Apache Community Development!
Mission: The Community Development project creates and provides tools, processes, and advice, to help open source software projects improve their own community health. We are, of course, primarily focused on Apache Software Foundation (ASF) projects. However, because we believe that the Apache Way is, in fact, the best way to manage a software project, we strive also to make these artifacts releasable to the open source community as a whole.
We do not focus on specific projects here, but rather on the common processes and policies called The Apache Way found in most Apache projects. Our goal is to help you understand how the ASF works and give you the confidence to participate in the specific Apache projects that interest you.
Happy Birthday ASF! Join us in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ASF's founding.
New to Apache
Events & Mentoring
The Apache Way
Newcomers to Apache
If you are new to open source, our newcomers section explains basic concepts, first steps to get started, and places to ask for help.
To get our software, see our categorized listing of all Apache projects, which are always free to download and use.
The ASF is a large organization made up of many separate projects: each community may have different ways of working, while still following the basic Apache Way process.
Event Organizers and Speakers
We have a list of speaker resources for conference organizers and speakers, including some useful Apache slides.
Producers should read our Event Branding Policy for ticketed events, and we have some tips for organizing small, community events about Apache projects.
The master event calendar contains an aggregation of many different Apache-related events, including ApacheCon, BarCamps, and more.
The Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is a US 501(c)3 non-profit public charity. The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors, elected by our Membership, and we publish our monthly board meeting minutes.
Our mission is to create software for the public good that we give away for free. You can read how ASF and Apache projects are governed; we welcome your support to Apache in other ways.
Open Source Contributors
If you know a little about open source and want to understand how the ASF works our contributors section is for you.
We also have a collection of links to relevant information.
Apache Committers should read our committers section and see the Developer Information site.
Pilot Mentoring Programme with India ICFOSS
The Apache Software Foundation is now participating in a pilot project with India ICFOSS to provide mentoring for undergraduate and graduate students that have interest in learning how to participate in open source communities at ASF.
More information available at the Pilot Mentoring Programme page.
How Apache works
Our Apache Project Maturity Model defines a structure for evaluating our projects (communities & technology), that can serve as an example for other communities as well.
Interested in learning how the ASF works as a Foundation? Our how Apache works guide talks about the difference between ASF Members and project committers, who decides things (voting), how elections take place, how our infrastructure is setup, what is the board, what is a PMC, what's the philosophy behind the incubator.
How To Ask Questions
All Apache projects use publicly archived mailing lists that anyone may subscribe
to and/or ask questions related to that Apache project. Most projects have a
dev@project.apache.org mailing list for technical discussions about the code, and a
user@ or users@ mailing list for questions about the product or features.
We have a Code of Conduct and Etiquette guidelines to help you write good emails.
The ComDev project has our own mailing list where you can ask general questions
about Apache at dev@community.apache.org.
Google Summer of Code program (GSoC)
The Community Development project also manages the ASF's participation in the Google Summer of Code program. Each year, since 2005, we've taken on between 30 and 45 students. Many of these have gone on to be long term committers and even members of the foundation.
Read about a few of our GSoC successes.
FAQ & Code of Conduct
Please be nice! The ASF has a Code of Conduct that we expect participants in our mailing lists and projects to abide by.
If you still haven't found what you are looking for, try our FAQ, send us an e-mail at dev@community.apache.org, or read the Community mail archives.