The organisational body behind the Apache projects
Apache today means far more than just the
most popular web server on
the Internet since April of 1996. The web server is now
just one of dozens of high quality, best-in-class products
produced by
Apache
projects. These projects commonly contain sub-projects,
notably the Jakarta project which has many server-side Java
projects under it.
Whilst the products of the Apache projects are often the best
available, there is always a concern that a Project might not
exist beyond the participation of individual volunteers - in
other words there are support concerns. To adddress this, the
ASF exists to provide a corporate context for individual
Projects. Members of the ASF are nominated and elected by
their peers, whilst management of the organizational affairs
of the ASF is via the
Board of
Directors, elected by the members.
The ASF
FAQ is very helpful in understanding the purpose and
standing of the ASQ.
One of the most interesting implications of the ASF in in the
ownership of source code. The FAQ covers this as follows:
All software developed within the Foundation belongs to the
ASF, and therefore the members. The members own the code and
the direction of it and the Foundation. Committers get a shot
at working on the code; good committers become members and
thus get a piece of the ownership of the software and the
direction.
Commit access is a privilege, not a right, and is based on
trust.
The
Apache Software
Foundation provides organizational, legal,
and financial support for a broad range of open source
software projects. It was legally incorporated in the USA as
"THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION"
under the "General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware".
This covers the not-for-profit tax status of the ASF as well
as formalising the purpose of the ASF to 'the creation and
maintenance of "open source" software distributed by the
Corporation to the public at no charge'.
The ASF provides some very well presented documentation about
itself including the
ASF FAQ,
ASF Licences,
ASF Public
Records,
Information on how
to contribute,
Thanks for major
donations.
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