There are two general mail lists for the JCP activities at the ASF :
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ASF JCP Public Interest List (open to all committers) subscribe
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Foundation Internal JCP Issues (members-only) subscribe
Expert group interest lists can be created as need and interest dictates.
Apache community members represent the ASF on various expert groups. Our goal is to bring our interests
in openness, meritocracy and community to the expert groups we work on. We encourage expert groups to:
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Operate in an open, transparent manner in the same way that our
Apache community lists work
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Use consensus and/or voting for decision making
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License their specifications to allow royalty-free implementations under an
open source license
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License their Reference Implementations (RIs) and Technology Compatibility Kits (TCKs)
under open source licenses
Representing the ASF on a JSR
Members and committers are invited to represent the ASF on JSRs with the purpose of
both promoting our values as well as ensuring that the Apache community can continue
to influence and participate in the creation of new Java technology. Because
participating individuals are representing the Apache Software Foundation (and not
themselves), the ASF reserves the right to decide who represents the ASF. The ASF
also will work to help individuals join expert groups, as we believe that
independent representatives that have a good understanding of the value of
open source are important to the health of the JCP communities.
The general guidelines for participation are:
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You represent the interests of the ASF and your particular technical community, and
not of your employer or personal technological interests
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If there is an existing community at the ASF that has an interest in the JSR, engage with
your community to bring feedback and ideas to the EG. If not, keep in mind how an ASF
community might build or extend such a specification
If you are interested in representing the ASF on a new or existing expert group that
doesn't have ASF representation, or participating with the existing activities on an
expert group, please send email to the JCP open list
and indicate your interest.
Current Representation
The following JSRs have active Apache representation. Some groups have an internal mailing list that
is used by ASF Members and committers to discuss the progress of the JSR and the ASF's involvement through
it's representative(s). The list operates under the rules above for representatives.
Implementation
Because of the work of the ASF, we are able to legally implement JSRs in open source and distribute
under the terms of the Apache License. There have been
many successful implementations of JSRs at the ASF, in all areas of Java technology.
Projects are free to implement whatever JSR a project community desires, as long the specification license
that you agree to allows open source implementations. All modern JSRs do - the key to knowing is to look to see
that the JSR was conducted under "JCP version" 2.5 or above. There are some exceptions, such as
J2SE 5 which was conducted under JCP v 2.1 yet licensed under
the modern open-source-friendly specification license.
The following projects are implementing one or more JCP specifications:
The following projects have officially tested and passed the TCK for their specific technology:
Testing with A TCK
Whenever a project chooses, it may request access to the TCK for the technology they are implementing.
The ASF will work to license, acquire and provide the TCK for the project. The following guidelines
apply to working with TCKs at the ASF:
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A project can request access to a TCK by sending email to
the JCP open list.
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This TCK is for use only for the purpose of the Apache project, and no other.
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While access to the TCK is left up to the requesting PMC, it
is strongly encouraged that access be limited to project committers to avoid the
perception that the ASF is being used as a "TCK laundry". We have an excellent record
in our handling of the TCK materials, and the good reputation of the ASF is dependent
upon PMC oversight in this case.
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Every individual that has access to the TCK materials must have executed a
Non-Disclosure Agreement with the ASF. The ASF receives these
materials under the terms of an NDA, and we must take due care in how we handle these
materials.
Traditionally, projects using Apache's TCKs have been very strict and closed about what information could be
discussed in public forums. Over the years, this approach has been gradually relaxed by some projects with no
adverse affects on the community, the general TCK testing process, or the ASF's commitment to protect the
confidential information entrusted to it.
Therefore, the following should be deemed the guiding policy for dealing with TCKs from the ASF :
Projects must keep the official TCK materials confidential. Use your best judgement. For the elimination of doubt,
public discussion about using the TCK, bugs found while using the TCK, and any project-created frameworks or
assisting software or documentation that do not reveal the official confidential TCK material is acceptable.
If there are any questions about this policy, please send mail to the
jcp-open@apache.org list or mail
the VP, JCP privately.
Also note :
The Apache Software Foundation has reconsidered its policy of allowing software used
for general community work to be covered under an agreement such as the NDA. The
general plan is to eliminate NDAs for project software in a way that minimizes the
distruption to our communities. We will work with organizations such as the JCP
and its spec leads to achieve an acceptable resolution. While a hard date has not
be officially set, we're looking for complete elimination of the NDA for project
software by 2010. Discussion of this issue in the context of the JCP and
the TCKs will take place on the
jcp-open@apache.org list.
The ASF have licensed the following TCKs:
The following TCKs are in process of being acquired: