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Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2010 14:07:47 -0700
To: general@lucene.apache.org
Subject: Re: Draft proposal: Move Lucy to Incubator
Message-ID: <20100703210747.GB22035@rectangular.com>
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From: Marvin Humphrey <marvin@rectangular.com>

On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 01:39:23PM -0700, Chris Hostetter wrote:
> : BACKGROUND
> 	...
> :     Since the Lucene PMC will not be responsible for Lucy much longer, it is
> :     more appropriate for the software grant to take place within the context
> :     of the Incubator than the Lucene TLP.  As none of our current members have
> :     Apache PMC experience, we also seek to take advantage of the Incubator
> :     environment to prepare ourselves for responsible self-governance.
> 
> I can't articulate exactly what i'm feeling here, but I feel like this 
> background section could benefit from some mention of the shift away from 
> "Umbrella projects" being an influencer towards wanting to enter the 
> incubator.

I made the following changes in response to this feedback:

    @@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
     PREFACE
         Lucy is a sub-project which is being spun off from the Lucene TLP but is
         not yet ready for graduation.  We propose to address certain needs of the
    -    project by assimilating the KinoSearch codebase, and to enter the
    -    Incubator on a top-level-project track.
    +    project by assimilating the KinoSearch codebase.
     
     ABSTRACT
         Lucy will be a loose port of the Lucene search engine library, written in
    @@ -40,11 +39,13 @@
         still lacks a number of important indexing and search classes; we wish to
         flesh these out via IP clearance work rather than software development.
     
    -    Since the Lucene PMC will not be responsible for Lucy much longer, it is
    -    more appropriate for the software grant to take place within the context
    -    of the Incubator than the Lucene TLP.  As none of our current members have
    -    Apache PMC experience, we also seek to take advantage of the Incubator
    -    environment to prepare ourselves for responsible self-governance.
    +    Since Lucy cannot remain as a sub-project of Lucene under the current ASF
    +    policy of breaking up "umbrella projects", it is not appropriate for the
    +    software grant to take place within the context of the Lucene TLP.
    +    Instead, we advocate that the software grant happen within the context of
    +    the Incubator, and that a Lucy podling and PPMC be established which will
    +    ultimately take responsibility for the codebase.
    +
     
     RATIONALE
         There is great hunger for a search engine library in the mode of Lucene
    @@ -133,8 +134,9 @@
         The initial committers have all have significant experience with open
         source development, and include one present Apache committer.  We
         recognize that we lack PMC experience and seek to address that deficiency
    -    by going through the Incubator.  In retrospect, Marvin wishes that Lucy
    -    had gone through the Incubator during its first inception.
    +    by using the Incubator environment to educate ourselves and prepare for
    +    responsible self-governance.  In retrospect, Marvin wishes that Lucy had
    +    gone through the Incubator during its first inception.
     
       Homogenous Developers
         Our community is geographically dispersed, with members in San Diego,

> : INITIAL GOALS
> :     * Make a 1.0 stable release as quickly as possible.
> :     * Concentrate on community expansion immediately thereafter.
> :     * Expose a public C API.
> 
> i would not say "immediately thereafter" ... building up the community 
> should be an independent goal, worked on concurrently with other technical 
> goals.

I like the way you've put that, and I agree that that should be our mindset.
I've stricken "immediately thereafter".

> that was the the hardest thing for me to wrap my head arround when Solr 
> was incubating -- in many ways i was actively trying to keep Solr a 
> "secret" until i felt like it was "ready to be unvield" but that's not 
> what incubation is about, and it's really teh antithesis of how to have 
> asuccessful project -- you don't get a lot of contributors all at once by 
> saying "here it is, we've got something that's stable and solid and 
> 'done', who wants to come be a part of it?" .. you get contributors slowly 
> and surely by saying "here's what we've got so far, who wants to help us 
> make this better?"

Thoughtful advice.  

Even before the Lucene PMC emphasized making releases during its review of
Lucy, there was consensus in the KinoSearch community that publishing a stable
release needed to be a high priority.  KinoSearch effectively skipped its last
major release cycle, and the version which most people see is 4-year-old
technology.

Once the two projects have merged and a stable release of Lucy is out, we
won't be "done" -- there's a ton of stuff on the TODO list that isn't going to
make it into the release.   However, we will have made things a lot easier for
users and contributors, particularly those who wish to publish extensions.  

So, I think we'd like our approach to be, "here's what we have so far, feel
free to use it as is or to help us make it better."

> : DOCUMENTATION
> :     * Subversion repository: [http://www.rectangular.com/svn/kinosearch/]
> :     * Perl API documentation: [http://www.rectangular.com/kinosearch/docs/devel/]
> :     * Discussion list: [http://www.rectangular.com/mailman/listinfo/kinosearch/]
> : 
> : INITIAL SOURCE
> :     The initial source will be a snapshot from the KinoSearch subversion
> :     repository.
> 
> ...what about hte eisting ASF Lucy SVN repo / mailing lists? should those 
> be mentioned here?

Good point.  Will fix.

> : INITIAL COMMITTERS
> :     1. Marvin Humphrey (marvin at rectangular dot com)
> :     2. Peter Karman (peter at peknet dot com)
> :     3. Nathan Kurz ( nate@verse.com )
> 
> ...I'm not certain, but it might make sense to mention who on that list is 
> already an apache committer (or has a CLA on file)

Good catch -- we are supposed to do that.

Thanks,

Marvin Humphrey