Daniel, I'm a bit curious, what does the proposed plan to gain by going through incubation, instead of becoming a TLP directly?
Is it the community diversity aspects, to bring in non-infra team members on to the code base? John On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 2:55 PM Daniel Gruno <humbed...@apache.org> wrote: > Hi again folks, > I would formally like to open up a discussion on the following proposal > for the Apache Incubator: > > Pretty version can be found at: > https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PonyMailProposal > > > text-only version follows: > ################################ > > Abstract > > Pony Mail is a mail-archiving, archive viewing, and interaction service, > that can be integrated with many email platforms. > > Proposal > > Background > > Pony Mail began as a response to two things; the lack of diversity in > mailing list archives that are less bureaucratic all-or-nothing and more > fluid way to interact with mailing lists than what is typically offered, > and the lack of a performant system that solves this issue. Modern users > of software want to jump right into a discussion they see, but cannot > normally do so in a mailing list driven environment because of the rules > generally surrounding said environment. Pony Mail, along with a select > handful of newer archive systems, provides an interface that allows > people to just hop into a thread, and take part. Without the need to > subscribe, download the mbox archive, load it into your MTA, and > respond. > > As Rich writes in a very short essay: > > You see a thread in which someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET! You need to > correct them. How do you do this today? You kinda don't. If you really > wanted, you could download mbox files (and who the hell knows where they > are?) and then try to get them into your mail client (which never works) > and then reply to it. Which will break threading, because you did > something wrong. Then you tear out your hair. PONY MAIL TO THE RESCUE!!! > (sound of hoof beats) > > Rationale > > One of the oft-heard complaints about Apache's development model is that > mailing lists are an old person's tool, and web-based communication - > forums - are the way to go in the 21st Century. Providing a > full-featured forum-like interface to mailing lists is one goal,while > keeping all of the enormous benefits that mailing lists already provide. > Asecond goal is to provide the ability to "jump in" to a mailing list > conversation - even one that was a while back, without the convolutions > that a mailing list requires. That is, to join this conversation the old > way, one would have had to subscribe to the mailing list, download an > mbox, and import it into ones mail client, in order that I be able to > reply to this message with correct threading. With Pony Mail, one has to > do none of those things, but can simply reply using the Web UI. To us, > this is a HUGE benefit for building community. The requirement to jump > through hoops to join a mailing list conversation drives away a lot of > people (at least, anecdotally, it does) and if we can remove that > barrier I think we'll have an easier time of drawing a new generation > into our projects. > > Initial Goals > > The initial goals of transitioning to the ASF is to expand and grow both > the Pony codebase and community, and ensure the project's continued > growth and stability through forming a diverse and reliable community, > in which the various facets of developers and contributors help keep the > project up to date with latest developments and technical as well as > social needs. > > Current Status > > Meritocracy: > > The bulk of the code has been written by Daniel Gruno to date, but has > had oversight from other committers, and mentors. > > All members of the Pony project and wider community have a deep > understanding and appreciation for the ASF meritocracy ideals, and > are almost solely current ASF Members. > > Community: > The community is currently heavily focused within the ASF, and > more specifically the Infrastructure group. This is to be > expected given the nature of how the code came into existence in > the first place. It should be noted that we have started > reaching out to other groups who we know are using mailing list > systems and therefore also rely on mailing list archive > interfaces. > > Core Developers: > Almost all core developers are ASF members, and are already > intimately familiar with the Apache Way. > > Alignment: > Pony will be very in line with ASF practices and processes as > many of the founding members are long term ASF members and > committers. > > Known Risks > > Orphaned products: > > We are not aware of any issues with orphaned products related to > this project. Pony Mail relies on a set of CSS3 templates as > well as some very stable programming languages. We have no > reason to believe these would be orphaned or, should they become > orphaned, that it would impact the development of the project. > > Inexperience with Open Source: > Most of the current committers are already ASF members and > committers, we do not believe there to be any concerns around > OSS inexperience. > > Homogenous Developers: > While the current mix of people involved in the project spans > several continents with a wide variety of skills and experience, > a long standing relation with the ASF applies to all committers > (even the non-ASF people in this proposal are intimately > familiar with the ASF), and we believe there to be a very > homogeneous culture in terms of development, IP and release > processes. > > Reliance on Salaried Developers: > While two of the committers in this project are salaried > developers with regards to Pony, the project was founded outside > of corporate interests, and is primarily driven by people either > working for or with ties to non-profit organisations. We see no > issues regarding possible strong-arming or otherwise skewing > project focus, nor do we believe that absence of salaries would > deter people from committing to this project. > > Relationships with Other Apache Products: > Pony Mail uses at least Apache HTTPd with mod_lua as its > end-user facing delivery mechanism. Many of the commiters are > also involved with this PMC. > > Pony also utilises ElasticSearch which is based on Lucene. > > Documentation > > Documentation will initially be in the source tree, and be part of > the initial code inclusion. > > Initial Source > > The initial source was written under the Apache License v/2.0 from > the beginning, and is available at: > > https://github.com/Quenda/ponymail > > Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan > > We know of no legal encumberments in the way of transfer of source > to Apache. Portions of the software (sans dependencies) is already > owned by the ASF, other portions privately, but it will be granted > to the ASF in its entirety. > > External Dependencies: > > ElasticSearch backend (Apache License v/2.0) > Apache HTTP Server front-end with mod_lua loaded (Apache License > v/2.0 for httpd, MIT for Lua) > Python 3.x for importing/archiving (PSF License) > Lua 5.1 or 5.2 + lua-cjson (MIT License, lua-cjson is optional) > Bootstrap/JQuery (MIT License) > > Cryptography: > Pony employs no cryptography other than what TLS-enabled web sites > served by HTTPd might use. > > Required Resources: > > Mailing lists: It would be rude not too, given this project should > archive them. > > Subversion Directory: Nope > > Git Repositories: > - incubator-ponymail.git - incubator-ponymail-site.git > > Issue Tracking: JIRA or GitHub Issues > > Other Resources: Dev stack, PoC Stack, HipChat Channel > > Initial Committers > > - Daniel Gruno < humbed...@apache.org > > - Tony Stevenson < pct...@apache.org > > - Richard Bowen < rbo...@apache.org > > - Ulises Beresi < ulises.cerv...@gmail.com > > - David P Kendal < apa...@dpk.io > > - Francesco Chicchiriccò - < ilgro...@apache.org > > > Affiliations > > Daniel Gruno - Quenda IvS > Tony Stevenson - pctony ltd, VocalIQ Ltd > Richard Bowen - Redhat, inc. > Ulises Beresi - Datastax, inc. > David P Kendal - Quenda IvS > Francesco Chicchiriccò - Tirasa S.r.l. > > Sponsors > > Champion: Suneel Marthi < smar...@apache.org > > > Nominated Mentors: > Andrew Bayer < aba...@apache.org > > > Sponsoring Entity: > The Apache Software Foundation > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > >
