The Apache Software Foundation
Celebrating a Decade of Open Source Leadership.

Thanks to our very own Sally Khudairi, VP Marketing and Publicity, the ASF's 10 years shout out was recently displayed on New York's Times Square and in Las Vegas - and we have visual evidence!

As mentioned in a previous post, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums have recently recognized The Apache Software Foundation for a decade of open source leadership and technology innovation.

Mayor Dellums proclaimed November 4th, 2009 as the Apache Software Foundation Day!

Here are their letters, as presented last week at ApacheCon US 2009 in Oakland, CA. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

FOREST HILL, Md., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Closing out the celebrations for its 10th anniversary, The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) today announced highlights from ApacheCon US 2009, which took place November 2-6, 2009 in Oakland, Calif. The Foundation received unprecedented support and recognition as testament to the growing strength and influence of the global Apache community. During the week, The ASF was honored by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and by Oakland City Mayor Ron Dellums for the key technologies developed, overseen, and shepherded by the all-volunteer organization over the last decade. November 4 has been designated Apache Software Foundation Day.

ApacheCon is the official user conference for The ASF. The event attracted more than 600 attendees from the global Apache community, and featured the most extensive conference program to date with more than 100 hours of trainings, over 90 sessions, 25 BarCampApache discussion groups, 11 project MeetUps, two days of code collaboration at the Hackathon, and numerous entertaining Lightning Talks. Dozens of corporate sponsors, exhibitors, and community and media partners helped make this year's ApacheCon among the most popular events to date.

Conference highlights include:

• Thought-provoking keynotes, including the Apache Pioneers Panel reuniting ASF founding members and early contributors; Brian Behlendorf on how the Open Source movement has positively impacted social change; and Kirrily Robert on the role of women in Open Source.
• Subversion, the award-winning Open Source version control and software configuration management tool, formally submitted itself to the Apache Incubator with the aim of becoming an ASF Top-Level Project.
• Several Apache projects also celebrated their 10th anniversary, including Apache XML, Apache Jakarta, Apache Cocoon, Apache Xerces, Apache Ant, and Apache Tomcat, who debuted Tomcat 7.0 during the conference.
• The Apache Directory project announced a newly-formed alliance between the OpenLDAP Foundation and the ASF, created to drive various industry standards. The Project also released version 1.5 of its Apache Directory Studio product during the event.
• ASF Platinum Sponsor Microsoft announced that they will be renewing their sponsorship for the upcoming year, bolstering both their involvement in the ASF as well as with numerous Apache projects.
• An unprecedented number of MeetUps were held throughout the week drawing attendees en masse to participate in discussions on popular Open Source projects such as NoSQL, Apache Tomcat, Apache Hadoop, Apache Maven, OSGi, and Subversion.
• The ASF's 10th Anniversary was cited by numerous publications, members of the Open Source community, industry foundations, corporate users, and individuals.
• The ASF's Big Feather Birthday Bash was followed by a rave-style afterparty that kicked off with music DJ'ed by "Vitamin B" -- a.k.a. ASF co-founder Brian Behlendorf.
  

Community Driven, Community Supported

New to ApacheCon US 2009 was the project-driven conference program, whose scope, sessions, and speakers were selected by the Apache Projects themselves for their respective tracks. Since its incorporation, The ASF has maintained a strong focus on developing leading software through a meritocratic process supported by the community and fueled by the passion and ideas of the community. Through the support of its Membership, committers, sponsors, partners, and other Open Source software communities, The ASF continues to develop quality software the "Apache Way."

ApacheCon extends its utmost gratitude to supporters and to sponsors of this year's conference, which include:

• Platinum Sponsors Microsoft and thawte;
• Premier Sponsors CollabNet, Hewlett-Packard, Hippo, HotWax Media, Lucid Imagination, Progress Software, SourceForge, and SpringSource;
• Community Sponsors and Exhibitors The Apache Software Foundation, Aster Data Systems, Cloudera, Day Software, Facebook, HALO Worldwide, LinkedIn, Mark Logic, MuleSoft, Ning, OSS Watch, Sun Microsystems, ThinkGeek, and WSO2; and
• Community and Media Partners: FeatherCast, Linux Journal, LinuxPro Magazine, Manning Publications, Methods & Tools, MOO, NLUUG, Opensourc3, openSUSE, OStatic, Slashdot, Sourcesense, The Bitsource, WiLine, and WSO2 Oxygen Tank.
  

The ASF continues its outreach to local communities with the upcoming ApacheCon Roadshow Asia, taking place in Beijing, China 28-29 November, and Colombo, Sri Lanka 3-5 December 2009.

Event Resources

• Recorded Sessions: With the support of LinuxPro Magazine and CollabNet, The ASF was able to "live stream" select sessions from ApacheCon US 2009. Archived recordings will be available November 13 at http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/apacheconus2009.
• Presentations: Slides from ApacheCon sessions will be posted off the ApacheCon website at: http://www.us.apachecon.com/c/acus2009/.
• Video Shout Outs: Many attendees and community members shared their thoughts on Apache. Check out a catalog of videos on the Apache community YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheApacheWay.
• Upcoming Events: Stay on top of upcoming ApacheCon events and BarCamps by following @ApacheCon on Twitter.
  

About ApacheCon

The official user conference, trainings, and expo of The Apache Software Foundation draws attendees from the global Open Source community for unparalleled educational, networking, hacking, and social opportunities. ApacheCon is co-produced by The Apache Software Foundation and Stone Circle Productions, and has grown to be among the premier events for cutting-edge Open Source technologies and industry best practices. Held semi-annually in Europe and North America, smaller ApacheCon community-focused events also take place in Asia. For more information, visit http://www.apachecon.com/.

 Update: Governor Schwarzenegger and Mayor Dellums' letters are now available online.

As you know, the ASF turned 10 this year — our celebrations kicked off with cake at ApacheCon Europe this past March. We were thrilled to receive birthday wishes from so many members from the Apache community from across the world.

Our festivities will continue at ApacheCon US (Oakland, California), where we will be holding the Big Feather Birthday Bash and related community events during the conference. We anticipate seeing many of you there!

Some of you are unable to join us in person, but we don't want you to miss out on the fun. As such, we're inviting our global community to "Raise a Glass to Apache" and celebrate this landmark event at your own local gathering. Recognizing Apache developers and users as part of the ASF's 10th Anniversary is very important to us. We want you to join the fun, meet other Apache enthusiasts, make new friends, put faces to the names behind those emails, and, of course, engage in all things Apache.

We understand that communities have their own local culture and preferences: you are welcome to host the type of event best suited to your needs. Preferably, this will take place during the week of ApacheCon (2-6 November, 2009; the Big Feather Birthday Bash is on Wednesday, 4 November) —  your event can be held on any day of that week, at any time of the day or night that is most convenient for you. Events include but are not limited to:

• Social Gatherings – getting together over coffee, lunch, drinks, or dinner
• Tech Talks – individual or industry presentations given about ASF projects and actvities
• Product Demos – showcasing how Apache technologies are powering creative and robust solutions
• Hackathon – collaborating on Apache code bases with ASF Committers
• MeetUps or GetTogethers – featuring talks or presentations on a specific Apache Project or activity
• Networking and Job Match – connecting developers with users, employers with potential hires, clients with contractors/consultants, etc.

Can't wait until ApacheCon? That's OK: we're always up for a celebration, so feel free to get started as soon as you'd like — you can Raise a Glass to Apache at an upcoming conference such as the OpenWorld Forum (Paris), SpringOne 2GX (New Orleans), CPOSC 2009 (Harrisburg, PA), FOSS4G 2009 (Sydney), NLUUG Open Web (Amsterdam), UTOSC 2009 (Sandy, UT), and OSMC 2009 (Nürnberg), among others.

So let's get started! There are three steps to make your event happen:

Step 1: Organize. Decide who will be the host(s)/main point(s) of contact, where the event will be held, the day and time, the format, and any costs.

Step 2: Publicize. Spread the word to your coworkers, the press, and your friends. Post details on your event on blogs, mailing lists, event listings, etc. Drive enthusiasm by discussing the event details to the media and on podcasts. Ask people who will be there to invite other groups who may be interested.

Step 3: Apprise. Share your goodwill with the Apache community. Wish the ASF a happy anniversary on the Foundation blog;  post photos of your event online; and submit a "MyApache" video tribute (can be one or more of the following -- 1-2 minutes describing why you love Apache; 1-2 minutes of your group Raising a Glass to Apache/singing Happy Birthday; 2-5 minutes describing the cool ways you use ASF technologies ... be sure to mention which Apache projects you use as well as your results.)

The important thing is to have fun! Get inspired by checking out the ASF's YouTube channel. "MyApache" submissions received by 2 October (midnight US Pacific time/GMT-8) will receive priority consideration to be featured in the ASF's ApacheWay channel and at the Big Feather Birthday Bash!

A schedule of all confirmed events will be posted on the ApacheCon site. To be included in the list, please send a copy of your invitation (including the date, time, and location) to sk@apache.org. I will send you information on how to add your event in the ApacheCon network, how to submit your "MyApache" tributes, as well as suggestions on how to organize and publicize your event.

Feel free to drop us a note with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you haven't registered for ApacheCon US yet, you're in luck!

We've extended the Early Bird Discount through this Friday, 21 August, giving attendees the best rates available, with savings up to $200 on a full conference pass. Catch your favorite Apache projects, including Tomcat, Hadoop, and the world's favorite Web Server, and join us in celebrating the 10th Anniversary of The Apache Software Foundation!

Sign up today!