Alex, Here are a couple of comments, mostly kind of independent:
a) this is a good start. Very sound directionally. b) are you just re-inventing the ICLA? c) is there a need to mention disbanding the original community? Could that be framed more positively as "We would love to have you come be part of the Apache Flex if you are interested in making further contributions". d) more contributions are fine and can be handled roughly the same way. You will definitely get more experienced and efficient at it e) it is normal for communities to roll over all of the committers. If nothing else, a long-lasting community will out-live all the initial contributors (not that I am suggestion or hoping that is what happened with Flex, just pointing out it is inevitable). In many ways, if you can have an active community with all new contributors without a full reboot, I think that is a sign of a very strong community. On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 7:06 PM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote: > > > On 11/28/15, 6:58 PM, "Marvin Humphrey" <mar...@rectangular.com> wrote: > > >On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 11:16 AM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote: > > > >> On 11/27/15, 7:34 AM, "Marvin Humphrey" <mar...@rectangular.com> wrote: > >> > >>>Having a TLP take over a codebase *without* the explicit consent of all > >contributors isn't a common case, and there are both legal and social > >risks. > >I don't think we need a general solution for that problem, other than > >"Don't > >do this without consulting the Board first." > > I can live having to bother the Board for each code base, but just so you > know, I may not be done after these two. The fact is that there are lots > of little Flex-related libraries getting dusty on the shelves of > googlecode/github. It seems like Flex is going to have to go through an > almost complete blood transfusion: we entered with a very large list of > initial committers and I believe that I am the only one on that list still > committing on a regular basis, and one other person shows up on occasion. > All other activity is coming from new blood. These old Flex libraries are > in a similar bind, and I believe that bringing them to the ASF allows > invites new blood to work on it. > > IMO, I would much rather be taught what the board is going to be worrying > about and maybe provide notification instead of asking for permission, but > if you really need me to keep asking, I will. > > Anyway, my takeaway so far is that folks have slightly questions for the > past contributors of these two code bases. I've picked up on two of them: > 1) Did you really intend to license your work as AL, and 2) Are you ok > with the Apache Flex being the community for your code? > > So, below is a draft of what I would send to them (for AS3Commons, I would > have the PMC vote to accept the donation before sending this out to the > contributors). I still want to get a better sense for what our options > are if we don't get 100% positive responses, and whether IP Clearance is > required. IMO, even if we did get every line under SGA/ICLA, and IP > clearance passes there is still a chance that something is not right in > the code base, so I think if we can get the major contributors to respond, > we can look at what lines haven't been permitted and decide whether those > lines can be at any more risk than the lines that have been signed for, > and what the impact would be if we had to kick those lines out later. And > the lines of code we do decide to take, whether signed for or not, we will > put through IP Clearance. > > Thoughts? > -Alex > > ----- Draft ------- > > [Friendly intro] > > A major contributor of XXX has indicated a desire to have the Apache > Software Foundation's Apache Flex project be the new home of future > development of the XXX code. Normally, this is called a "donation" and > requires a bunch of legal paperwork, but because this code base is already > licensed under Apache License 2.0, your contributions may be donated to > the ASF by replying to this email to affirm that: > > 1) You agree that the code you wrote is licensed under Apache License 2.0 > 2) You understand that under the Apache License 2.0, you retain the > copyright of the code you wrote. You are only granting a license to not > only the Apache Software Foundation (the ASF), but to anyone else as well. > 3) You understand that if we cannot get enough affirmative emails from > enough contributors to this code base, the "donation" may be abandoned. > 4) You understand that if this "donation" is completed, it means that > whatever group of developers that existed around this code base should be > disbanded. We would want you to encourage all future downloads to come > from, and changes applied to, the code base in an ASF-controlled code > management and distribution system once the transfer is complete. > 5) You understand that if you are not already an Apache Flex Committer and > wish to have continued involvement in changes to this code base, we can > discuss separately the steps to become a Committer. > > Thanks, > Alex Harui, for the > Apache Flex PMC. > > ----- End Draft ----- > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org >
