vote?
(I had hoped to see some people volunteer...)
Cheers,
-g
On Dec 2, 2011 10:53 AM, "Hyrum K Wright" <hyrum.wright@wandisco.com> wrote:
> Hello Incubator!
>
> WANdisco would like to propose the inclusion of a new project, Apache
> Bloodhound, to the Incubator. The proposal has been posted to the
> wiki[1], and is also included below. We've privately discussed this
> project with a number of individuals, but would now like to get the
> discussion rolling here. Bloodhound is new effort, based on Trac[2],
> to provide issue tracking and collaboration tools for developers.
>
> We realize the proposal is a work-in-progress, and as such look
> forward to feedback and discussion. We hope to attract mentors and
> other interested parties through the incubation proposal process, and
> further diversify the community as we move through incubation. In
> particular, this project is an opportunity to build a new community
> around the codebase, and we look forward to doing so at the ASF.
>
> -Hyrum
>
> [1] http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/BloodhoundProposal
> [2] http://trac.edgewall.org/
>
>
> = Bloodhound - Collaborative development tools based on Trac =
>
> == Abstract ==
>
> Bloodhound will be a software development collaboration tool,
> including issue tracking, wiki and repository browsing. Essentially
> an improved distribution of the well-known Trac project, Bloodhound
> will include the common and useful plugins to enable a more complete
> distribution than a typical Trac installation.
>
> == Proposal ==
>
> Bloodhound will be a software development collaboration tool, based on
> the existing Trac project, which will include a repository browser,
> wiki, and defect tracker. In addition to the standard Trac
> installation, Bloodhound will incorporate a number of popular modules
> into the core distribution, and include additional improvements
> developed (as [[http://trac-hacks.org/|plugins]]) outside the Trac
> project.
>
> == Background ==
>
> The [[http://trac.edgewall.org/|Trac project]] is a BSD-licensed
> collaboration tool used to assist in software development. It has a
> wide user base, a pluggable infrastructure, and is generally
> considered stable.
>
> By it's own recognition, however, the development community
> surrounding Trac has largely dissipated, with little mailing list
> traffic, and very few commits to the source code repository (see [2]).
> Private efforts to engage the existing developers in implementing
> features have been negatively received. At the same time, other
> individuals and companies, such as
> [[http://www.wandisco.com|WANdisco]], have expressed interest in
> helping continue to develop Trac. These entities would prefer this
> effort to be at a vendor-neutral location, with the clear process for
> intellectual property management that comes from the Foundation. As
> such, the Apache Software Foundation feels like the best fit for this
> new project based on Trac.
>
> == Rationale ==
>
> As discussed earlier, the current Trac development community is small
> and reluctant to accept outside contributions. Given the Foundation's
> reputation for building and maintaining communities, we feel a new
> project, based on Trac but incubated under the Apache umbrella, would
> help re-build the developer community, jump started by developer time
> donated by WANdisco. Additionally, as a developer tool, Bloodhound is
> a good fit with other, similarly-focused developer tools at the ASF.
>
> Private discussions have shown there is some interest by third-parties
> to release internal improvements to Trac, and Bloodhound gives them an
> additional venue to do so.
>
> == Initial Goals ==
>
> The initial goals for Bloodhound primarily revolve around migrating
> the existing code base and integrating external features to make the
> project easy to deploy. Additional ideas will of course follow, but
> the following goals are sufficiently difficult to be considered early
> milestones.
>
> Some of the initial goals include:
> * Migrate the existing BSD-licensed Trac code base to the ASF.
> * Attract developer and user interest in the new Bloodhound project.
> * Incorporate externally developed features into the core Bloodhound
> project.
> * Package the most popular plugins into the core project, so
> installations and administration of Bloodhound becomes dead simple.
>
>
> = Current Status =
>
> == Meritocracy ==
>
> Although initially corporate-sponsored, any interested developers
> would be granted commit access. Even developers employed by the
> sponsoring companies would be required to demonstrate competency to
> gain commit privileges. Individuals with corporate affiliations would
> understandably be known within the community, but would not have
> bearing on the granting of commit privileges.
>
> == Community ==
>
> One of the primary purposes of this proposal is to develop a strong
> developer community around the Trac code base. The current developers
> and supporting institution have moved on to other things, and this has
> caused stagnation in the existing community. We want to use the
> experience of the Incubator PMC, and the incubation process, to reboot
> the developer community, while at the same time incorporating
> oft-requested features into the existing product.
>
> Building communities carries with it an initial investment, and the
> corporate sponsors behind this proposal are willing to make that
> investment in seeing a vibrant and self-sustaining community result
> from incubation. We recognize this as something of an experiment, and
> that incubation is not a guarantee of success and graduation a given.
> However, we feel that the ASF represents the best opportunity to build
> the vibrant community that this project needs.
>
> == Core Developers ==
>
> The initial set of developers will be primarily individuals from
> WANdisco, and may be augmented with other interested persons we have
> privately contacted. This list contains at least one Apache Member,
> as well as others who have participated in Apache projects in various
> capacities (patch contributors, bug reports, etc.). It also includes
> people who are familiar with open source development, but have not
> previously participated in Apache projects.
>
> Realizing that incubation is an opportunity to grow the community, we
> plan to make every attempt possible to invite additional developers
> from the existing Trac user and developer communities, including those
> involved in plugin development.
>
> == Alignment ==
>
> Bloodhound aligns well with the Apache Software Foundation. It makes
> extensive use of Apache Subversion, and includes tools to browse and
> interact with Subversion repositories. As previously mentioned,
> Bloodhound is primarily a developer-oriented tool, which follows the
> historical Apache philosophy of providing high-quality developer
> tools. Eventually, Bloodhound could become a viable alternative to
> Jira or Bugzilla for projects hosted at Apache.
>
> = Known Risks =
>
> This proposal is not without its risks, some of which are outlined below.
>
> == Orphaned Projects ==
>
> The current Trac project lacks much developer interest. Although the
> entities behind this proposal desire to make a viable developer
> community, there is no guarantee that such a community will develop.
> Should this happen, there will likely be insufficient heterogeneity in
> the project to warrant graduation.
>
> == Inexperience with Open Source ==
>
> The initial groups of developers have extensive experience with open
> source, primarily with the [[http://subversion.apache.org/|Apache
> Subversion]] project. The target audience for growing the developer
> community is the current Trac user and developer communities, many
> members of which are familiar with open source in general. There may
> be some learning curve as community members familiarize themselves
> with the ASF and the Apache Way, including individuals employed
> specifically to work on the project.
>
> == Homogeneous Developers ==
>
> The current list of committers are primarily from WANdisco. One of
> the key purposes of proposing Bloodhound for incubation is to
> resurrect a currently-small (~3 key developers, but very few commits
> per week) development community by attracting and infusing it with new
> code and new individuals. The ASF has a well-deserved reputation of
> fostering and building open source communities, which makes it the
> ideal location to attempt this community reboot.
>
> == Reliance on Salaried Developers ==
>
> Most of the initial committers are supported by their employers to
> work on Bloodhound, and may be assigned to work on other projects in
> the future. However, the employers of these salaried individuals have
> an interest in seeing Bloodhound thrive as a long-term, sustaining
> project. WANdisco understands that their employees are acting as
> individuals when contributing to Apache projects, but has already
> brought additional staff on board to assist with Bloodhound
> development.
>
> == Relationship with Other Apache Projects ==
>
> Bloodhound integrates heavily with Apache Subversion, although that
> integration is becoming more de-coupled making it possible to replace
> with other version control systems. Bloodhound optionally runs on
> Apache httpd.
>
> == An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand ==
>
> One of the primary motivators in creating the Bloodhound project as
> part of the Incubator is to leverage the vendor-neutral nature of the
> Apache Software Foundation. The ASF has a strong and recognized brand
> as being a leader in open source, and by hosting Bloodhound at the
> Foundation, we hope to attract developers to build a viable community
> for the project.
>
> = Initial Source =
>
> The original Trac code base has been under development for more than 8
> years, though development has become minimal over the past 2 years.
> We have sync'd the existing Trac repository, including history, and
> are using it as the basis for Bloodhound. We also plan to incorporate
> appropriately-licensed plugins into the core Bloodhound system.
>
> == Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan ==
>
> The initial source will be from the Trac repository. Additional
> functionality may come from private development, and will be folded
> into the open source version after Bloodhound is loaded in the main
> ASF repository. Any relevant Trac-hacks with appropriate licenses may
> also be migrated.
>
> == External Dependencies ==
>
> The bulk of the initial code will be from the Trac project, which is
> licensed under the BSD license. Bloodhound also relies upon
> BSD-licensed subcomponents for HTML templating.
>
> = Required Resources =
>
> == Mailing lists ==
>
> The initial set of mailing lists will be:
> * bloodhound-private (with moderated subscriptions)
> * bloodhound-dev
> * bloodhound-commits
> * bloodhound-user
>
> == Subversion Directory ==
>
> https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/bloodhound
>
> == Issue Tracking ==
>
> Bloodhound would like to self-host its issue tracking, see below.
>
> == Other Resources ==
>
> In the interests of eating our own dogfood, Bloodhound would like to
> self-host the issue tracker and related tools. The team will work with
> Infrastructure to define and manage this configuration.
>
> == Initial Committers ==
>
> * Mat Booth (mat.booth at wandisco dot com)
> * Mark Poole (mark at wandisco.com)
> * Hyrum Wright (hyrum.wright at wandisco dot com)
> * John Chambers (john.chambers at wandisco.com)
> * Gary Martin (gary.martin at wandisco.com)
>
> == Affiliations ==
>
> * Mat Booth, WANdisco
> * Mark Poole, WANdisco
> * Hyrum Wright, WANdisco
> * John Chambers, WANdisco
> * Gary Martin, WANdisco
>
> = Sponsors =
>
> == Champion ==
>
> Hyrum Wright
>
> == Nominated Mentors ==
>
> * Hyrum Wright
> * Greg Stein
>
> == Sponsoring Entity ==
>
> The Apache Incubator
>
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