Apache DeviceMap

Apache DeviceMap is the project that belongs to the mobile categories. It is written in Java language. The project is creating a data repository that contains devices attributes, related browsers and the operating systems. DeviceMap supports multiple languages, including Java, C#, VB.Net, and Javascript on the client side through BrowserMap. The project also maintains an API to classify this attributes.

Project Sponsors

The sponsor of this project isn’t specified. However, we can see the well-known IT companies are the Platinum sponsors of the foundation. For example, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft are all donating more than US$100k per year for the operation of the foundation. At the same time, by tracking the project team of DeviceMap, I found out that two Project Management Committee Members are working for Adobe, together with few team members. As a result, I can believe Adobe may also be one of the sponsors in this project.

Project Contributors

Apart from the experts from Adobe, people from different companies and different countries are also contributing to the project. Some of the project team members are the founder of start-up companies which related to the smartphone business. In short, most of the contributors are with strong professionalism in IT.

Incubation / Governance Process

Before Graduation

Since this project was established less than one year, this is still a incubator project. To become a graduated project, the sponsors have to think whether they want the project to be a top-level project or a sub-project. Besides, they have to prepare the status file, apache release and create the community together with the Incubator PMC.

Graduating to a Top Level Project

For propoal sponsored by the Board or the Incubator PMC, this is the top level project. To graduate to a top level project, it first requires the community to show its willingness to govern itself before it becomes the top level. It is done through voting by the community on the graduation proposal. In case the community graduation voting is positive, the group can starting preparing the charter. The resolutions are included in the Board minutes which are posted publicly. Since the project evolves overtime and deviation may exist from the original proposal, the original proposal and status document should be consulted when preparing the charter. The resolutions should be proposed on the generic incubator list. Once it reaches the consensus, the IPMC recommendations will be voted. Finally, the resolution will be submitted to the board once it is finalized and consensus is reached. The submission of the resolution should be handed in 72 hours before the board meeting, in order to include it in the meeting agenda.

Graduating to a Subproject

The sub-projects are the projects under the existing projects. They are accepted by the Project Management Committee. At the beginning, it also requires to go through the community graduation vote. Then, it comes to the sub-project acceptance vote. It is a formal vote by the project PMC to accept the podling as the sub-project is a prerequisite. Lastly, once the project has voted to accept the sub-project, the mentors of the project should start the vote general mailing list, proposing the IPMC sign off the graduation of podling as a sub-project. For the submission of the contribution, each contribution submitted for inclusion shall be under the terms and conditions of the Apache Foundation License 2.0. Nothing herein shall supersede or modify the terms of any separate license agreement.

Project Communication

People can get engaged and begin participating in the project through sending questions, comments or even their contribution to the developer list of DeviceMap. It is similar to a blog that people can raise their questions or give comments towards the project. At the same time, people can respond to the questions or comments in the "Issue Tracker". People who want to contribute to the project can solve the issues raised by the project team members. The issues can be the bugs, tasks and other issues that the team members may need extra help from others.

References

DeviceMap description in Apache Foundation: http://projects-old.apache.org/projects/devicemap.html DeviceMap Website: http://devicemap.apache.org/index.html