Grant My view is that at this stage it doesn't matter. I think it helps that there are two communities that have an active interest in the proposed podling. Over time the podling can either verge towards one or the other project or target becoming a TLP.
Paul On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 2:53 PM, Grant Ingersoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > So, I'm new to championing (but read the brief docs on the proposal guide). > One question I have is related to the Sponsoring PMC. The proposal > indicates two Sponsoring Entities. When does that need to be resolved? Or > is this going to be a TLP? Or, does it not matter? > > -Grant > > On Sep 22, 2008, at 4:24 PM, Thorsten Scherler wrote: > >> This is a proposal to enter the incubator. >> >> See http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/DroidsProposal for the most >> up-to-date version. >> >> As Champion we have Grant Ingersoll <gsingers at apache dot org> from >> the ASF. >> >> Droids is an Apache Labs project and we are still looking for some >> mentors for this proposal. >> >> We look forward to comments and discussion. >> >> = Droids, an intelligent standalone robot framework = >> >> === Abstract === >> >> Droids aims to be an intelligent standalone robot framework that allows >> to create and extend existing droids (robots). >> >> === Proposal === >> >> As a standalone robot framework Droids will offer infrastructure code to >> create and extend existing robots. In the future it will offer as well a >> web based administration application to manage and controll the >> different droids which will communicate with this app. >> >> Droids makes it very easy to extend existing robots or write a new one >> from scratch, which can automatically seek out relevant online >> information based on the user's specifications. Since the flexible >> design it can reuse directly all custom business logic that are written >> in java. >> >> In the long run it should become umbrella for specialized droids that >> are hosted as sub-projects. Where an ultimate goal is to integrate an >> artificial intelligence that can control a swarm of droids and actively >> plan/react on different tasks. >> >> === Background === >> >> The initial idea for the Droids project was voiced in February 2007 from >> Thorsten Scherler mainly because of personal curiosity and developed as >> a labs project. The background of his work was that Cocoon trunk (2.2) >> did not provide a crawler anymore and Forrest was based on it, meaning >> we could not update anymore till we found a crawler replacement. Getting >> more involved in Solr and Nutch he saw the request for a generic >> standalone crawler. >> >> For the first version he took nutch, ripped out and modified the >> plugin/extension framework. However the second version were not based on >> it anymore but was using Spring instead. The main reason was that Spring >> has become a standard and helped to make Droids as extensible as >> possible. >> >> Soon the first plugins and sample droids had been added to the code >> based. >> >> === Rationale === >> >> There is ever more demand for tools that automatically do determinate >> tasks. Search engines such as Nuts are normally very focused on a >> specific functionality and are not focused on extensibility. Furthermore >> there are manly focused on crawling, requesting certain pages and >> extract links to other pages, which in our opinion is only one small >> area for automated robots. While there are a number of existing crawler >> libraries for various task, each of them comes with a custom API and >> there are no generic interface for automatically determining which >> crawler (droids) to use for a specific task. >> >> The Droids project attempts to remove this duplication of efforts. We >> believe that by pooling the efforts of multiple projects we will be able >> to create a generic robot framework that exceeds the capabilities and >> quality of the custom solutions of any single project. The focus of >> Droids is not a single crawler but more to offer different reusable >> components that custom droids (robots) can use to automate certain >> tasks. An intelligent standalone robot framework project will not only >> provide common ground for the developers of crawler but as well for any >> other automated application (robots) libraries. >> >> === Initial Goals === >> >> The initial goals of the proposed project are: >> >> * Viable community around the Droids codebase >> * Active relationships and possible cooperation with related projects >> and communities (e.g. reusing Tika for text extraction) >> * Generic robot API for crawling, extracting structured text content >> and/or new task, filtering task and handle the content >> * Flexible extension and plugin development to create a wide range of >> functionality >> * Fuel develop of various droids and bring the current wget style >> crawler to state-of-the-art level >> >> == Current Status == >> >> === Meritocracy === >> >> All the initial committers are familiar with the meritocracy principles >> of Apache, and have already worked on the various source codebases. We >> will follow the normal meritocracy rules also with other potential >> contributors. >> >> === Community === >> >> There is not yet a clear Droids community. Instead we have a number of >> people and related projects with an understanding that an intelligent >> standalone robot framework project would best serve everyone's >> interests. The primary goal of the incubating project is to build a >> self-sustaining community around this shared vision. >> >> === Core Developers === >> >> The initial set of developers comes from various backgrounds, with >> different but compatible needs for the proposed project. >> >> === Alignment === >> >> As a generic robot framework Droids will likely be widely used by >> various open source and commercial projects both together with and >> independent of other Apache tools. Apache projects like Cocoon, Lenya >> and Forrest are potential candidates for using different droids as an >> embedded component. >> >> == Known Risks == >> >> === Orphaned products === >> >> Till now only one company is known to use Droids in a productive >> environment however there is a constant interest in a generic robot >> framework expressed by various Apache committers. For many potential >> users the existing tools are to complicated or too much focused on a >> specific usecase which will help to gain a bigger user base. >> >> Once the project gets started we can quickly build the wget style droids >> to a feature level of existing tools based on plugin development that >> reuses code from sources mentioned below. After that we believe to be >> able to quickly grow the developer and user communities based on the >> benefits of a generic framework offering reusable plugins and different >> droids over custom alternatives. >> >> === Inexperience with Open Source === >> >> All the initial developers have worked on open source before and many >> are committers and PMC members within other Apache projects. >> >> === Homogenous Developers === >> >> The initial developers come from a variety of backgrounds and with a >> variety of needs for the proposed toolkit. >> >> === Reliance on Salaried Developers === >> >> Some of the developers are paid to work develop certain functionality on >> this, but the proposed project is not the primary task for anyone. >> >> === Relationships with Other Apache Products === >> >> TBN >> >> === A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand === >> >> All of us are familiar with Apache and we have participated in Apache >> projects as contributors, committers, and PMC members. We feel that the >> Apache Software Foundation is a natural home for a project like this. >> >> == Documentation == >> >> The main documentation is distributed with the code >> >> * [http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/labs/droids/trunk/docs/ Docu] >> * [http://people.apache.org/~thorsten/droids/ DocuDeployed] >> >> == Initial Source == >> >> Droids will start with the code base that have been developed in the >> Apache Labs project: >> >> * [http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/labs/droids/trunk/ code base] >> >> == Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan == >> >> All seed code and other contributions will be handled through the normal >> Apache contribution process. >> >> We will also contact other related efforts for possible cooperation and >> contributions. >> >> == External Dependencies == >> >> Droids will mainly depend on the Spring core distribution. >> >> == Cryptography == >> >> Droids itself will not use cryptography, but it is possible that some of >> the external libraries will include cryptographic code to handle >> different features. >> >> == Required Resources == >> >> Mailing lists >> >> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> Subversion Directory >> >> * https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/droids >> >> Issue Tracking >> >> * JIRA Droids (DROIDS) >> >> Other Resources >> >> * none >> >> == Initial Committers == >> >> || '''Name''' || '''Email''' || >> '''CLA''' || >> || Thorsten Scherler || thorsten at apache dot org || yes >> || >> || Ryan !McKinley || ryan at apache dot org || yes >> || >> || Grant Ingersoll || gsingers at apache dot org || >> yes || >> >> == Affiliations == >> >> || '''Name''' || '''Affiliation''' >> || >> || Thorsten Scherler || Freelancer || >> >> >> == Sponsors == >> >> Champion >> >> Grant Ingersoll >> >> Nominated Mentors >> >> TBN >> >> Sponsoring Entity >> >> * [http://hc.apache.org/ Apache HttpComponents] >> * [http://lucene.apache.org/ Apache Lucene] >> >> >> >> -- >> Thorsten Scherler thorsten.at.apache.org >> Open Source Java consulting, training and solutions >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > > -------------------------- > Grant Ingersoll > http://www.lucidimagination.com > > Lucene Helpful Hints: > http://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/BasicsOfPerformance > http://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/LuceneFAQ > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- Paul Fremantle Co-Founder and CTO, WSO2 Apache Synapse PMC Chair OASIS WS-RX TC Co-chair blog: http://pzf.fremantle.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Oxygenating the Web Service Platform", www.wso2.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
