It is with great relief and hope that I propose that the Apache
Incubator PMC vote to incubate a new podling, to be known as "River".
You may be familiar with this project as it has been discussed under
other names, including Braintree and Jini. I've actually lost track of
the Quest for a Name, and actually feel very responsible for this naming
mess, for which I apologize.
Therefore, please vote on the proposal that follows :
[ ] +1 Accept River as a new podling as described below
[ ] -1 Do not accept the new podling (provide reason, please)
The proposal can be found here :
http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/RiverProposal
and is included below for archival purposes :
----------------------------------------------------------------
RiverProposal
*Proposal for new project River*
8 December 2006
(0) rationale
Jini technology is a service oriented architecture that defines a
programming model which both exploits and extends Java technology to
enable the construction of secure, distributed systems consisting of
federations of services and clients. Jini technology can be used to
build adaptive network systems that are scalable, evolvable and flexible
as typically required in dynamic computing environments.
Quoting from The Jini Specifications
(http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jini/spec/) book:
"Jini technology is a simple infrastructure for providing services in a
network, and for creating spontaneous interactions between programs that
use these services. Services can join or leave the network in a robust
fashion, and clients can rely upon the availability of visible services,
or at least upon clear failure conditions. When you interact with a
service, you do so through a Java object provided by that service. This
object is downloaded into your program so that you can talk to the
service even if you have never seen its kind before - the downloaded
object knows how to do the talking. That's the whole system in a nutshell."
Sun Microsystems originally introduced the technology in January, 1999
by providing a Jini Technology Starter Kit
(http://starterkit.dev.java.net/). This includes a contributed
implementation of all of the specifications, as well as helpful
utilities and tools. The source code was made available through the Sun
Community Source License (SCSL) as an attempt to make the code widely
available and accessible to both individuals and companies. Sun has
continued to innovate throughout the years, releasing many versions of
the starter kit. The license associated with the starter kit was changed
(http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503&L=jini-users&O=A&P=36217)
in March, 2005 to the Apache License, Version 2.0.
Since its beginning, there was desire and effort to form a developer
community around the technology. This has helped to create an
interesting, active, and passionate community - the Jini Community. This
global Community has engaged on technology projects, discussions and
debates, events, and a decision making process. It has contributed to,
and helped influence the direction of the starter kit. Some of the
collaborative technology projects have led to key contributions being
used by other technology projects as well as commercial products. One
example is the Service UI API (http://www.artima.com/jini/serviceui/),
which is a way to attach user interfaces to Jini services.
Despite the obvious successes of the technology and Community, some
changes are in store as outlined in a recent note to the Community: "A
New Day"
(http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0604&L=jini-users&F=&S=&P=4029).
The most critical part of the new plan is to find the right place for
the future development and advancement of the core Jini technology. We
wanted an environment that was synergistic with our exisiting Community
culture -- so one that is active, with open communication and
collaboration, and a reputation for producing high quality software. We
think we've found that place with the Apache Software Foundation.
(0.1) criteria
/Meritocracy:/
The River project will be meritocractic. The project will follow the
guidelines (http://apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#meritocracy)
of the Apache Software Foundation. In order to achieve this, we plan on
proactively recruiting individuals in the Community to get involved in
the project: specifying work that needs to be done, encouraging bug
fixes, enhancements, and advancements, and engaging in discussion on how
the code works and is structured. In the end, we are committed to
creating an environment to foster a meritocracy.
/Community:/
There has been a diverse and active Community built around Jini
technology since it was first introduced in January, 1999. The Jini
Community consists of a global set of individuals, companies, non-profit
organizations, and universities. The Community communicates primarily
through various email lists: jini-users
(http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/jini-users.html) (~1400
subscriptions), and javaspaces-users
(http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/javaspaces-users.html) (~800
subscriptions). There are shared works and collaborative projects around
the core infrastructure in the Community, with many of them gathered at
Java.net (http://jini.dev.java.net). There is a wiki -based web site,
Jini.org (http://www.jini.org), which hosts a variety of information,
links, and content on "all things Jini". This includes organization and
information on events (http://www.jini.org/wiki/Category:Events) that
the Community has leveraged to share ideas and come together. There are
also many individuals in the Community who have chosen to evangelize the
technology at various conferences, user groups, blogs, etc. In summary,
while it isn't quite the same as running an open source community, we
believe we've developed an incredibly strong base on which to build.
/Core Developers:/
Most of the initial core developers are key members of Sun's Jini
development, test, and Community management team. There are three (non
Sun) initial core developers that are well recognized technology and
thought leaders in the Jini Community, including giving presentations
(http://www.jini.org/wiki/8th_JCM_Sessions#Why_We_Need_A_Standard_Jini_Platform)
at Jini Community Meetings, and receiving the annual Jini Community
Contributor's Award in recognition of their contributions to the
Community. There are a number of other strong developers in the
Community interested and we expect will prove themselves worthy
committers in short order.
/Alignment:/
River is aligned well with Apache in terms of technologies and
licensing. It fits in well technologically with other Apache projects,
which also focus on clustering, web frameworks, and Java technolgies.
Also, the starter kit build framework is based on Ant. The license of
the initial source being proposed is already aligned as it is licensed
under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
(0.2) warning signs
/Orphaned products:/
The project being proposed is a natural evolution of the technology and
Community. Sun has shepherded both since 1999, and in recent years the
Jini Community has been pressing to be more involved and empowered. Once
the license for Jini technology was opened up and the Apache License,
Version 2.0 was chosen for Sun's contributions
(http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503&L=jini-users&O=A&P=36217),
an open development model was the obvious next step. The response from
the Jini Community on this direction has been very positive, with many
Community members anxious to get active. This is a proposal we're making
with a full committment to construct an active and successful project.
/Inexperience with open source:/
The initial committers have varying degrees of experience with open
source projects. All have been involved with source code that has been
released under an open source license, but there is limited experience
developing code with an open source development process. We do not,
however, expect any difficulty in executing under normal meritocracy rules.
/Homogenous developers:/
Since the Jini Technology Starter Kit has been mainly developed to date
by Sun Microsystems, the vast majority of initial committers to the
project are from Sun. Over the years, Sun has received bug fixes and
enhancements from other developers which have been incorporated into the
code. Our plan is to work with these other developers and add them as
committers as we progress. There are five other initial committers (non
Sun): Bill Venners, Dan Creswell, Mark Brouwer, Nigel Daley, and Geir
Magnusson. Bill is the lead of the Service UI API work; Dan has been
involved with much Jini-based development, including an implementation
of the JavaSpaces service called Blitz (http://www.dancres.org/blitz/);
Mark is a veteran of much Jini-based development, including commercial
work at Virgil (http://www.virgil.nl) as well as leading the open source
Cheiron (http://www.cheiron.org) project; Nigel was formerly at Sun as
the Jini test lead, but now is with another company; Geir is the
Champion for our Apache project proposal.
/Reliance on salaried developers:/
It is expected that River development will occur on both salaried time
and on volunteer time, after hours. While there is reliance on salaried
developers (currently from Sun, but it's expected that other company's
salaried developers will also be involved), the Jini Community is very
active and things should balance out fairly quickly. In the meantime,
Sun will support the project in the future by dedicating 'work time' to
River, so that there is a smooth transition.
/No ties to other Apache products:/
Currently the only tie to Apache projects is the starter kit's use of
the Ant build tool. There are potential future ties (http server,
database backend, etc) that will be explored.
/A fascination with the Apache brand:/
Many of us have been working on advancing Jini technology and developing
the Jini Community for many years. We care deeply about it and want the
technology and Commutity to continue to flourish. As we considered
options for where/how to move Jini technology to an open source
development model, our respect and admiration for the work done by the
Apache Software Foundation drove us to choose this as our best option.
As a Java-based infrastructure for building systems, River fits in well
with the other projects at Apache, and the Community we've built shares
many philosophies (open communication, fairness, diversity, etc). We
believe there are strong synergies here.
(1) scope of the project
The scope of the River project would be the continued development of
Jini technology core infrastructure software, including the
implementation of Jini specifications, related utilities and tools. The
development would include adding new features and improving performance,
scalability, quality, and extensibility.
(2) identify the initial source from which the project is to be populated
The initial resources would be garnered from:
* Jini Technology Starter Kit
(https://starterkit.dev.java.net/downloads/jini/2.1/index.html) project
on Java.net,
* Service UI implementation
(http://www.artima.com/jini/serviceui/CodeAccess.html) from Artima.com,
* QATests (formerly, a project on Jini.org)
(3) identify the ASF resources to be created
(3.1) mailing list(s)
* river-private (with moderated subscriptions)
* river-dev
* river-commits
* river-user
(3.2) Subversion or CVS repositories
River would like to use a Subversion repository.
(3.3) Jira (issue tracking)
Since River would have its own release cycle, it should have its own
JIRA project
* Project Name: River
* Project Key: RIVER
(4) identify the initial set of committers
* Dan Creswell ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Bill Venners ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Mark Brouwer ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Geir Magnusson Jr ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Bob Scheifler ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Jim Waldo ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* John McClain ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Brian Murphy ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Peter Jones ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Juan Ramirez ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Frank Barnaby ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Fred Oliver ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Robert Resendes ([EMAIL PROTECTED]
* Vinod Johnson ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Ron Mann ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Nigel Daley ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Jim Hurley ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
(5) identify apache sponsoring individual
* Champion
* Geir Magnusson Jr.
* Mentors
* Geir Magnusson Jr.
* Phil Steitz
* Gianugo Rabellino
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
