+1, binding (as of this morning if i did my math correctly)
: I would like to call a vote for accepting "Apache Lucy" for incubation in the : Apache Incubator. The full proposal is available below. We ask the Incubator : PMC to sponsor it, with myself (hossman) as Champion, and mattmann, upayavira, : mikemccand, and hossman volunteering to be Mentors. : : Please cast your vote: : : [ ] +1, bring Lucy into Incubator : [ ] +0, I don't care either way, : [ ] -1, do not bring Lucy into Incubator, because... : : This vote will be open for 72 hours and only votes from the Incubator PMC are : binding. : : http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/LucyProposal : ------------------------------------ : PREFACE : Lucy is a sub-project which is being spun off from the Lucene TLP but is : not yet ready for graduation. We propose to address certain needs of the : project by transitioning to an Incubator Podling, and assimilating the : KinoSearch codebase. : : ABSTRACT : Lucy will be a loose port of the Lucene search engine library, written in : C and targeted at dynamic language users. : : PROPOSAL : Lucy has two aims. First, it will be a high-performance C search engine : library. Second, it will maximize its usability and power when accessed : via dynamic language bindings. To that end, it will present highly : idiomatic, carefully tailored APIs for each of its "host" binding : languages, including support for subclasses written entirely in the : "host" language. : : BACKGROUND : Lucy, a "loose C" port of Java Lucene, began as an ambitious, : from-scratch Lucene sub-project, with David Balmain (author of Ferret, a : Ruby/C port of Lucene), Doug Cutting, and Marvin Humphrey (founder of : KinoSearch, a Perl/C port) as committers. During an initial burst of : activity, the overall architecture for Lucy was sketched out by Dave and : Marvin. Unfortunately, Dave became unavailable soon after, and without a : working codebase to release or any users, it proved difficult to replace : him. Still, Marvin carried on their work throughout a period of : seemingly low activity. : : In the last year, that work has come to fruition: major technical : milestones have been achieved and Lucy's underpinnings have been : completed. Additionally, other developers from the KinoSearch community : have taken an interest in Lucy and have begun to ramp up their : contributions. The next steps for Lucy were articulated by the Lucene : PMC in a recent review: make releases, acquire users, grow community. : : To implement the Lucene PMC's recommendations and get to a release as : quickly as possible, the Lucy community proposes to assimilate the : KinoSearch codebase, which has been retrofitted to use Lucy's core. Lucy : still lacks a number of important indexing and search classes; we wish to : flesh these out via IP clearance work rather than software development. : : Because Lucene is working to move away from being an "umbrella project", : a long term goal of the Lucy project is to graduate to an ASF TLP. With : that in mind, it seems more appropriate for the KinoSearch software grant : to take place within the context of the Incubator, and that a Lucy : podling and PPMC be established which will ultimately take responsibility : for the codebase. : : RATIONALE : There is great hunger for a search engine library in the mode of Lucene : which is accessible from various dynamic languages, and for one : accessible from pure C. Individuals naturally wish to code in their : language of choice. Organizations which do not have significant Java : expertise may not want to support Java strictly for the sake of running a : Lucene installation. Developers may want to take advantage of C's : interoperability and fine-grained control. Lucy will meet all these : demands. : : Apache is a natural home for our project given the way it has always : operated: user-driven innovation, security as a requirement, lively and : amiable mailing list discussions, strength through diversity, and so on. : We feel comfortable here, and we believe that we will become exemplary : Apache citizens. : : INITIAL GOALS : * Make a 1.0 stable release as quickly as possible. : * Concentrate on community expansion. : * Expose a public C API. : : CURRENT STATUS : Meritocracy : Our initial committer list includes two individuals (Peter Karman and : Nathan Kurz) who started off as KinoSearch users, demonstrated merit : through constructive forum participation, adept negotiation, consensus : building, and submission of high-quality contributions, and were invited : to become committers. Peter now rolls most releases. : : We look forward to continuing to operate as a meritocracy under the : established traditions and rules of the ASF. : : Community : Lucy's most active participants of late have been drawn from the : KinoSearch and Lucene communities. Having been focused on features and : technical goals for a long time, we are considerably overdue for a stable : release, and anticipate rapid growth in its wake. : : Core Developers : * Marvin Humphrey is the project founder of KinoSearch, and co-founded : the existing Lucy sub-project. He is presently employed by Eventful, : Inc. : * Peter Karman has contributed to several open source projects since : 2001, including being a committer at http://swish-e.org/ (a search : engine), http://code.google.com/p/rose/ (an ORM) and : http://catalyst.perl.org/ (web framework). He is employed by American : Public Media. : * Nathan Kurz is excited by the intersection of search and : recommendations, and has been a KinoSearch committer since 2007. As : the owner of Scream Sorbet (http://screamsorbet.com), he divides his : time between code and fruit. : : Alignment : One Apache value which is particularly cherished by the Lucy community is : codebase transparency. We have developed institutions which enable us to : measure and maximize usability (see : http://wiki.apache.org/lucy/BrainLog), and we feel strongly that the : bindings for Lucy must present APIs and documentation which are idiomatic : to the host language culture so that end users can consume our work as : easily as possible. : : The controlled competition of meritocratic community development is also : very important to us. There has been substantial cross-pollination of : ideas between Lucene and Lucy, yielding considerable benefits for both : projects. The Lucy developers envision that our host-language : sub-communities will approach using and extending the library in distinct : ways; we hope to harness the creative tension between them to drive : innovation, building productive relationships akin to the one that Lucene : and Lucy have today. : : A third priority of ours is to be bound by existing Apache institutions, : for the protection of all our stakeholders. : : KNOWN RISKS : Orphaned products : All core developers have been associated with the project for several : years across multiple jobs. However, at this time, the project would : probably not survive the departure of Marvin Humphrey, so there is a risk : of being orphaned. Marvin has no plans to leave, but we have been : actively working to disperse his knowledge of the code base and : administrative responsibilities in order to make him dispensable. Having : staggered badly after Dave Balmain's departure, we are keenly aware of : this vulnerability and highly motivated to eliminate it. : : Inexperience with Open Source : The core developers all have significant experience with open source : development, and include one present Apache committer. We recognize that : we lack PMC experience and seek to address that deficiency by using the : Incubator environment to educate ourselves and prepare for responsible : self-governance. : : Homogenous Developers : Our community is geographically dispersed, with members in San Diego, : Oakland, and Minneapolis. We all work for different organizations. : : Reliance on Salaried Developers : Marvin Humphrey has a great job at Eventful working primarily on this : project and supporting applications that use it. Nevertheless, he is : extremely dedicated to Lucy and is determined to see it through to the : point where it becomes self-sustaining, regardless of work circumstances. : : Relationships with Other Apache Products : Lucy's relationship with Lucene of cordial "coopetition" has produced : benefits for Lucene users in terms of indexing speed, near-real-time : search support, and more. We expect this dynamic to continue delivering : improvements for all parties involved. : : An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand : Our desire to maintain Lucy's affiliation with Apache has less to do with : the brand and more to do with our conviction that developing the project : The Apache Way under Apache institutions is in Lucy's best interests. : However, we have to acknowledge that during its time as a Lucene : subproject, Lucy has not always fulfilled certain key requirements for an : Apache project. In particular, it has failed to "release early, release : often", and it has made minimal progress in expanding its community. : : We attribute some of our difficulties to the what may have been excess : ambition in the original Lucy plan, given the scope of the project and : the size of the initial committer list: : : http://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#incubator : : The basic requirements for incubation are: : : * a working codebase -- over the years and after several failures, : the foundation came to understand that without an initial working : codebase, it is generally hard to bootstrap a community. : : By rebooting the project with a working codebase, we expect to avoid the : trap that ensnared Lucy's first incarnation: we will release early, : release often, accumulate users, nurture contributors, and grow our : community. : : DOCUMENTATION : : * Current Lucy website: http://lucene.apache.org/lucy/ : * Current Lucy Subversion repository: : http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/lucene/lucy/ : * Current Lucy mailing lists: : http://lucene.apache.org/lucy/mailing_lists.html : * KinoSearch Subversion repository: : http://www.rectangular.com/svn/kinosearch/ : * KinoSearch Perl API documentation: : http://www.rectangular.com/kinosearch/docs/devel/ : * KinoSearch Discussion list: : http://www.rectangular.com/mailman/listinfo/kinosearch/ : : INITIAL SOURCE : The initial source will be a snapshot from the KinoSearch subversion : repository. : : SOURCE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SUBMISSION PLAN : KinoSearch is currently under a GPL/Artistic license. There are five : individuals who have made multiple significant contributions to the : codebase and whose participation is either essential or would be very : helpful: Marvin Humphrey, Peter Karman, Nathan Kurz, Chris Nandor, and : Father Chrysostomos. All have been contacted and are amenable to : re-licensing their work and contributing it to Apache. We will contact : as many other contributors as possible; if there are any that we cannot : obtain permission from, we will refactor to expunge their work. : : EXTERNAL DEPENDENCIES : The Perl bindings for KinoSearch currently depend on a few CPAN modules : which do not have Apache-compatible licenses. It will be possible to : eliminate all such dependencies if necessary. : : REQUIRED RESOURCES : Mailing lists : * lucy-dev : * lucy-private (with moderated subscriptions) : * lucy-commits : * lucy-users : : Lucy already has lucy-dev, lucy-users, and lucy-commits mailing lists : under lucene.apache.org. Perhaps these could be deactivated and the : memberships migrated to the appropriate lists under incubator.apache.org, : leaving the lucene.apache.org archives as read-only. : : Subversion Directory : Lucy already has a Subversion directory at : http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/lucene/lucy. In keeping with naming : conventions, it could be moved to : http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/lucy. : : Issue Tracking : Lucy already has a JIRA tracker: Lucy (LUCY) : : Other Resources : Lucy already has a MoinMoin wiki at wiki.apache.org/lucy. It would be : convenient to keep it, especially since its current location is also : where it would end up upon TLP graduation, but we will defer to the : wishes of the Incubator PMC if standard Incubator wiki placement is : recommended. : : INITIAL COMMITTERS : NAME EMAIL AFFILIATION CLA : Marvin Humphrey marvin AT apache DOT org Eventful yes : Peter Karman peter AT peknet DOT com American Public Media yes : Nathan Kurz nate AT verse DOT com Scream Sorbet yes : Simon Willnauer simonw AT apache DOT org yes : : SPONSORS : Champion : * Chris Hostetter (hossman AT apache DOT org) : : Nominated Mentors : * Chris Mattmann (mattmann AT apache DOT org) : * Upayavira (upayavira AT apache DOT org) : * Mike McCandless (mikemccand AT apache DOT org) (pending IPMC membership) : * Chris Hostetter (hossman AT apache DOT org) (pending IPMC membership) : : Sponsoring Entity : Lucy is currently sponsored by Lucene as a sub-project. This proposal : advocates changing Lucy's relationship with Apache from developing all : new code as a Lucene sub-project, to instead assimilating existing code : (KinoSearch) under the sponsorship of the Incubator. : : : --------------------------------------------------------------------- : To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org : For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org : -Hoss --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
