Thanks, John! Posted: https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/AnnotatorProposal
-----Original Message----- From: John D. Ament [mailto:johndam...@apache.org] Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 9:50 AM To: general@incubator.apache.org; Benjamin Young <byo...@bigbluehat.com> Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Apache Annotator Hi Benjamin, I've added bigbluehat to the contributors group, feel free to post your proposal there. John On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 9:46 AM Benjamin Young <byo...@bigbluehat.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > I have been working with the AnnotatorJS.org community to move our > community to the ASF. We have in the past been a BDFL-led group, but > that has proved unsustainable and resulted in many forks and lost opportunity. > > Recently, many community members gathered at the http://iannotate.org/ > conference and subsequent hackathon and discussed the future of the > project. We again concluded that the ASF held the most promise for a > governance style that could support our growing community and assure > that collaboration continue into the future. > > Our Incubator Proposal is current here (also below in markdown): > https://github.com/openannotation/annotator/wiki/Apache-Incubation-Pro > posal > > I would be happy to move the proposal to the incubator wiki-my user > name there is `bigbluehat`. > > Our current mailing list has a running vote/discussion around this > proposal and our move to the ASF: > https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/annotator-dev/2016-May/001615.html > > Lastly, we have a Champion (Daniel Gruno), but are still in need of > Mentors. > > Thank you for considering this proposal! > Benjamin - bigblue...@apache.org > > > > Apache Annotator Proposal: > #### Abstract > > A short descriptive summary of the project. A short paragraph, > > ideally > one sentence in length. > > Annotation enabling code for browsers, servers, and humans. > > #### Proposal > > A lengthier description of the proposal. > > The Annotator community seeks to build a foundational set of libraries > under a liberal license providing the pieces necessary for developers > to add annotation to their projects. > > #### Background > > Provides context for those unfamiliar with the problem space and history. > > Annotator.js was originally created by Open Knowledge (formerly The > Open Knowledge Foundation) to provide annotation over works by Shakespeare. > Since that time, Annotator has found its way into a wide range of > browser-based annotation systems such as Hypothes.is, > LacunaStories.com, and various academic, publishing, and scientific research > projects. > > Sadly, this increased usage has primarily happened in forks of the > main code or through copy-left licensed plugins that prevent their use > by many community members. > > However, the community remains interested in combined collaboration > and interested in a foundational future for annotation--both in > browsers as well as servers and desktop/mobile applications. > > #### Rationale > > > Explains why this project needs to exist and why should it be > > adopted by > Apache. > > Annotation is often implemented in projects in ad hoc ways with > developers often re-solving problems well known to the Annotator > community. The Annotator community works to provide knowledge and code > to help developers more quickly implement or improve annotation within their > projects. > > We believe bringing the Annotator community into the Apache Software > Foundation will allow for wider recognition of the annotation problem > space, help more developers find their way to solving this shared > problem, provide increased cohesion for our own somewhat fractured > community, and increase the use of commonly shared code within a wide range > of projects. > > #### Initial Goals > > * create a collaborative space for the existing Annotator contributors > and community > * further ignite interest and activity around annotation > * build foundational libraries for annotation > * implement code to support the Web Annotation Data Model, Protocol, > and other annotation related specifications > * potentially re-license Annotator under the Apache License 2.0 > * Annotator is currently licensed under a combination of the MIT & > GPL > * consolidate (where possible) community activity around building > add-ons, annotation storage providers, and use-case specific feature > sets > * grow interest and activity in annotation > > #### Current Status > > ##### Meritocracy > > Apache is a meritocracy. > > The project is in transition from a primarily BDFL-based model to one > with a more diverse set of committers. There are 36 total known > commiters to Annotator. 3 commiters having done the bulk of the coding > and decision making. 2 of those commiters acting as project leadership. > > However, the community is much larger and more diverse when the > various forks and plugin authors are considered. > > We intend to invite and include participants from a wide array of > annotation problem spaces to collaborate in this new shared space. > > ##### Community > > Apache is interested only in communities. > > Community calls had been being done every 3-6 months with reports of > the calls outcome being posted to the mailing list and the > annotatorjs.org website. > > Most activity within the project happens on the mailing list. There is > also a relatively inactive #annotator channel on irc.freenode.net. The > website is primarily for promotion and includes promotion of community > plugins and showcases projects using Annotator. Documentation is > published on readthedocs.org and linked to from the website. > > There are many Annotator and W3C Annotation Data Model related > projects found on GitHub. Our objective would be to invite these > communities to join this collaborative community with the hope of > greater stability and community longevity. > > ##### Core Developers > > Apache is composed of individuals. > > The 3 primary committers to the project are Nick Stenning of The > Hypothesis Project, Randall Leeds of Medal, and Aron Carroll of > Dropbox, Inc. Nick Stenning is the original creator of Annotator. > Randall Leeds is an Apache CouchDB committer. Aron has been a frequent > contributor. All three have been members of The Hypothes.is Project in past > years. > > Other currently active community members include: > > * Andrew Magliozzi of FinalsClub.org > * Andrew drives the scheduling of community calls, is active on the > mailing list, and encourages progress within the project and community > * Benjamin Young of Wiley (also formerly of The Hypothes.is Project) > * an Apache CouchDB commiter > * co-editor of the Web Annotation Data Model > * Oliver Sauter of WordBrain > * active advocate for Annotator and the growth of the annotation > community > > Other committers have contributed significant amounts of code, > content, or issues and discussions, but are currently (in the last 3-6 > months) less active on the project. However, at recent annotation > related conferences the scale of the plugin, fork, and ancillary > project activity was shown to be much higher than what was apparent > from activity on the main Annotator mailing list--in part due to > community fracturing...something we hope to fix with joining the ASF. > > A full list of Annotator contributors can be seen here: > https://github.com/openannotation/annotator/graphs/contributors > > ##### Alignment > > Describe why Apache is a good match for the proposal. > > The Annotator community believes that the Apache Software Foundation > promotes and enforces the sort of community that will best serve the > future of the project. It is also believed that Annotator can serve > the ASF by providing its tools to bring annotation into various Apache > projects and eventually to the apache.org site, project documentation, > and other tools within the ASF. > > The priority is on increasing community involvement, defining--via the > Apache Way--how we will code and collaborate going forward, and upon > creating the best possible annotation solution born out of that > collaboration. > > #### Known Risks > > An exercise in self-knowledge. Risks don't mean that a project is > unacceptable. If they are recognized and noted then they can be > addressed during incubation. > > ##### Orphaned products > > A public commitment to future development. > > The majority of the core committers were formerly from The Hypothes.is > Project which used an earlier version of Annotator within it's > annotation web service and BSD-licensed `h` annotation software. > However, Hypothesis and most other organizations and projects using > Annotator have forked the main code base or created unique plugins > which only exist within their projects and have not been contributed upstream. > > The fracturing of the community and previous single-entity > contribution has greatly prohibited collaboration and growth of the community. > Concurrently, interest and growth of annotation projects from a wide > constituents has grown--though around a much wider array of code and > projects. The hope is that the creation of a collaborative space built > for discussion and sharing of these tools would provide the > opportunity to reach a common core to be shared among the many diverse > players. > > As such, the Annotator project has begun the process of becoming an > Apache project to establish a development and community process that > encourages diversity and cross-organization collaboration. > > ##### Inexperience with Open Source > > Annotator was established as an Open Source project in 2011 with it's > first, v0.0.1 release being made on January 1st of that year: > https://github.com/openannotation/annotator/releases/tag/v0.0.1 > > The project has continued since that time as an open source project > developed on GitHub. The community has grown in diversity since that > time and was moved into a separate "openannotation" GitHub > organization (from the original "okfn" GitHub organization) in 2014 in > an effort to increase community involvement and diversity. > > Each of the core committers have worked on and created open source > software for themselves or various organizations for the greater than > 5 years. Two of the contributors mentioned above also have greater > than 5 years contributor experience at the ASF and are both now core > committers to a top-level project (Apache CouchDB). > > ##### Homogeneous Developers > > Healthy projects need a mix of developers. Open development requires > > a > commitment to encouraging a diverse mixture. This includes the art of > working as part of a geographically scattered group in a distributed > environment. > > Active community members as well as plugin and compatible annotation > storage system builders are from a diverse, though scattered, range of > organizations and individually driven projects. > > The Annotator community is seeking to combine its efforts into a core > group of committers to more accurately encourage a shared foundation > as well as continue the growth in diversity of the community. > > Geographically, the Annotator community is widely distributed from > Germany, Hungary, the East and West coasts of the US, and Australia. > > Additionally, the wide range of annotation related projects that may > be considered as input for this projects code explorations range in > size, contributor diversity, and growth. > > ##### Reliance on Salaried Developers > > A project dominated by salaried developers who are interested in the > code only whilst they are employed to do so risks its long term health. > > In the past, contributors to Annotator project were solely from The > Hypothes.is Project and their activity was driven primarily by the > needs of that project. However, the diversity of interested > participants has greatly increased. There is an additional hope of > creating an aggregated community from various projects (including > Annotator, Hypothesis' `h` code, and various related libraries and > plugins) as well as exploring the creation of new tools--not only for > the browser--to further widen the interest and activity around annotation. > > ##### Relationships with Other Apache Projects > > Apache projects should be open to collaboration with other open > > source > projects both within Apache and without. Candidates should be willing > to reach outside their own little bubbles. > > The Annotator community also provides an annotation storage system > ("annotator-store") built upon ElasticSearch. There are compatible > implementations of that API built on various storage systems > (including Apache CouchDB), and the community would encourage the > creation of other compatible storage systems built upon other Apache storage > projects. > > Additionally, Annotator is a JavaScript library which could serve any > of the various CMS projects within Apache. > > The roadmap for Annotator also includes compatibility with the Web > Annotation Data Model which is a JSON-LD serialization of an RDF-based > data model for annotation. The growing number of RDF-focused Apache > projects could take advantage of and contribute to the creation of these > features. > > The W3C Annotation Working Group is also creating multiple related > deliverables around Web Annotation including an Linked Data > Platfrom-based Protocol specification, a note about selector systems, > and future notes for various serialization and integration > opportunities for the Web Annotation Data Model. Apache Marmotta is > one project within the ASF which has native support for LDP and may > have an interest in collaborating around implementation of the Web Annotation > Protocol. > > Lastly, Apache UIMA can currently generates Open Annotation Data Model > annotations as an output of it's Natural Language Processing system. > These annotations could be displayed via code written within this new > Apache project--which could further leverage user interaction with > those NLP-based annotation (such as confirmation, rejection, or > modification of the annotations made by Apache UIMA's NLP process). > There are other NLP projects within the ASF which could similarly > benefit from these explorations and code generated here. > > ##### A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand > > Concerns have been raised in the past that some projects appear to > > have > been proposed just to generate positive publicity for the proposers. > This is the right place to convince everyone that is not the case. > > The Annotator community acknowledges the value and recognition that > the Apache brand would bring to the Annotator project. However, the > primary interest is in the community building process and long-term > stability that the Apache Software Foundation provides for its projects. > > We do hope for increased recognition of and contribution to an array > of annotation code projects built within this community. However, we > primarily hope for community aggregation driven by building a core set > of tools for our shared set of needs which are now scattered across > various annotation endeavors. > > Integrating those developers into this new community and adding them > as contributors is seen as a much higher priority then increasing > awareness through branding. > > #### Documentation > > References to further reading material. > > Websites: > * http://annotatorjs.org/ > * http://w3.org/annotation/ > > Documentation: > * http://docs.annotatorjs.org/en/v1.2.x/ > * http://docs.annotatorjs.org/en/latest/ > * http://www.w3.org/TR/annotation-model/ > * http://www.w3.org/TR/annotation-protocol/ > > Mailing List: > * https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/annotator-dev/ > * https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-annotation/ > > Code: > * https://github.com/openannotation/annotator > * https://github.com/openannotation/annotator-store > * https://github.com/azaroth42/MangoServer > * https://github.com/tilgovi/dom-anchor-text-quote > * https://github.com/tilgovi/dom-anchor-text-position > * https://github.com/tilgovi/dom-anchor-fragment > > Annotator plugin index: > * http://annotatorjs.org/plugins/index.html > > #### Initial Source > > Describes the origin of the proposed code base. If the initial code > arrives from more than one source, this is the right place to outline > the different histories. > > The original Annotator code base was created by Nick Stenning while at > the Open Knowledge Foundation. The code has been in development since > before > 2011 with the first public release (v0.0.1) happening on January 1st, > 2011 on GitHub. > > The example annotation storage system (which works with Annotator's > stock Store plugin) had it's first release in February 21, 2011 and > was originally built for Apache CouchDB. The contributor list of > annotator-store is similar, but the license is simply the MIT (rather > than MIT & GPL). The stated copyright is 2010-2012 Open Knowledge Foundation. > > Additionally, there is a growing list of forks, plugins, and related > tooling created by the community in various places--often embedded > within larger projects. The Annotator Plugins index has reference to > some such possible inputs to this project's code. The W3C > specifications are also being implemented and the growing number of > projects available around those specifications would also be > considered as possible inputs. Most specifically, Randal Leeds (also a > contributor to Annotator) has built a set of libraries focus on > implementing the W3C selectors. These libraries could serve as an > initial foundation for a core library for browsers or JavaScript-base server > code. > > #### Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan > > Complex proposals (typically involving multiple code bases) may find > > it > useful to draw up an initial plan for the submission of the code here. > Demonstrate that the proposal is practical. > > Our primary goal is to aggregate communities that center around > annotation. We intend to focus our initial work on a JavaScript-based > library built from Randall Leeds `dom-anchor-*` libraries (single > owner copyright; MIT licensed) and potentially reusing code from > Annotator (mixed owner copyright; MIT & GPL dual-licensed). > > The Annotator community has a stated copyright owner of "The Annotator > Community." All contributions are believed to have been made "in kind" > and the copyright owned by the various contributors. The three primary > committers have stated a willingness to donate their contributions to > the Apache Software Foundation and the minimal parts with copyright > owned by others will likely be rewritten. Though we also hope to > engage these individuals to join the combined efforts being made at the ASF. > > The `annotator-store` project is under a clearer, single BSD license. > The copyright holder is stated to be the Open Knowledge Foundation > with the years 2010-2012. It is likely that this code will only be > used for reference or via library inclusion and not directly developed > upon within the ASF. > > An earlier process was undertaken to collect re-licensing permission > from known contributors via the existing mailing list and GitHub > issues--using a model similar to Twitter's when it relicensed > Bootstrap. General agreement was reached, but no decisive actions were > taken as many contributors of smaller amounts of code were no longer > reachable. > > We hope to engage the various plugin and fork authors along with > similar annotation projects to engage future work under a shared > license and developed within The Apache Way. The contribution of > specific code to this project or its future deliverables will be > handled individually by the community over the course of the project. > > One core goal of bringing the community to the ASF is to avoid this > confused licensing situation in the future. > > #### External Dependencies > > Annotator depends on the following JavaScript modules from NPM: > > * backbone-extend-standalone - MIT > * browserify-shim - MIT > * clean-css - MIT > * enhance-css - MIT > * es6-promise - MIT > * insert-css - MIT > * jquery - MIT > * through - MIT / Apache License 2.0 > * xpath-range - MIT + GPL-3.0+ Dual License > > annotator-store depends on the following Python modules: > > * elasticsearch - Apache License 2.0 > * PyJWT - MIT > * iso8601 - MIT > * six - MIT > > MongoServer (a Web Annotation Platform implementation) is a single > owner project currently licensed under the Apache License 2.0. > > Randall Leeds `dom-anchor-*` libraries are all licensed under the MIT > and include these dependencies: > > * dom-anchor-fragment - MIT > * no dependencies > * dom-anchor-text-position - MIT > * node-iterator-shim - MIT > * dom-seek - MIT > * dom-anchor-text-quote - MIT > * dom-anchor-text-position - MIT > * diff-match-patch - Apache License 2.0 > > #### Required Resources > > ##### Mailing Lists > > * private@ > * dev@ > * commits@ > > Note: the Annotator community currently uses a single list hosted by > Open Knowledge at: > https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/annotator-dev > > ##### Git Repository > > * https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator-annotator.git > > Note: the Annotator community hosts its code on GitHub as part of the > "openannotation" organization. Randall Leeds also uses GitHub for his > `dom-anchor-*` libraries as does Rob Sanderson for his Web Annotation > Protocol implementation. These are all potential code inputs to be > considered for reuse or continuation by this community. > > * http://github.com/openannotation/annotator > * http://github.com/openannotation/annotator-store > * https://github.com/azaroth42/MangoServer > * https://github.com/tilgovi/dom-anchor-text-quote > * https://github.com/tilgovi/dom-anchor-text-position > * https://github.com/tilgovi/dom-anchor-fragment > > ##### Issue Tracking > > The Annotator community would prefer to continue using GitHub Issues > if that is a possibility. > > ##### Other Resources > > * static website hosting for annotatorjs.org > > #### Initial Commiters > > * Nick Stenning <n...@whiteink.com> > * Randall Leeds <rand...@apache.org> > * Benjamin Young <bigblue...@apache.org> > * Oliver Sauter <o...@worldbrain.io> > * Andrew Magliozzi <andrew10...@gmail.com> > * Aron Carroll <he...@aroncarroll.com> > * Mariano Giagante <mariano.giaga...@gmail.com> > * Luke Murphy <luk...@riseup.net> > > #### Affiliations > > * Nick Stenning of The Hypothes.is Project > * Randall Leeds of Medal > * Benjamin Young of Wiley > * Oliver Sauter of WorldBrain.io > * Aron Carroll of Dropbox, Inc. > * Andrew Magliozzi of AdmitHub.com > * Mariano Giagante of WorldBrain.io > * Luke Murphy of WorldBrain.io > > #### Sponsors > > ##### Champion > > [Daniel Gruno](http://people.apache.org/phonebook.html?uid=humbedooh) > aka `humbedooh` > > ##### Nominated Mentors > > TBD > > ##### Sponsoring Entity > > The Sponsor is the organizational unit within Apache taking > responsibility for this proposal. The sponsoring entity can be: the > Apache Board, the Incubator, another Apache project > > The Incubator >
