On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 12:59 PM, Jukka Zitting <jukka.zitt...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 8:56 PM, Jukka Zitting <jukka.zitt...@gmail.com> wrote: >> More generally, looking over the last quarter in Etch I see ongoing >> technical work mostly by Michael Fitzner and Martin Veith but only >> occasional input from others and not much focus on community-building. >> Do you have plans on how to increase community activity and diversity, >> or are you happy with the status quo? > > Any thoughts on this from Etch mentors or the PPMC?
Etch is a slow moving community. AFAICT the code is mostly done, but actively maintained. The space Etch operates in is quite crowded, so community raising efforts are difficult. The engineers working on such code are usually very busy doing other stuff rather than improving the library. I've tried to contact the most recent voted-in committer, but he has yet to respond, and do actual work on Etch. The other committers and PPMC members have either jobs that focus on implementing things other than directly working with Etch, meaning that Etch development only happens when they return to a part that uses it. For example the suitable name search is currently undergoing, but finding time to complete it is difficult. Trying to build a community around a networking stack is difficult, especially this one with its history. The original company open sourcing Etch disbanded the development team when no diversity was present, blowing up the project. I don't blame the company: they have to do what is best for them. Unfortunately it did severe damage to the community. IMO they should have a great community opportunity in the automotive industry (the active contributors are from a large 3-letter car manufacturer in Germany). My expectation is that this industry (in Germany) could expand the community with 3 or 4 committers. Raising awareness by publishing an article about Etch in automotive engineering magazines should help. I don't expect miracles to happen, but if one or two companies start looking into etch, the diversity and activity might just increase a bit. I've asked the guys to try to write one or two articles in German magazines to raise awareness. Unfortunately that has taken quite some time, but what I hear is that they are in the final stages. I was hoping that the new committer would become active, and that graduating Etch would be around the corner. It appears that we need other new blood to invigorate the community. Martijn --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
