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 to ASF
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#> projects such as
Apache Flink <https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#>,
Apache Beam <https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#> or
Apache 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 to the 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 of
committers
<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, the ASF 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 with the 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 a top 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 a PMC member
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1438124655819523792/141840252120770949#> or
even an ASF 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
