Incubation Process

A podling might reach the Incubator by referral, or be born there. Here are some of the ways a podling might get here:

• Some group external to the Foundation wants to donate an existing codebase;
• Some existing Foundation [sub]project wants to build up viability and a community around a codebase;
• Some group of people within the Foundation want to start a new codebase and build a community around it;
• [others..?]

That's the entry to the Incubator. The exit path similarly has a number of different options:

• The podling's codebase may be declared non-viable ('dead'), and may either languish in the Incubator or be relocated to a software cemetery;
• The community around the codebase may decide that the Apache Software Foundation isn't the right place, and so the foundation may return title to the code and wave sayonara;
• The podling may fit best within one of the existing ASF projects, and negociations between the Incubator and that project result in the podling moving there;
• The podling may seem to belong with an existing project, but the project in question refuses to accept it [what happens?];
• The podling represents something sufficiently unique as to warrant the creation of a completely new ASF project.

Those are essentially the ins and outs of the Incubator project. The remaining piece is, of course, what goes on inside the Incubator with a podling that hasn't graduated/matured yet?

From the standpoint of a codebase being incubated, there are some things that will need to happen before it will even be possible for it to exit from the Incubator:

1. All software in the codebase will need to have its copyright assigned to The Apache Software Foundation; and
2. All software in the codebase will need to be licensed (or multi-licensed) under the Apache licence.

This means that the codebase will need to be examined to ensure that, if and when the Foundation begins distributing it, it has clear title to do so and isn't infringing on anyone's rights.

The process of incubation of the codebase's community is a little different, and consists primarily of ensuring that the community has adopted the Apache methodologies and guidelines, and all legal concerns have been addressed. This means the following (among others):

• All contributors must sign and submit a Contributor's Licence Agreement;
• The community has adopted the Apache voting rules and is otherwise following the Apache guidelines;
• The community has decided on a policy for the composition of its 'steering committee';
• The exit strategy for the podling has defined up front. In particular, the incubated podling needs to know:
  1. To which ASF project (if any) it will be graduating. This implies that the project is question is sponsoring the podling, at least in part.
  2. The expected timeframe that the podling will stay in the incubator. This is determined by mutual consent among the community of the podling, the graduation PMC of the project to which the codebase and community will move at the end of incubation (if any), and the Incubator PMC.
  3. The "graduation requirements" for leaving the Incubator. Basically, what are the pre-defined goals that must be met before the podling can leave the Incubator?
• [what else?]

TBD. Licensing, copyright, steering ctte, voting, guidelines, ..