+1 (binding) On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 1:21 AM, Ross Gardler <ross.gard...@microsoft.com> wrote:
> I would like to call a vote on accepting the Fineract project into the > Apache Incubator. The proposal is pasted below and posted at > http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/FineractProposal > > The vote will run for at least 72hrs > > [ ] +1 Accept Fineract into the Apache Incubator > [ ] +/-0 Fine, go ahead > [ ] -1 Do not accept Fineract because [your fully justified reason for > objection] > > Thanks, > Ross > > = Fineract Proposal = > > == Abstract == > > Fineract (\’fīn-,ə-ˌrakt\: A hypercube for digital financial services) is > an open source system for core banking as a platform. Fineract provides a > reliable, robust, and affordable solution for entrepreneurs, financial > institutions, and service providers to offer financial services to the > world’s 2 billion under and unbanked. > > == Proposal == > > The aim of this proposal is to bring the Mifos X codebase and community > under the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) umbrella in order to help > coordinate the development effort of the growing number of organizations > which contribute to it, and give it the confidence of the neutral, > transparent, and open source governance policy of the ASF. > > The name Mifos X will remain the property of the Mifos Initiative (a US > based 501(c)(3)) and will be used for a specific distribution of the > Fineract code. All development efforts of the Mifos Initiative will be > transferred to the Fineract project. > > == Background == > > Mifos X is a mature and robust platform that provides loan, savings, and > business management functionality based on market proofed requirements. The > project was started in 2006 at the Grameen Foundation, initially creating > the Generation One solutions of Mifos 1 and Mifos 2, the industry’s first > open source and web-based MIS, to support the Joint Liability Group (JLG) > lending methodology created by Mohammed Yunus, which gained him and the > Grameen Bank the Nobel Peace Prize for his financial work in 2006. > > In 2011 the independent Mifos Initiative, a 501(c)(3), was founded with > two goals: > 1. Create the Generation Two solution Mifos X, an extensible API-driven > platform purpose built for Financial Inclusion > 2. Build and govern an open source community of users, developers, and > service providers committed to using Mifos X for Financial Inclusion. > > Since then a worldwide community of users, partners, and volunteers has > grown that utilizes, develops, and supports Mifos X. More than 40 partners > from Africa, India, China, South-East Asia and Latin America, with over 120 > deployments and 3.5 million clients, have enhanced the platform based on > regional requirements and national regulatories. > > == Rationale == > > Financial Inclusion - providing financial services to the world’s 2 > billion under and unbanked, enabling them to become a part of the global > economy - requires an affordable, reliable, scalable, and robust solution. > > The adoption of mobile solutions and digital financial services is > increasing at an incredible pace and has led to an influx of new > innovators, financial institutions, and service providers into the > Financial Inclusion space and into the Mifos community which is growing at > an accelerating rate year-over-year since 2012. > > Our rationale for joining the ASF is that as an Apache project we can > better manage the growth and governance of our community and provide the > community the confidence of sustainable long-term open source management, > which strengthens their commitment and continues the growth of our vibrant, > diverse community, collectively innovating around a single codebase, > sharing the social mission to eliminate poverty. > > == Initial Goals == > > The initial goals of the Fineract transition under the ASF umbrella are to > establish a new home for an already fully functioning project, and also > make sure that the entire development community governs itself in the > Apache Way. > > In addition, we will ensure: > 1. All dependencies are compliant with the Apache License and the ASFs > licensing policies. > a. To become compliant a refactoring of the reporting module is > necessary to be able to swap out the Pentaho Reporting Engine. This work > will be undertaken during incubation. > 2. Ongoing development based on our collaboratively established 2016 > roadmap, and bring the process into the Apache Way. > 3. Creating releases per Apache guidelines. > > == Current Status == > > === Meritocracy === > > We already have attributes of meritocracy embedded in our community. > * We have a developer email list which identifies active community > members who then become committers . > * On the user email list new features are introduced and discussed, > forming the product roadmap, and prioritization is based on merit and need. > * We have successfully graduated 13 Google Summer of Code interns, many of > whom have become long-term committers and developers to the project. > > === Community === > > There are more than a hundred developers within an active developer > mailing list. We have a large and growing installed base of users > (financial institutions) and a diverse eco-system of regional service > partners who support and deploy Mifos in their communities, and solution > partners who have built financial inclusion solutions on top of Mifos. The > community has held three annual conferences (2012, 2013, and 2015) where > the community gathers to connect implementers with developers, sharing > their knowledge to collaboratively build innovative solutions. > > If Fineract is accepted by the Incubator, transitioning the community to > embrace the Apache Way of governance would be a primary initial goal. We > will solicit major existing developers to become committers on the project > from the beginning. > > === Core Developers === > > The core developers are a diverse group of individuals already very > experienced in open source development. > > Edward Cable is a co-founder of the Mifos Initiative, and has established > the current community and governance model, Sander van der Heijden is the > CTO of Musoni Services, one of the first companies to create a commercial > product on top of the platform, that is completely mobile-based, and Markus > Geiss started as a volunteer and was appointed Chief Architect this year. > > A broad base of committers around the Mifos developer team from Conflux > Technologies is made up of volunteers (e.g. Michael Vorburger, Product > Manager Design Studio at Temenos AG, Ishan Khanna a graduate student at > Bhagwan Parshuram Institute of Technology, or Terence Monteiro, Founder & > Director of SanJose Foundation) supporting and guiding contributors, and > governing the code base. > > === Alignment === > > Transition to ASF is a natural progression towards collaborative software > development and commercial-friendly standard licensing. Brian Behlendorf > and Zaheda Bhorat, both open source community leaders, in their role as > advisors for the Mifos Initiative, helped us to establish a community that > shares a vision based on a philosophy that is well aligned with the Apache > Way. > > == Known Risks == > > === Orphaned products === > > The community proposing Fineract for incubation is a strong and vibrant > open source project with a large installed base of users that is growing at > an increasing rate year-over-year from 2011 through 2015. In addition to > the commitment from the non-profit Mifos Initiative to move its development > efforts to the Fineract project, the size and diversity of the community is > a guarantee against the project being orphaned. > > === Inexperience with Open Source === > > We have managed Mifos as an open source project since inception. Every > release has been open source. We have open source community processes, such > as a developer mailing list, community conference calls, a collaborative > and transparent product roadmap, and an annual developer conference open to > all. > > Our leadership has extensive open source experience. Our chairman, Paul > Maritz, was CEO of VMWare and CEO of Pivotal where he lead open source > initiatives at both companies. At Pivotal, he championed the Spring open > source framework and directed 3 Pivotal projects into Apache projects, > including Geode, HAWQ, and MADlib. > > Our board member Dave Neary has spent 4 years with Red Hat, building their > open source developer community, and is a member of the GNOME Foundation > since 2004. > > === Homogenous Developers === > > The initial group of committers is heterogeneous when it comes to > corporate affiliations. The community is extremely diverse in terms of > geography, the backgrounds of developers, and the diversity of roles they > play in the community, such as users, regional support partners, and > solution partners. Since its inception, the entire community has > contributed to the software across a distributed and transparent > infrastructure and environment. > > === Reliance on Salaried Developers === > > Our developer community consists of a mix of salaried developers who are > committed to the code base and volunteers. > > The salaried developers work for (i) the Mifos Initiative, a 501(c)(3) > non-profit; (ii) financial institutions that use Mifos X; (iii) regional > service providers committed to financial inclusion that deploy and support > Mifos X in their communities; or (iv) solution partners that build and > distribute custom solutions on top of Mifos X. > > We also have pure volunteers who contribute, often through hackathons and > corporate social responsibility programs such as Benetech’s Social Coding 4 > Good, LinkedIn’s Day for Good, Google’s GoogleServe, ThoughtWorks Social > Impact Program, and VMware Take 3 Sabbatical program. > > This diversity of roles and developers adds to the sustainability of the > project. > > === Relationships with Other Apache Products === > > Currently we are utilizing some Apache projects, like Tomcat, POI, > commons-lang, or HttpComponents, there are no additional relationships > right now. In 2016 further Apache projects, like Apache OpenJPA, and Apache > Geode, will be introduced to the project. > > The platform is built on top of the Spring Framework, utilizing multiple > modules, like Spring Data, Spring Web, or Spring Security. > > === An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand === > > While we respect the reputation of the Apache brand we see a benefit for > both sides. We bring a stable and mature community with a deep rooted > social mission and are able to give Fineract a solid home as an open source > project following an established development model. > > == Documentation == > > Information about Mifos X can be found at > https://mifosforge.jira.com/wiki/display/MIFOSX/Welcome+to+Mifos+X. > > == Initial Source == > > Initial source is available on GitHub under the MPLv2 at > https://github.com/openMF/mifosx. > > == Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan == > > The Mifos Initiative owns all copyright to all contributions and has the > legal right to sign the ASF Software Grant Agreement. As soon as Fineract > is approved to join Apache Incubator, the source code will be transitioned > via the Software Grant Agreement onto ASF infrastructure and in turn made > available under the Apache License, version 2.0. > > == External Dependencies == > > || '''Vendor''' || '''Library''' || '''License''' || '''Compatible''' || > || Amazon.com, Inc. || AWS Java SDK || AL v2 || yes || > || Apache Software Foundation || Commons || AL v2 || yes || > || Apache Software Foundation || Tomcat || AL v2 || yes || > || Apache Software Foundation || POI || AL v2 || yes || > || Apache Software Foundation || HTTPClient || AL v2 || yes || > || Ben Fortuna || iCal4j || BSD 3-clause || yes || > || Boxfuse GmbH || Flyway DB || AL v2 || yes || > || Bruce Dunwiddie^1^ || JavaCSV || LGPL v2.1 || no || > || Google, Inc. || gson || AL v2 || yes || > || Google, Inc. || guava || AL v2 || yes || > || iText Group NV || iText || MPL v1.1 || yes || > || Jayway || JsonPath || AL v2 || yes || > || Jayway || RESTassured || AL v2 || yes || > || JUnit || JUnit || EPL v1 || yes || > || Michael Vorburger || MariaDB4J || AL v2 || yes || > || Oracle, Corp. || JAX-RS || CDDL v1 || yes || > || Oracle, Corp. || Jersey || CDDL v1.1 || yes || > || Oracle, Corp.^2^ || MySQL Connector/J || GPL v2 || no || > || Pentaho, Corp.^3^ || Reporting Engine || LGPL v2.1 || no || > || Pentaho, Corp.^3^ || Reporting Library || LGPL v2.1 || no || > || Pivotal Software, Inc. || Spring Boot || AL v2 || yes || > || Pivotal Software, Inc. || Spring Framework || AL v2 || yes || > || Pivotal Software, Inc. || Spring Security || AL v2 || yes || > || Sam Pullar || Mustache || AL v2 || yes || > || Square, Inc. || retrofit || AL v2 || yes || > || Square, Inc. || okhttp || AL v2 || yes || > || Stephen Colebourne || Joda-Time || AL v2 || yes || > || Szczepan Faber || Mockito || MIT || yes || > || Terracotta, Inc || Quartz || AL v2 || yes || > || Terracotta, Inc || Ehache || AL v2 || yes || > * ^1^ = can be removed > * ^2^ = can be replaced > * ^3^ = need an abstraction on our side to become replaceable > > == Cryptography == > > The only cryptography included by the project will be via library > inclusion, and will be used to encrypt stored user data on mobile devices > and in cloud storages. > > == Required Resources == > > === Mailing lists === > > * priv...@fineract.incubator.apache.org (moderated subscriptions) > * comm...@fineract.incubator.apache.org > * d...@fineract.incubator.apache.org > * u...@fineract.incubator.apache.org > > === Git Repository === > > https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator-fineract.git > > === Issue Tracking === > > JIRA Project Fineract (FINERACT) > > === Other Resources === > > * Project website (http://fineract.incubator.apache.org) > * Fineract Wiki pages ( > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT) > > == Initial Committers == > > ''The following list comprises the current long term committers and does > not contain occasional developers.'' > > * Vishwas Babu AJ (vishwas at confluxtechnologies dot com) > * Edward Cable (edcable at mifos dot org) > * Andrew Dzakpasu (andrewdzakpasu at musoni dot eu) > * Markus Geiss (mgeiss at mifos dot org) > * Sander van der Heijden (sander at musoni dot eu) > * Ishan Khanna (ishan1604 at gmail dot com) > * Myrle Krantz (mkrantz at mifos dot org) > * Terence Monteiro (terence at sanjosesolutions dot in) > * Adi Nayaran Raju (adi dot raju at confluxtechnologies dot com) > * Gaurav Saini (gsaini at apache dot org) > * Nazeer Hussain Shaik (nazeer dot shaik at confluxtechnologies dot com) > * Michael Vorburger (mike at vorburger dot ch) > > == Affiliations == > > * Vishwas Babu AJ (Conflux Technologies) > * Ed Cable (The Mifos Initiative) > * Andrew Dzakpasu (Musoni Systems) > * Markus Geiss (The Mifos Initiative) > * Sander van der Heijden (Musoni Systems) > * Myrle Krantz (The Mifos Initiative) > * Terence Monteiro (SanJose Foundation) > * Adi Nayaran Raju (Conflux Technologies) > * Nazeer Hussain Shaik (Conflux Technologies) > > == Sponsors == > > === Champion === > > Ross Gardler > > === Nominated Mentors === > * Ross Gardler > * Roman Shaposhnik > * Greg Stein > > === Sponsoring Entity === > Incubator PMC > > -- Luciano Resende http://people.apache.org/~lresende http://twitter.com/lresende1975 http://lresende.blogspot.com/
