatia, France, India, Hungary, the Netherlands, |
| Norway, Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, the Ukraine, and |
| the United States for the opportunity to collaborate |
| on 78 different tasks using Apache Projects such as |
| Axis2, Cayenne, Derby, Harmony, ODE, Roller, Sling, |
| Solr, Tuscany, and Xerces2-J, as well as several |
| projects in the Apache Incubator. |
| |
| In addition, the Foundation had participated in the |
| Google Highly Open Participation (GHOP) Contest, which |
| concluded in February. This initiative tasked nearly |
| 400 pre-university students worldwide to produce a |
| variety of Open Source code, documentation, training |
| materials and user experience research for ten |
| participating organizations, including the ASF. |
| Spencer Davis, GHOP Grand Prize winner chosen from the |
| ASF's student contestants, will be joined by Bertrand |
| Delacretaz, GHOP project administrator for the ASF, at |
| the competition’s awards ceremony in July. |
| |
| Project Achievements: With just two Projects (Apache |
| HTTP Server, and the ApacheCon Conference Planning |
| committee) at its inception, The ASF today comprises |
| 62 Top-Level Projects (TLPs), 24 projects under |
| Incubation (comprising both the codebase and its |
| community, known as Podlings), and 20 active |
| initiatives registered in the Apache Labs. |
| |
| Each ASF Project is managed by a self-selected team of |
| technical experts who actively contribute to the |
| project according to the guidelines for collaborative |
| development best suited to that particular project. |
| The day-to-day activity of each TLP (and any |
| sub-projects) is overseen by Project Management |
| Committees (PMCs). |
| |
| For twelve years running, the Apache HTTP Server |
| remains the #1 Web server, powering more than 75 |
| million Websites across the Internet, according to the |
| Netcraft May 2008 Web Server Survey. In addition, the |
| 1 June Web Server Survey by Security Space shows that |
| Apache continues to hold 74% market penetration across |
| all Web Server domains. |
| |
| Both Incubating- and sub-projects continue to go from |
| strength to strength. The following initiatives have |
| graduated to ASF Top-Level Projects (TLPs): |
| |
| - Apache Hadoop (sub-project of Apache Lucene; PMC |
| Chair: Owen O'Malley) — January 2008 |
| - Apache Continuum (sub-project of Apache Maven; PMC |
| Chair: Emmanuel Venisse) — February 2008 |
| - Apache Archiva (sub-project of Apache Maven; PMC |
| Chair: Maria Odea Ching) — March 2008 |
| - Apache CXF (from the Apache Incubator; PMC Chair: |
| Daniel Kulp) — April 2008 |
| - Apache Tuscany (sub-project of Apache Web Services; |
| PMC Chair: Ant Elder) — May 2008 |
| |
| Additional Project announcements include the release |
| of: Apache HTTP Server 2.2.9; Apache Cocoon 2.2.0; |
| Apache Portable Runtime 1.3.0; Apache Lucene Java |
| 2.3.0; Apache Harmony 5.0M6; Apache Lenya 2.0; Apache |
| CXF 2.1; Apache Wicket 1.3; Apache Jackrabbit 1.4; |
| Apache Batik 1.7; Apache Axis2/C 1.3.0; Apache QPid |
| 2.1. |
| |
| Recognition and Awards: The ASF continues to garner |
| ongoing recognition by editors, technical experts, |
| writers, analysts, and other industry influencers. The |
| "buzz" generated by many of The ASF's Projects are |
| testament to its innovation and leadership within the |
| Open Source community. Recent awards include: |
| |
| - Java Community Process (JCP) Member of the Year |
| The ASF won its third Member of the Year prize awarded |
| by the JCP Program Management Office. Geir Magnusson, |
| Vice President of the ASF JCP committee and JCP |
| Executive Committee member, accepted this prestigious |
| award on behalf of the ASF at the JCP Spec Lead Dinner |
| on 6 May. "The ASF |
| has been active and engaged since the beginning, with |
| wide participation at both the EC level and in |
| projects, as members of Expert Groups," said Magnusson |
| in his acceptance speech. |
| |
| - InfoWorld BOSSIE Award: Apache SpamAssassin |
| Apache SpamAssassin won the InfoWorld "Best Of Open |
| Source Software" BOSSIE Award, as the winner in the |
| anti-spam category. According to InfoWorld "Our Bossie |
| winner for anti-spam is the ubiquitous SpamAssassin. |
| Powerful, extensible, and effective, SpamAssassin uses |
| a trainable neural network engine to identify spam and |
| minimize false positives, in addition to the classic |
| techniques of blacklisting and Bayesian filtering." |
| |
| - Eclipse Community Award: Apache Directory Studio |
| Apache Directory Studio finishes as runner-up for Best |
| Open Source RCP Application at the Eclipse Community |
| Awards announced on 18 March at EclipseCon. Earlier |
| that week, the Apache Directory team announced the |
| second release candidate for the version 1.1.0 Apache |
| Directory Studio, its Eclipse based LDAP Browser and |
| Directory client. |
| |
| - JAX Innovation Award: Apache Sling |
| Barely six months under incubation, Apache Sling – the |
| Web framework that uses a Java Content Repository, |
| such as Apache Jackrabbit, to store and manage content |
| – won a JAX Innovation Award on 25 April. The award |
| was accepted on behalf of the project by Committers |
| Carsten Ziegeler and Felix Meschberger, who were |
| excited to spread the word that Apache Sling is |
| "bringing back the fun (to Java development)!" |
| |
| - SD Times 100: Influencers; Application Servers |
| The ASF topped the Software Development (SD) Times 100 |
| list of Industry Influencers for the third year |
| running. The sixth edition of these coveted awards was |
| published on 2 June in recognition of the |
| organizations or individuals that have demonstrated |
| innovation and leadership in their markets. "Apache |
| stayed on top of its game, continuing to offer |
| enterprise-class sever software at a price not even |
| Microsoft could match," stated the SD Times, bestowing |
| Apache its third server award, highlighting Apache |
| Geronimo powering proprietary server solutions, and |
| Apache Tomcat as the most popular Java application |
| server. |
| |
| |
| Users and developers interested in becoming involved |
| with any of the above initiatives are invited to |
| download software, join mailing lists, submit |
| patches/bug fixes/documentation, and offer feedback |
| through the Projects listed on the ASF Website. |
| |
| ABOUT THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION |
| Established in 1999, The Apache Software Foundation |
| provides organizational, legal, and financial support |
| for a broad range of Open Source software projects, |
| including Apache HTTP Server — the world's most |
| popular Web server software for more than a decade. |
| The Foundation provides an established framework for |
| intellectual property and financial contributions that |
| simultaneously limits contributors' potential legal |
| exposure. Through a collaborative and meritocratic |
| development process, Apache projects deliver |
| enterprise-grade, freely available software products |
| that attract large communities of users. The pragmatic |
| Apache License makes it easy for all users, commercial |
| and individual, to deploy Apache products. For more |
| information, please see http://www.apache.org/ |