Project Roller

If you’re a Roller user, developer, tester or technical writer then the Apache Roller project needs your help. This blog entry explains the reasons why and how you can help.

How the project works:

Apache Roller is an all volunteer project, there is no paid staff. All development, testing and documentation is done by folks in their spare time. Some folks have have made enough contributions to Roller to become part of the Roller Project Management Committee (PMC). The PMC is the group that oversees Roller, has permission to write to check-in new patches, do development directly into the Roller repository and each member has a binding vote on releases and on any contentious issues that cannot be resolved by lazy consensus.

Why Roller needs your help:

Unfortunately, with Sun and IBM no longer contributing to Roller, the number of active participants on the Roller PMC is very small, small enough that it is difficult to get a new Roller release out. To make a new release, we need three +1 votes from PMC members and it can take some time to get PMC members to review and vote on each release candidate.

If you depend on Roller you should consider getting more involved and becoming part of the PMC. It benefits you because you can influence Roller direction, add the fixes you need and by doing so you help to ensure that Roller can continue as an Apache project and make new releases. Or, if you're a student or a person new to open source development and you want to learn by doing, improving Roller or adding all new features, that's a good reason too.

How you can help:

Getting involved in Roller is easy and there is no obligation for you to do anything other than follow the Apache way when you do participate. We don't want your money, we want your participation To get started, let the community know you're interested in becoming a committer and contribute to Roller in any positive way: helping users on the mailing list, contributing docs, fixes or new features -- and you should be noticed and nominated for as a committer/PMC member.

Get involved, Roller needs you!

Here's a link to the newly updated How to contribute to Roller page.

Notes:

• This is a personal blog, represents an individual view-point and is not an official statement of the Apache Software Foundation or any other organization.
• Roller doesn't want your money, but our parent organization, The Apache Software Foundation does accept financial contributions: http://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html