Hi All, As a small addition to my previous message, I wanted to share something that captures how I first reached out to this community.
The email client is rendering it as an attachment rather than inline, so I am sharing it as a link instead: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OPyUW1S_fpA8-N_sELMWlTuqKT9T0UzI/view?usp=sharing This is the actual cold email I sent to the team back in early 2025. I share it not to draw attention to myself, but because I think it illustrates something important: the door was open, and that openness is what defines this community. Best regards, Mehul Batra On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 8:05 PM Mehul Batra <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi All, > > I wanted to share a personal perspective here, since my own journey in > this community speaks directly to the questions being raised. > > I joined Fluss as a contributor from Dream11 in February 2025, entirely > outside the Alibaba ecosystem. I was a Flink user who had always admired > how the Flink SQL team made streaming so approachable. I decided to try my > luck and sent a cold email (Attached Below) to learn directly from the > team. To my surprise, I was welcomed, and I got to work alongside some of > the very people who built that experience. I became a committer in July > 2025 and was proposed for PPMC membership in February 2026. That path was > not fast-tracked or based on any organisational affiliation. It was the > result of 12 months of sustained involvement: contributing to core design, > participating in code reviews, organising community calls, giving talks, > and helping onboard new contributors. > > One concrete example of how this community operates: I drove the Iceberg > integration roadmap end to end. That work was not assigned or directed by > any single organisation. It grew out of observing the Lakehouse trend > accelerating across global regions and companies, and from direct feedback > we gathered from multiple potential users and adopters. The fact that a > contributor from outside the founding ecosystem could identify a strategic > gap, champion it publicly on the mailing list, and see it through to > delivery is, I think, a good reflection of how this community actually > makes decisions. > > What made all of this possible was the mentorship I received from existing > members, many of whom came from the Alibaba days. They invested in me as a > contributor, not as a representative of any company. I never felt that my > affiliation mattered; what mattered was the work and the willingness to > take on responsibility. > > From where I stand, vendor neutrality in this community is not just a > policy. It is how things actually operate. Roadmap discussions, release > planning, and feature decisions all happen publicly. I have personally seen > contributors from Ant Group, ByteDance, Dynatrace, LinkedIn, Fresha, > DigitalOcean and others engage as equals in those conversations. > > I believe the community has earned graduation, and I am confident it will > continue to grow in a way that reflects the Apache Way. > > Best regards, > Mehul Batra > > [image: image.png] > > On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 7:19 PM Anton Borisov <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> Since my name has come up in the discussion, I wanted to add a short >> note from my side. >> >> I appreciate the kind words about my contributions. At the same time, >> those contributions were only possible because of the openness of the >> current Fluss community >> and the support I received from existing PPMC members and committers. >> >> My experience has been that technical discussions and reviews happen >> openly, and that contributors from outside are welcomed and helped to >> become productive. >> I have personally benefited from that process. >> >> I also think it is useful for the project to make expectations around >> committer and PMC membership explicit, and I believe the Fluss >> community is moving in the right direction here, >> and I trust the community to continue growing contributors into >> broader project responsibility. >> >> I’m happy to continue contributing to Apache Fluss in whatever way is >> useful to the community. >> >> -- Anton >> >> вт, 26 мая 2026 г. в 13:50, Jark Wu <[email protected]>: >> > >> > Hi Justin, >> > >> > Thank you for raising the PMC selection questions. We truly appreciate >> > the IPMC's careful review, and we are happy to provide more clarity on >> > the PMC selection process to help with the assessment. >> > >> > The PPMC has aligned on a clear and consistent set of criteria for >> > selecting new PPMC members, applied without bias to all candidates: >> > >> > - The bar for becoming a committer is intentionally kept fairly low to >> > encourage broad participation and onboarding of new contributors. >> > - The bar for PPMC membership is set fairly high, reflecting the >> > additional responsibility of guiding project direction, mentoring, and >> > stewarding community health, and long-term involvement. >> > >> > This criteria was discussed in the private mailing list [1], and the >> > qualities are outlined in our community guidelines [2]. >> > >> > For example, Mehul became a Fluss committer in July 2025 and was >> > proposed for PPMC membership in February 2026. During those seven >> > months, he was not only highly active in core design and code review, >> > but also contributed significantly to community growth by organizing >> > community calls, presenting talks, and attracting new contributors. >> > These are the qualities we look for in new PPMC members. >> > >> > Regarding Anton: we fully recognize Anton's valuable contributions and >> > agree that he has already demonstrated many of the qualities we seek >> > in a PPMC member. However, Anton was only recently invited to become a >> > committer this month. So we did not rush to include him in this >> > initial PMC list. We maintain a strong pipeline of talented and active >> > committers, several of whom are currently under observation for future >> > PPMC nominations. Notably, most of our new committers come from >> > non-Alibaba companies, which contributes to greater diversity in the >> > future composition of the PMC. >> > >> > I agree that some committers have been more active recently than >> > certain proposed PPMC members. We believe this is a natural dynamic. >> > With the exception of Mehul, who is the only new PPMC member joined >> > during incubation, all other proposed PMC members are initial PPMC >> > members. Their contributions were thoroughly evaluated when Fluss >> > entered the Apache Incubator. While some may be less visible in >> > day-to-day coding or reviewing activities, they remain actively >> > engaged behind the scenes, providing strategic guidance and critical >> > support for the project's growth. Therefore, we have included them in >> > the proposed PMC list based on their sustained commitment and >> > historical impact. I think this also follows the "merit never expires" >> > of The Apache Way[3]. >> > >> > The PPMC does not and will not nominate individuals based on seniority >> > or title within a company. From the committers and PPMC members who >> > joined during the incubation phase, you can see we apply consistent >> > evaluation criteria. Everyone nominated has made solid contributions >> > to the project. >> > >> > Thank you again for your time and for helping ensure a thoughtful >> > graduation process for Fluss. I hope this addresses your concerns >> > regarding the PMC selection. >> > >> > Kind regards, >> > Jark >> > >> > [1] https://lists.apache.org/thread/rn7vkhm3sktg2jgsd8l2j4yn9y9dvbc5 >> > [2] https://fluss.apache.org/community/become-a-committer/ >> > [3] https://www.apache.org/theapacheway/ >> > >> > On Tue, 26 May 2026 at 17:08, <[email protected]> wrote: >> > > >> > > >> > > Hi, >> > > >> > > I want to make a general point about PMC membership criteria that I >> think is relevant to this discussion. >> > > >> > > Seniority or title within a company is not a basis for membership in >> the PMC at the ASF. PMC membership should reflect sustained community >> engagement and a willingness to take on governance responsibilities, not >> organisational hierarchy. >> > > >> > > I would ask the PPMC to confirm that all proposed PMC members have >> been selected on this basis. >> > > >> > > Kind Regards, >> > > Justin >> > >> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] >> > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] >> > >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] >> >>
