Non-profit corporation provides organizational assistance
and development frameworks for the Apache open-source
projects, including the world's leading Web server
For Immediate Release --
Contact: Sally Khudairi
ZOT Group
+1.617.818.0177 <sk@zotgroup.com>
http://www.apache.org/ -- June 30, 1999 -- The Apache Group
today announced the creation of the Apache Software
Foundation (ASF), to formally shepherd the development of
the #1 Web server worldwide -- the Apache HTTP Server
Project -- and other projects under the Apache umbrella.
This international volunteer effort is dedicated to the
support of open-source software projects based on the
collaborative model of the Apache HTTP Server Project. "This
is an important step forward for the Apache projects," said
Roy T. Fielding, ASF Chairman and co-founder of the Apache
HTTP Server Project. "The Apache Software Foundation will
protect the efforts of the community of developers working
on our open-source projects, while providing a pillar of
strength and stability for our customers."
COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT
The Apache Software Foundation will provide organizational,
legal, and financial support for the Apache open-source
software projects. The Foundation ensures the continuity of
Apache projects beyond the participation of individual
volunteers, enables contributions of intellectual property
and financial support on a sound basis, and provides a
vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in
open-source projects.
Although the Foundation will oversee all Apache activities,
the technical aspects of each project will be governed by
its own project team. The ASF requires all its projects
remain open to new contributors via Internet collaboration,
and limits the distribution of software under its name to a
set of approved open-source licenses, but does not interfere
with the day-to-day operations of each project.
"IBM is pleased to be a part of today's announcement, which
really helps to further drive collaborative, open-source
development within the broader community, said Robert
LeBlanc, Vice President, IBM Software Strategy. "IBM will
also be providing code and a dedicated team of programmers
to the Apache Software Foundation, including the Jakarta
Project and will use the resulting code in its commercial
products, similar to its use of the Apache Web Server today.
Setting up the Foundation ensures that both commercial
software customers and the community will benefit from the
broad range of skills and partners in the marketplace."
CONTINUED LEADERSHIP BY COMMUNITY MEMBERS
ASF membership is open to individuals by invitation.
Candidates are judged by their technical contributions and
skills, and must be active collaborators on one or more of
the Foundation's projects. At present, only individuals may
become members; however companies may be represented in the
Foundation by individual participants.
"We hope that the open-source community, especially Apache
software users, will view this new corporate structure in
the spirit that we held when working toward its existence,"
said Randy Terbush, CEO/CTO of Covalent Technologies. "Our
ultimate goal was to preserve the longevity of the Apache
open-source development efforts while extending the same
benefits to other open-source projects that fit logically
under the Apache Software Foundation umbrella."
The members of the Apache Software Foundation have elected a
Board of Directors to oversee the corporation and ensure its
responsiveness to the needs of its projects. The Board is
comprised of widely-recognized contributors to the original
Apache Group:
Brian Behlendorf (O'Reilly and Associates)
Ken Coar (IBM Corporation)
Roy T. Fielding (University of California, Irvine)
Ben Hyde (Gensym)
Jim Jagielski (jaguNET Access Services)
Ben Laurie (A.L. Digital Ltd.)
Sameer Parekh (C2Net)
Randy Terbush (Covalent Technologies)
Dirk-Willem van Gulik (WebWeaving Consultancy)
"The Foundation will be guided by the same people who have
maintained the vision, principles and continuity of the
Apache projects for the past four years," added Fielding.
APACHE OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECTS
Projects overseen by the Apache Software Foundation carry
forth the commitment to open collaboration, active
participation from the Internet developer community, and
freely available software.
The Apache HTTP Server Project, the Foundation's best-known
project, was founded in 1995 as a collaborative effort to
produce an open-source, commercial-grade Web server in sync
with the Internet standards for the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol [HTTP]. Software produced by the Apache HTTP Server
Project serves over 61% of all public Internet websites,
according to the June 1999 Netcraft Web Server Survey
[http://www.netcraft.com/survey/ ]. Hundreds of users have
contributed ideas, code, and documentation to the project.
Every eight seconds another Apache-based website joins the
existing 3.5 million on the Web.
"Apache has had 'sister' projects for quite some time. We
are now formalizing that relationship, and ensuring that
these projects benefit from the same operating framework
that the HTTP Server Project has and will continue to have,"
explained Brian Behlendorf, ASF President.
One such sister project is the recently announced Jakarta
Project -- the collaboration between Sun Microsystems, IBM,
Oracle, and the server-side Java development community. Sun
Microsystems is donating a significant amount of code to
this project, and plans to use code from Jakarta in their
commercial products and services.
"There's a lot of trust in the Apache name, and we want to
maintain that," added Behlendorf. "We want to do what we can
to make the open-source development model really work."
ABOUT THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION
The Apache Software Foundation provides organizational,
legal, and financial support for the Apache open-source
software projects. Formerly known as the Apache Group, the
Foundation incorporated as a membership-based,
not-for-profit corporation to ensure that the Apache
projects continue to exist beyond the participation of
individual volunteers, to enable contributions of
intellectual property and financial support, and to provide
a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in
open-source projects. For more information on the Apache
Software Foundation, please see http://www.apache.org/
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