However, if the case is to be made that umbrella projects are not good things (something that I completely understand and agree with), then I would suggest that the current discussions on having product groupings within commons (see subject of this message thread) should cease immediately.
The goal should be that one group = one project = one PMC.
I think the groupings proposed here would be initially too small to warrant their own PMC as I believe one or two person efforts should not be a TLP, but rather something along the lines of 10-15 active contributors to seed a PMC is probably about the 'right' size for a TLP to be successful.
IMHO, only after a grouping attains a certain size whereby it can manage itself (and do so properly!) should the board support the creation of a TLP. I believe the creation of lots of small projects would just increase the burden of the board and would leave a lot of the projects unsure about how to run a TLP (especially if they are from Jakarta).
Case in point, I don't believe Serf should be a TLP. Now, if we had a collection of 10-15 developers all working (actively) on HTTP Client codebases, then perhaps a HTTP Client TLP makes sense. But, when the only active contributors to serf are right now Greg and myself, I think that'd be incredibly premature to ask for a TLP with an associated PMC. -- justin
