The Apache Software Foundation is an American non-profit corporation(3) in the United States)
to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server.
The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, U.S., in June 1999.
The Apache Software Foundation is a decentralized community of developers.
The software they produce is distributed under the terms of the Apache License and is therefore
free and open source software.
The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative, consensus-based development
process and an open and pragmatic software license.
Each project is managed by a self-selected team of technical experts who are active contributors
to the project.
The ASF is a meritocracy, implying that membership of the foundation is granted only to volunteers
who have actively contributed to Apache projects.
The ASF is considered a second generation open-source organization, in that commercial
support is provided without the risk of platform lock-in.
Among the ASF's objectives are: to provide legal protection to volunteers working on
Apache projects; to prevent the Apache brand name from being used by other organizations
without permission.
The ASF also holds several ApacheCon conferences each year, highlighting Apache projects, related
technology, and encouraging Apache developers to gather together.
History The history of the Apache Software Foundation
is linked to the Apache HTTP Server, development beginning in February 1995.
A group of eight developers started working on enhancing the NCSA HTTPd daemon.
They came to be known as the Apache Group.
On March 25, 1999, the Apache Software Foundation was formed.
The first official meeting of the Apache Software Foundation was held on April 13, 1999, and
by general consent that the initial membership list of the Apache Software Foundation, would
be: Brian Behlendorf, Ken Coar, Miguel Gonzales, Mark Cox, Lars Eilebrecht, Ralf S. Engelschall,
Roy T. Fielding, Dean Gaudet, Ben Hyde, Jim Jagielski, Alexei Kosut, Martin Kraemer, Ben
Laurie, Doug MacEachern, Aram Mirzadeh, Sameer Parekh, Cliff Skolnick, Marc Slemko, William
Stoddard, Paul Sutton, Randy Terbush and Dirk-Willem van Gulik.
After a series of additional meetings to elect board members and resolve other legal matters
regarding incorporation, the effective incorporation date of the Apache Software Foundation was
set to June 1, 1999.
The name 'Apache' was chosen from respect for the Native American Apache Nation, well
known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and their inexhaustible endurance.
It also makes a pun on "a patchy web server"—a server made from a series of patches—but
this was not its origin.
The group of developers who released this new software soon started to call themselves
the "Apache Group".
Projects
Apache divides its software development activities into separate semi-autonomous areas called
"top-level projects", some of which have a number of sub-projects.
Unlike some other organizations that host FOSS projects, before a project is hosted
at Apache it has to be licensed to the ASF with a grant or contributor agreement.
In this way, the ASF gains the necessary intellectual property rights for the development and distribution
of all its projects.
Board of directors The ASF board of directors has responsibility
for overseeing the ASF's activities and acting as a central point of contact and communication
for its projects.
The board assigns corporate issues, assigning resources to projects, and manages corporate
services, including funds and legal issues.
It does not make technical decisions about individual projects; these are made by the
individual Project Management Committees.
The board is elected annually by members of the foundation and, after the May 2014 Annual
Members Meeting, it consists of: Rich Bowen
Doug Cutting Bertrand Delacretaz
Ross Gardler Jim Jagielski
Chris Mattmann Brett Porter
Sam Ruby Greg Stein
Financials In the 2010–11 fiscal year, the Foundation
took in $539,410, almost entirely from grants and contributions with $12,349 from two ApacheCons.
With no employees and 2,663 volunteers, it spent $270,846 on infrastructure, $92,364
on public relations, and $17,891 on two ApacheCons.
See also Apache Attic
Apache Incubator Free Software Foundation
Open Software Foundation Notes
Further reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes
Everything; Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams.
External links Official website
wiki.apache.org ApacheCon frontpage
Free recordings of presentations from Apachecon09