Hi Tison, hi Rich,
This resonates strongly with me, from the other side of the fence.
I've spent the last decade at a university (as a lecturer and researcher) while
being active across several Apache projects. So I recognize Tison's observation
about weak institutional signals very well, and I think the reason is
structural rather than a lack of goodwill: at most universities, open-source
work simply doesn't count as academic output. Papers count. Third-party funding
counts. A well-run PMC does not appear in anyone's KPI. So the individual
teachers who get it engage as individuals, but the institution has no incentive
structure that rewards moving forward. That's the gap.
What did work for me, concretely, was staying at the student level rather than
waiting for the institution:
• Students contributing to real Apache projects as part of electives or
thesis work. The contribution is real, the mentorship is real, and it feeds
back into their thesis or a paper, which does count academically. That
alignment is what made it sustainable.
• The incubator's merit model maps surprisingly well onto how students
grow. Watching someone go from their first clumsy patch to committer is the
same thing I care about as a teacher.
• OSS contributions occasionally turning into publishable work (evaluation,
reproducibility, tooling), which is where the university and the ASF interests
briefly overlap.
• Students are often too shy to just contribute (even if you encourage them
to do so …)
Gruß
Richard
> Am 29.07.2026 um 17:48 schrieb tison <[email protected]>:
>
> Hi,
>
> This year, I gave several talks at universities in China about my
> open-source experience, including stories from the ASF Incubator, where
> undergraduate and postgraduate students can both earn merit. And, of
> course, I talked about the culture and history of the ASF.
>
> They typically cover my travel expenses, while I paid for it myself once.
> Sometimes, they might give me some money under the name of tuition fees.
>
> So far, I'm mainly focusing on connecting with the students and bringing
> them to ASF projects. I don't find the teachers or university
> officers express too much interest in collaboration. I can imagine some
> labs may want to open-source their work, and a university officer may want
> to set up a strategic cooperation with international OSS foundations to
> improve their KPI of graduate quality. But I'm yet to develop deeper in
> either direction and didn't see a strong signal from the university side to
> move forward.
>
> I'll keep advocating the ASF and open source in universities, and I'd like
> to hear your experience on what kinds of collaboration are typically doable.
>
> Best,
> tison.
>
>
> Rich Bowen <[email protected]> 于2026年7月29日周三 23:20写道：
>
>> Hey folks,
>>
>> At UN Open Source Week in late June, Sander Striker introduced me to
>> Bill Branan, who runs the Open Source Program Office at Johns Hopkins
>> University. We had a follow-up call on July 20.
>>
>> Bill's core interest is understanding when Apache is a good fit for
>> academic/research software projects coming out of JHU. He's looking at
>> the full picture - what the ASF offers, what the Incubator journey
>> looks like, and how projects build sustainable communities once they
>> arrive. We also talked about when a project might better fit at some
>> other foundation.
>>
>> He's also interested in better messaging around the value proposition
>> of Apache as a foundation home - specifically for research software
>> that has outgrown its university lab but needs governance and community
>> infrastructure to thrive.
>>
>> I offered to mentor any JHU projects that look like a good fit, or at
>> least keep the conversation going as they evaluate their options.
>>
>> Academic OSPOs are an underserved audience for our "how to get
>> involved" messaging. If JHU projects start showing up at the
>> Incubator, having clear onboarding paths helps everyone.
>>
>> There may be an opportunity for ComDev to develop materials
>> specifically aimed at institutional/academic projects considering
>> Apache.
>>
>> I'd really like to talk with anyone else that is already working
>> in this kind of space, and compare notes.
>>
>> -- Rich
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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]
