The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2009. Over the past ten years, the ASF has helped open source developers collaborate on large complex projects. The ASF is most well-known as the owners of the code for the Apache web server (httpd), one of the most commonly used web servers on the Internet today. This article examines the reasons behind ASF's success at retaining developers worldwide and building quality projects consistently year after year.
One reason that the Apache Software Foundation has been able to thrive is that as a non-profit corporation, the ASF is a separate legal entity. This provides a number of advantages to the developers working on code owned by ASF. First, it allows ASF to enter into contracts and sign non-disclosure agreements as needed on behalf of all the developers. The most important aspect however is that it protects the individual developers from legal liability for their code. The ASF assumes all liability for the code owned by the foundation. This safety net helps to encourage developers to work on code for the ASF.
Another reason for Apache Software Foundation's success is its policy of non-affiliation, which prevents corporate politics from dividing its community. While developers from various companies can work on ASF projects, they do so only as individual developers. This prevents commercial interests from taking precedence over the interests of the community.
The ASF has also developed a commercial friendly software license. While the Apache license is still an open source license, it is much friendlier to using ASF code in commercial applications. This was done to encourage companies to use the stable code developed by the ASF instead of their own potentially buggy implementations. This friendliness towards commercial interests has helped make Apache software projects some of the most widely deployed products.
The Apache Software Foundation has also implemented a consistent process for managing and developing open source projects. They use an incubation system to teach new project teams how to use their process. While many have criticized this process as overly bureaucratic, it has resulted in code that is of much higher quality. Additionally, the process helps to foster better collaboration among developers. This consistent development process is probably one of the greatest reasons that the Apache Software Foundation has been so successful.
Another system the ASF is well-known for is the so-called "meritocracy". What this implies is that the membership in the community is not based on any politics or individual connections but rather on each developer's merit. Those wanting to join the Apache Software Foundation are encouraged to find a project and begin contributing to it. The developer's contributions earn him membership in the ASF. This merit based system is inherently fair and one of the reasons that the Apache community has remained cohesive for over ten years.
The Apache Software Foundation has been one of the most successful open source organizations in existence. Over the last decade they have refined a number of processes and systems that encourage collaboration among developers while remaining friendly to the commercial interests. They have also found ways to minimize internal politics by using a merit based system. Their ability to thrive and their wide-spread success suggest that the Apache Software Foundation is an excellent model to copy for any open source development organization.
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