The Apache Software Foundation Wraps Up 2007 As Its Strongest Year to Date

Flexible, Meritocratic Process of "The Apache Way" Plays Key Role in Meeting
Growing Demand for Innovative, Community-Developed Open Source Technologies

FOREST HILL, Md., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
-- stewards, incubators, and developers of leading Open Source projects,
including Apache HTTP Server, the world's most popular Web server software for
twelve years running -- today announced the 2007 year finished as its
strongest ever, reinforcing the broad-reaching success of "The Apache Way."

Lauded as one of the most compelling communities in Open Source, the
all-volunteer Foundation looked back on milestones achieved during 2007, with
ASF activities having grown at a steady rate.

"We are grateful to all those individuals -- Members, Committers, developers,
users, and supporters -- who have contributed to our success over the past
year," said ASF Chairman Jim Jagielski. "Our achievements reflect strong
commitment from our community, boosting confidence in our ability to meet
end-user and market demand and building excitement about the work that is
underway."

2007 HIGHLIGHTS AND MILESTONES

Board: 2007 marked the largest changeover of ASF Board members since The ASF's
incorporation in 1999. Reflecting the Foundation's diverse, meritocratic
Membership, the newly-elected board members are: Justin Erenkrantz
(President), J. Aaron Farr (Treasurer), Jim Jagielski (Chairman), Geir
Magnusson Jr., William Rowe Jr., Sam Ruby (Executive Vice
President/Secretary), Henning Schmiedehausen, Greg Stein, and Henri Yandell.

Membership: At its inception, The ASF comprised 21 individuals who oversaw the
progress of the Apache HTTP Server, forming the Foundation's core membership.
Additions to this group grew with "Committers," developers who contributed
code, patches, or documentation, and were subsequently granted access by the
Membership: 1) to "commit" or "write" directly to the code repository; 2) the
right to vote on community-related decisions; and 3) and the ability propose
an active user for Committership. Those Committers who demonstrate merit in
the Foundation's growth, evolution, and progress are nominated for ASF
Membership by existing members. Following its bi-annual elections, The ASF
closed 2007 with the election of 56 new Members, totaling 259 overall.

Sponsorship: As a private, 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization, The
ASF is funded solely through tax-deductible contributions from corporations,
foundations, and private individuals. At The ASF's inception, all equipment
and services were donated; The ASF Sponsorship Program was created to help
offset day-to-day operating expenses such as bandwidth and connectivity,
servers and hardware, legal and accounting services, marketing and public
relations, general office expenditures, and support staff.

Since launching the Sponsorship Program late 2006, the following sponsors'
contributions have helped advance The ASF's activities:
-- Platinum Level: Google, Yahoo!
-- Gold Level: HP
-- Silver Level: Covalent
-- Bronze Level: AirPlus International, Tetsuya Kitahata, and Two Sigma
Investments

ApacheCon: The ASF's official conference, trainings, and expo -- now in its
10th year -- continues to bring Open Source users, developers, and though
leaders together to explore some of the hottest topics in the industry.
Convening in Amsterdam and Atlanta during 2007, ApacheCon Europe returns to
Amsterdam 7-11 April 2008; and to the United States for ApacheCon US in New
Orleans on 3-7 November 2008.

Community Relations: With over 1,500 Committers and countless contributors and
users collaborating in the development of Apache-related activities across the
Open Source landscape, ASF projects continue to grow at a steady rate. The ASF
is responsible for millions of lines of code and roughly one dozen servers
comprising its infrastructure; nearly 500 community-driven modules have been
developed to extend functionality of the Apache HTTP Server alone.

The ASF's participation in the Open Source community-at-large also takes place
through various committees that include: Licensing (responsible for the legal
issues associated with licensing and license compatibilities, and for the
revision of the Apache Software License); JCP (responsible for the liaison
between The ASF and the Java Community Process, of which The ASF is a member
of its Executive Committee); Conference Planning (responsible for the
organization of ApacheCon); Security (responsible for handling potential
security holes in ASF-produced software and mitigating vulnerability); and
Public Relations (responsible for press-related issues, management of the
Apache brand, trademark licensing, and collaboration with fundraising
efforts).

Project Achievements: Beginning with just two Projects (Apache HTTP Server,
and the ApacheCon Conference Planning committee), The ASF today comprises more
than 55 Top-Level Projects (TLPs) and two-dozen initiatives under Incubation
(comprising both the codebase and its community, known as Podlings).

As the backbone of more Websites than any other Web server software, the
Apache HTTP Server remains the #1 Web server, powering more than 75 million
Websites across the Internet, according to the December 2007 Web Server Survey
by Netcraft. This translates to a 74% market penetration across all Web Server
domains, according to the January 1 2008 Web Server Survey by Security Space.
In September 2007 the Apache HTTP Server Project announced the stable release
of Apache HTTP Server version 2.2.6.

The day-to-day activity of each TLP (and any sub-projects) is overseen by
Project Management Committees (PMCs). Their continuous efforts made 2007 a
landmark year for reaching milestones in the following Top-Level Projects:
Ant, APR, Cocoon, Directory, Excalibur, Forrest, Harmony, HiveMind,
Jackrabbit, Jakarta, James, Lucene, Maven, Mina, MyFaces, Portals, Shale,
Struts, Tapestry, Tomcat, and Velocity.

Apache Labs: Formed in November 2006, The ASF Innovation Laboratories allows
Committers to experiment with new ideas and brainstorm on blue-sky concepts
without the overhead of Project bylaws or community building. The Apache Labs
now has 20 active initiatives in its registry.

Congratulations, Graduates! Over the past twelve months, the following
initiatives have graduated to ASF Top-Level Projects (TLPs):

-- From a sub-project of an existing Apache TLP ...
-- Apache Tiles (Struts) -- December 2006
-- Apache Turbine (Jakarta) -- May 2007
-- Apache POI (Jakarta) -- May 2007
-- Apache Quetzalcoatl (HTTP Server) -- June 2007
-- Apache Commons (Jakarta) -- June 2007
-- Apache HttpComponents (Jakarta) - November 2007

-- From the Apache Incubator ...
-- Apache OFBiz -- December 2006
-- Apache Cayenne -- December 2006
-- Apache ActiveMQ -- January 2007
-- Apache Roller -- February 2007
-- Apache Felix -- March 2007
-- Apache OpenEJB -- May 2007
-- Apache OpenJPA -- May 2007
-- Apache Wicket -- June 2007
-- Apache ODE -- July 2007
-- Apache ServiceMix -- September 2007

LOOKING AHEAD
Industry projections show continued strong need of interoperable, adaptable,
ubiquitous, and sustainable Open Source solutions. Increasingly, for
enterprises, the appeal of Open Source software is no longer just about cost
savings, but rather the flexibility to choose among vendors to implement
support for their infrastructure products -- or, as becoming more common, the
ability to internally use and build upon an existing Open Source product with
a stable codebase and an active community.

"With our proven success of working together, producing premium projects,
building active and healthy user and developer communities and advancing
innovative technologies, we have a tremendous opportunity to continue to meet
future needs of this technology space, so important to the industry," added
Jagielski. "For us, 'Community Over Code' isn't a slogan -- it's a way of
life."

ABOUT THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION
Established in 1999, The Apache Software Foundation provides organizational,
legal, and financial support for a broad range of Open Source software
projects, including Apache HTTP Server -- the world's most popular Web server
software for more than a decade. The Foundation provides an established
framework for intellectual property and financial contributions that
simultaneously limits contributors' potential legal exposure. Through a
collaborative and meritocratic development process, Apache projects deliver
enterprise-grade, freely available software products that attract large
communities of users. The pragmatic Apache License makes it easy for all
users, commercial and individual, to deploy Apache products. For more
information, please see www.apache.org/

SOURCE Apache Software Foundation

Sally Khudairi of The Apache Software Foundation, +1-617-921-8656,
press@apache.org