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 <mailto: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
<mailto: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 <mailto:j...@apache.org>
