blob: 47d26beaea2be70e6a43223d4ce41e30968fb31a [file] [log] [blame]
Title: Foundation Project
license: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
<br>
The mission of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is to provide software
for the public good. We do this by providing services and support for many
like-minded software project communities consisting of individuals who choose
to participate in ASF activities.
# What is the ASF? #
Established in 1999, the ASF is a US 501(c)(3) charitable organization, funded by
individual donations and corporate sponsors. Our all-volunteer board oversees
more than 350 leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server --
the world's most popular Web server software.
The ASF provides an established framework for
intellectual property and financial contributions that simultaneously limits potential
legal exposure for our project committers.
Through the ASF's meritocratic process known as "[[]The Apache Way](/theapacheway/)," more than 850 individual
Members and 8,200 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available
enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software
solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates
in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation's official user
conference, trainings, and expo.
# How did the ASF and Apache&reg; projects grow? #
Formerly known as the Apache Group, the ASF was [[]incorporated](records/certificate.html) in 1999 as
a [[]membership-based][[]1], not-for-profit corporation in order to ensure that the
Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation of individual
volunteers. Individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to collaborative
open-source software development, through sustained participation and
contributions within the Foundation's projects, are eligible for membership
in the ASF. An individual is awarded membership after nomination and
approval by a majority of the existing [[]ASF members](members.html). Thus,
the ASF is governed by the community it most directly serves -- the people
collaborating within its projects.
# How are the ASF and Apache projects governed? #
The [[]ASF members](members.html) periodically elect a [[]Board of
Directors](board/) to manage the organizational affairs of the Foundation,
as accorded by the [[]ASF Bylaws](bylaws.html). The Board, in turn, appoints
a number of officers to oversee the day-to-day operations of the
Foundation. A number of **[[]public records](records/)** of our operation are
made available to the community. A more detailed explanation of [[]How the
ASF works](how-it-works.html) in terms of day to day operations is
available, and the [[]Apache Community Development project](http://community.apache.org/)'s
goal is to help newcomers learn more about the Apache Software Foundation.
Individual Apache projects are in turn
governed directly by Project Management Committees (PMC) made up of
individuals who have shown merit and leadership within those projects.
There are detailed descriptions of [[]ASF and project governance models](governance/).
# What is the role of ASF Members? #
As a Delaware membership corporation, [[]Apache Members](governance/members.html) are like shareholders in
the legal corporation. Members vote on the Board of Directors and may propose
new Member candidates at [[]Annual Member's Meetings](governance/meetings).
Members have a [[]number of rights and responsibilities documented in our Governance guide](governance/members.html).
Note that Apache Members have a role with respect to the ASF as a corporation and
their [[]role is defined in the ASF's bylaws][[]2]. This is separate from membership in
our many Apache Project Management Committees, who are only responsible for
development and community management in their individual project.
# Who runs the ASF? #
The membership of the ASF elects the 9 member board to run the foundation
and to set and ensure policy. The directors of the board are:
<!--
N.B. Also: http://apache.org/foundation/board/
-->
#### Board members ####
<!--
The tables below are now updated automatically from committee-info.json
See asfdata.yaml, theme/plugins/asfdata.py which sets up the data
----
Not currently appointed, see Dec 2020 board meeting minutes
V.P., Finance | ci.finance.chair |
-->
| | | |
|-----------|-------------|-------------|
| {{ board.0.name }} | {{ board.1.name }} | {{ board.2.name }} |
| {{ board.3.name }} | {{ board.4.name }} | {{ board.5.name }} |
| {{ board.6.name }} | {{ board.7.name }} | {{ board.8.name }} |
#### Officers ####
The Board has appointed the following corporate officers of the ASF:
| Office | Individual |
|-----------|-------------|
| Board Chair | {{ ci.boardchair.roster }} |
| Vice Chair | {{ ci.vicechair.roster }} |
| President | {{ ci.president.roster }} |
| Exec. V.P | {{ ci.execvp.roster }} |
| Treasurer | {{ ci.treasurer.roster }} |
| Assistant Treasurer | {{ ci.assistanttreasurer.roster }} |
| Secretary | {{ ci.secretary.roster }} |
| Assistant Secretary | {{ ci.assistantsecretary.roster }} |
| V.P., [[]Legal Affairs](/legal/) | {{ ci.legal.chair }} |
| Assistant V.P., [[]Legal Affairs](/legal/) | {{ ci.assistantvplegalaffairs.roster }} |
| V.P., [[]Security](/security/) | {{ ci.security.chair }} |
| V.P., Data Privacy | {{ ci.dataprivacy.chair }} |
| V.P., [[]W3C Relations](https://whimsy.apache.org/board/minutes/W3C_Relations.html) | {{ ci.w3crelations.roster }} |
The President has appointed the following corporate officers of the ASF:
| Office | Individual |
|-----------|-------------|
| V.P., [[]Brand Management](marks/) | {{ ci.brand.chair }} |
| V.P., [[]Conferences](https://events.apache.org/) | {{ ci.concom.chair }} |
| V.P., [[]Diversity and Inclusion](http://diversity.apache.org/) | {{ ci.diversity.chair }} |
| V.P., Fundraising | {{ ci.fundraising.chair }} |
| V.P., [[]Infrastructure](/dev/) | {{ ci.infrastructure.roster }} |
| V.P., [[]Marketing and Publicity](/press/) | {{ ci.marketingandpublicity.chair }} |
| V.P., [[]Travel Assistance](/travel/) | {{ ci.tac.chair }} |
| [[]Infrastructure Administrator](/dev/) | {{ ci.infrastructureadministrator.roster }} |
VP, Fundraising has appointed the following corporate officers of the ASF:
| Office | Individual |
|-----------|-------------|
| V.P., Sponsor Relations | {{ ci.sponsorrelations.roster }} |
#### PMC chairs ####
The Board has appointed the following Vice Presidents to chair the PMCs
of each Apache project:
| Office | Individual |
|-----------|-------------|[for projects]
| V.P., [if-any projects.site][[][end]Apache [projects.display_name][if-any projects.site]]([projects.site])[end] | [projects.chair] |[end]
The Foundation is a collaborative project of the ASF. Our goal is to build
and sustain the literal foundation upon which our open-source software
projects are based.
[[]1]: /foundation/governance/
[[]2]: /foundation/bylaws.html#meetings-of-members