Hi Joe,
Here is draft that I've promised. Can you please review it and tell me
if I can post it in "Success at Apache" and in my personnal blog also
(through a link to the ASF) .
Best
Etienne
title: *My experience with the Apache Way: a perfect society ?*
*
*
🕥 7 min.
Introducion
I have been working in software engineering for more than 15 years. I've
always contributed to Open Source software as a user or a coder. But
I've been contributing toASF
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>projects
such asApache Flink
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>,Apache
Beam
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>orApache
Spark
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#> for
nearly 6 years. It is long enough for me to say that I find*the Apache
Way* is almost the best way to collaborate on software engineering.
I will not describe the Apache way here as there are a lot of good
content about that already. I will rather link tothe official Apache
documentation
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>.
I humbly suggest that you read what it is if you don't know it already.
My point here is to describe the consequences of the Apache Way as I see
them. Of course, every Apache community is different, but what I wanted
to emphasize is that applying the Apache Way by the book could lead to
what I'd call a "perfect society" even if this word seems a bit naive
and over optimistic or even utopian.
A perfect society
/Actually, working with the Apache way was a revelation to me !/
The Apache Way leads in many ways to Open Source Communities behave like
a sort of perfect society:
The community is governed by merit: everything is about what you do
inside the community and at some point your efforts are noted and you
get credit for your work by obtaining more rights (direct access to the
project repositories, election ofcommitters
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>etc..).
Merit also drives decisions, discussing solutions and voting for the
best one leads to the best possible state of the project in the end. The
best idea always wins in the long term.
The software is not driven by money: no private concerns should
take over. When the incubation process is well advanced, before
graduation, theASF bord
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>makes
sure that the aspiring community is well developed (users and developers
communities are big enough), healthy and also not owned by a single
company and its private financial considerations. This ensures best
decisions for the software itself but also a long term maintenance of
the software.
It is inclusive: every voice matters, everyone is considered equal no
matter your personal background, your education, ethnic or nationality,
every contribution is good to take. Community members recognize that
people skills may be different and complementary to theirs. So
contributions might come from anyone, from anywhere and in any form
(blog post, documentation, talk, code, website...)
Communities are welcoming: they always search for new talents to join
their forces. Be welcoming is always very important to build and grow a
community. The Open Source community is also a great place for people to
grow. The way people collaborate is generally by mentoring. Experienced
contributors help new comers or experts share their thoughts with
others. It is really also a good way for mentors to share their passion
and inspire mentorees. Mentoring is even in the DNA of the ASF starting
withthe incubator
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#> when
the podling community profits from the experience and advice of a mentor
to grow in the Apache Way and become atop level project
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>.
Communities are self-organised: there is no manager but only
technical leaders and mentors. People are self-motivated and I must say
that it is the best form of motivation ever! Decision making is both
simple and efficient: there is no solely decision, feedback is always
very important. People are willing to share their thoughts and solve the
problems together.
Community members are always benevolent: they are always willing to
share their thoughts, review PRs, share advice, accept change requests
or bug tickets. People are wiling to accept criticism without being
defensive. The master word is transparency.
Last but not least, people behave friendly: public communication
(one of the ASF master words is "what did not happen publicly never
happened") forces people to communicate in a positive way: for example
by asking questions or suggesting rather than affirming or asking for
thoughts rather than disagreeing bluntly. An Open Source contributor
always tries to put himself in the other person's shoes, trying to not
hurt his feelings and to not demotivate him.
=> Considering all of this, what I can tell is that it is the way we all
would like people and society in
general to behave, no ?
Daily life
The funny thing is that it goes even further, after some years of
applying this philosophy (I was told lately that it felt almost like a
religion 😄) at work on a full time basis, you start applying it to
daily life outside of work. It becomes your standard way of behaving in
society: meritocracy becomes a second nature, for example you reward
your home builders with gifts and public credit because they did a good
job, you reward your kids for good school work etc... You also start to
give time to others and share your knowledge, mentoring becomes a second
nature.Another big thing which is very visible is that you now always
take good care to give positive communication, leading to positive and
constructive thinking. Positivism also becomes a second nature.
On a professional basis, an important thing is that merit never
expires. So, if you gain committership on a project, or become aPMC
member
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>or
even anASF member
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>,
it is for life ! So your skills are recognized by your pairs for your
whole career. This is an incredible credit and a tremendous trust mark !
Can be a bit challenging
In order to avoid being seen as a total idealist 😉, I need to temper a bit:
I remember when I first joined an Open Source community, I felt
intimidated. Community members are generally very senior level and very
high skilled developers. But, remember what is written above: every
contribution is good to take. And, with time and mentoring, everyone
deserves his place inside the community.
The other thing I felt a bit difficult when I joined is to find
where to start: some projects are old enough to have a large community
so the amount of code is pretty high. But here again mentoring comes
into play: mentors can give you pointers on hot topics, starter tickets
or simply areas that need maintenance. And within time, you'll be
recognized as an expert in a given area and the exciting subjects will
come to you. And if you feel like you want to join a smaller community
try joining a project which is still in the incubator
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#> phase
!
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed these insights and I hope it gave you the envy to
join a Open Source community.
Le 25/02/2022 à 09:38, Etienne Chauchot a écrit :
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your answer and your views !
Yes, I'll send a draft webpage here before publishing. Then, after
review, we could publish to the ASF blog in "Success at Apache" and I
can definitely link to the ASF blog post in my personal blog so that
there is only one publishing place.
Regarding the Apache Way, I mentioned it only for new comers to be
informed, but I totally agree, it would be redundant. So I propose
that we just link an article about the Apache Way at the beginning of
my article. Do you have a good link to send me ?
I'll then describe my experience in the continuation of the article,
that was indeed the whole point of the article !
WDYT ?
Thanks.
Etienne.
Le 18/02/2022 à 19:23, Joe Brockmeier a écrit :
Hi Etienne,
Sorry for the delayed response - missed this the first go-around.
Can you shoot a draft *before* posting to your site? Ideally we'd
post in one place. If not we can always promote it on Twitter and
LinkedIn.
From the initial email, though - I'd steer away from describing "The
Apache Way" and focus on your experience instead. The Apache Way has
been covered, at length, already. I'd focus on what your success
looks like.
Describing how The Apache Way has informed your success would be great.
Thanks!
jzb
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 4:52 AM Etienne Chauchot
<echauc...@apache.org> wrote:
Hi Bertrand!
Thanks. I totally agree. I'll post on my personal blog post and
send a
link here.
Best
Etienne Chauchot
Le 18/02/2022 à 10:48, Bertrand Delacretaz a écrit :
> Hi Etienne,
>
> Le ven. 18 févr. 2022 à 10:43, Etienne Chauchot
<echauc...@apache.org> a écrit :
>> ...Any news about this proposal ? Can I start writing the blog
post ? ...
> I don't have decision power on what's published in "Success at
Apache"
> but I'd say go for it!
>
> An actual draft is IMO the best way to convince people, and if
they're
> not convinced there's lots of other places where you can post.
>
> -Bertrand
--
Joe Brockmeier
Vice President Marketing & Publicity
j...@apache.org
