{"id":1763,"date":"2011-06-03T11:04:35","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T15:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2d823b65bb.nxcli.io\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2011-06-03T11:04:35","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T15:04:35","slug":"apache-openoffice-how-to-get-involved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/apache-openoffice-how-to-get-involved.html","title":{"rendered":"Apache OpenOffice: How to Get Involved"},"content":{"rendered":"

A follow-up to my previous post on the\u00a0 Apache Incubation proposal to move OpenOffice.org over to Apache<\/a> and continue the project there.\u00a0 In that post, I described how Apache projects are run via a meritocracy, that members gain additional rights and responsibilities based on the approval of their peers, etc.\u00a0 But I have received a variety of questions related to this, and I’ve done my best to track down some answers.\u00a0\u00a0 So here are what I found out, in my words, paraphrasing the questions and giving answers, possibly with my mistakes, but I’ll correct them as they are identified.<\/p>\n

Question:\u00a0 How do I sign up to be a project member?<\/p>\n

Answer:\u00a0 For now, since we’re in the proposal stage, and the project has not officially started, we don’t have a website, mailing lists,\u00a0 a repository, etc.\u00a0 So there is no direct project work to do yet.\u00a0 However, anyone who wants to “get in on the ground floor” with Apache OpenOffice, can sign up by adding their name to the “Initial Committers”<\/a> table at the proposal wiki.\u00a0 If you don’t have a login for the wiki (and you probably don’t) then you can quickly get one by clicking “log in” and then following the instructions to create a new account.\u00a0 If you have interest in this, I’d encourage you to sign up.\u00a0 Even though we can’t code yet, we can edit the proposal itself, and there are thin spots there that we could certainly use help filling in.\u00a0 If you want to contribute you should also sign up on the incubator general list<\/a>.\u00a0 This is where the proposal is being discussed.<\/p>\n

Question: This meritocracy sounds very programmer-oriented. But OpenOffice.org,\u00a0 as an end-user, mass-market application, involves a broader community of contributors, from test to translation to documentation to marketing, etc.\u00a0 Do they fit into this meritocracy at all?\u00a0 Is a marketing person or an event organizer or a build engineer a valued contributor?<\/p>\n

Answer:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 Each Apache project determines the criteria used to identify those members whose sustained contributions to the project warranted recognition and advancement.\u00a0\u00a0 I think that in the case of an end-user facing application like OpenOffice.org, contributions come in many flavors.\u00a0 It is not limited to coders, or even to those who check in “assets” like translations and test scripts.\u00a0 We’ll need a wide range of contributors with a diverse set of skills to take OpenOffice.org to the next level.<\/p>\n

Question:\u00a0 Do I need to sign a copyright assignment to contribute to Apache?\u00a0 I heard a lot of bad things about the paperwork that Sun required from OpenOffice contributors.<\/p>\n

Answer:\u00a0 In Sun’s case it was the JCA by which the copyright of all code contributions was assigned to Sun.\u00a0 Instead Apache has a “Contributor License Agreement” which they have in both individual<\/a> and corporate<\/a> forms.\u00a0 This agreement does not require copyright assignment to a single entity, not even to Apache.\u00a0 It does not aggregate copyright.\u00a0 But it does require that you agree to license the copyright to Apache as well as to anyone using the software.\u00a0 IANAL, but this sounds like a good thing.\u00a0 If you are comfortable with the Apache 2.0 license, I can’t see why you would have a problem with the Apache iCLA, since it pretty much restates those same terms.<\/p>\n

Question:\u00a0 What kinds of contributors are you looking for?\u00a0 What roles and skills?<\/p>\n

Answer: If you look at the range of skills and contributors that went into making OpenOffice.org, you will have a good idea of what is involved:<\/p>\n