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In this month’s Plus One, ASF President Ruth Suehle reflects on recent events that took place across the open source ecosystem that underscored the importance of collaboration – increasingly important as policy and regulatory changes impacting software development unfold. Community Over Code dates have been set for Asia and North America, so be sure to follow along for key deadlines, including TAC applications.

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Community

FOSDEM 2025 Recap: Open Source Contributors Unite to Collaborate and Help Advance Apache Software Projects

Applications for Travel Assistance to go to Community Over Code Asia (Beijing, China) are open until May 9, 2025. Potential applicants should read https://tac.apache.org/ fully before applying. Ready to apply? Visit https://tac-apply.apache.org/.

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Voice of Apache

[Watch] Apache Travel Assistance Committee (TAC) – Chris Dutz and Atita Arora

Project Updates

Apache Mnemonic and Apache Oozie have been retired to the Apache Attic.

Foundation News

Community Over Code NA 2025 announced for Minneapolis

The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache Sling 13

The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache Ignite® 3.0

President’s Letter

It’s a wildly interesting time to be working on software development–in particular, the growing policy and regulatory movement around the world with an eye on software. It’s happening because governments, companies, and users are truly recognizing the massive global value that you all, as a part of the open source ecosystem, have been building for years.

Last month during EU Open Source Week (leading up to FOSDEM), I was delighted to take part in two events related to these changes. The first was a meeting of the Eclipse Foundation’s Open Regulatory Compliance Working Group, which the ASF was a founding member of last September. The ORCWG aims to gather best practices around software security to help the open source ecosystem prepare for full implementation of the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), as well as other global regulation in the future. The work will simultaneously inform governments, public, and regulatory bodies about the impact regulations will have on the unique open source development model and the innovation that it drives. You can check in on some of the work done in that meeting on the ORCWG Github. If you’re interested in keeping up with the work moving forward, you can learn how to participate or just follow along on LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Bluesky.

The second was the EU Open Source Policy Summit, where I joined fellow foundation leaders on a panel titled, “The Open Source Ecosystem – Navigating a World in Transformation.” The general consensus of this panel was that the key to that navigation is more work like that which we’re doing with Eclipse, which is to say, together. What we do best in open source is collaborate, and alongside all the things we do well as individual organizations, the ecosystem will be even stronger when we as foundations apply that power to working towards our common goals.

One final note about this month full of organizational collaboration–you may recall that last summer, ASF’s then-president David Nalley spoke on a panel at the United Nations at the OSPOs for Good event. That event’s report has been published. This year the event will be expanding to a full week.

Back home here within our ASF work, I hope you’ve all marked your calendars for Community Over Code, to be held in Minneapolis, MN, September 11-14. The call for tracks wrapped up this week, so keep your eyes open for the CFP. Meanwhile, for those closer to Beijing, the CFP is already open for Community Over Code Asia through April 21, and the event will be held July 25-27. As well as we all work together across pixels and time zones, there’s a magical value in these in-person interactions that can’t be beat, so I hope you’ll be able to attend one this year!

Sincerely,
Ruth Suehle
ASF President