ESME Blog

We’ve always used the Scrum methodology as the basis for our development work. Last week, we started our first iteration / sprint since we joined the Apache Incubator and I wanted to create a quick blog describing what we are planning.

Note: All this material is also present on the esme-dev mailing list at Apache as well as on the Apache Jira site for ESME but I wanted to save people the effort of foresting through all the posts to find the details.  The post of this summary is also another indication of the openness of the project. If you want details for each task, then go to Jira and look at the individual tasks

Scrum completion date: Feb 6, 2009.

Teams:

• Idea is that there will be two teams that focus on particular tasks. Each team will have between 5-10 tasks for each sprint / iteration.
• Server team: David, Daniel Koller, Darren, Vassil
• UI team: Bill, Mrinal, Anne, (Dick – Use cases).

User Interface:

• General User Interface (UI) roadmap with order of goals and what needs to be accomplished
• Adequate description of User Interface  architecture
• Creation of first sprint specification
• Partial implementation  (Web Interface)

Server:

• Generic code clean-up
• Unifying server calls (JSON-related)
• Support for Twitter API
• Document how compass can use other persistency types
• Merge Action branch into official trunk
• Further work on java API (GetMessages)

Note: Some of these tasks have already been accomplished.

ESME (Enterprise Social Messaging Experiment) has been officially accepted into the prestigious Apache Incubator – http://incubator.apache.org/projects/esme.html.

ESME is a microblogging tool and community project which originated in conversations amongst members of the SAP Community, moved to Google Code, and was the first submission in the history of SAP TechEds which was present at all three Demo Jams (Las Vegas, Berlin and Bangalore) in one year.

The Apache Incubator is the entry path into The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) for projects and codebases wishing to become part of the Foundation’s efforts. All code donations from external organizations and existing external projects wishing to join Apache enter through the Incubator. The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) provides organizational, legal, and financial support for a broad range of open source software projects. The Foundation provides an established framework for intellectual property and financial contributions that simultaneously limits contributors potential legal exposure.

Apache projects are considered the top open-source projects and many of have become standards in software development (Tomcat, Struts, etc.)

Why the inclusion of ESME in the Apache Incubator is ImportantAs I described in my last blog about innovation and the SCN community, I’d like to suggest that the evolution of ESME proves that the potential of the SCN community lies in looking beyond borders of the community itself and must include the experience gained from other communities in order to evolve itself. Although I am very much an Apache novice, I’ve been fascinated by the processes and policies that are present in this organization. For example, there is much that we (SCN) can learn from how Apache deals with IP-related issues. This cross-pollination is especially relevant based on the various open-source-related discussions occurring in background in the SCN.

 As SAP’s participation (including Senior Vice President of the SAP Community Network Mark Yolton) in the Open Source Meets Business (OSMB) Congress demonstrates, there is an increasing awareness that the relationship of corporations to open-source software should be more than just as consumers but also as contributors. This changing role requires a great deal of re-thinking in terms of corporate policies (legal, organizational, etc.); thus, the experience of the ESME team (many of whom are SAP mentors) in Apache will flow back into our involvement with the SCN as well as assist our respective corporations to deal with this new opportunity.

Note: This blog was also posted on the SDN.

We’ve submitted a proposal to join the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) which

… provides organizational, legal, and financial support for a broad range of open source software projects. The Foundation provides an established framework for intellectual property and financial contributions that simultaneously limits contributors potential legal exposure. .

 We are seeking admission to the ASF via the Apache Incubator which

… is the entry path into The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) for projects and codebases wishing to become part of the Foundation’s efforts. All code donations from external organisations and existing external projects wishing to join Apache enter through the Incubator.

The process to become a “podling” in the Apache Incubator is well described and we are excited to have been provided this opportunity to participate.

The ESME project team is interested in joining the Apache Software Foundation for several reasons:

• To help the project attract contributors and service providers who will feel more comfortable with the licensing coming through a respected, well known and established organization such as Apache.
• To facilitate the growth of a broader community of users. The project currently lacks sufficiently clear direction, leadership, and process; we believe the project will benefit greatly from Incubator mentorship.

Voting on inclusion of ESME in the Incubator will take place in the next few weeks, we’ll keep you informed regarding our progress.