Jiang Ning is committed to becoming a bridge connecting the domestic open source circle and the Apache Foundation. As he said: "The road of open source is getting wider and wider", his contribution was recognized and he was successfully elected as a member of the ASF Board. So, how many steps does it take to go from open source novice to ASF director? In this issue of open source interviews, Jiang Ning, the new director of ASF, was invited to talk about his experience.
How to understand open source? Jiang Ning, the newly promoted director of ASF (Apache Software Foundation) and founder of ALC Beijing, has his own understanding: "Open source, an open collaboration, can gather the wisdom of everyone to overcome problems." Recalling his student days, when open source was not popular in China, Jiang Ning had few opportunities to participate in open source. This has also become an important driving force for him to promote open source collaboration methods and Apache culture in colleges and universities. Although there will be mist and mud on the road to open source, but also because of his firm belief and recognition, he never thought of giving up.
As Jiang Ning said: "The path of open source will become wider and wider." His contribution to the community for more than ten years has become a key factor in his recent success in being elected as a new member of the ASF board of directors. Looking back on his career at the Apache Software Foundation, from project development to participating in community governance, he has walked a solid path. In the future, he will continue to play the role of a bridge as a director of Apache, connecting domestic open source forces with Apache more closely, and helping more open source enthusiasts break through geographical, cultural, and language barriers to become the backbone of domestic open source.
How can open source participants increase their personal influence in the open source community? How should we think about open source as a collaborative approach? What are the charms of the Apache Foundation? In this issue of open source interviews, Jiang Ning, an expert in open source technology from Huawei and member of the Apache board of directors, was invited to share his views on open source.
"Open Source Interview" - Jiang Ning
Step by step, the road to open source is getting wider and wider
CSDN: Congratulations on your election as a new member of the ASF board of directors. Personally speaking, you have achieved a small goal in your life. Can you share with us your open source journey?
Jiang Ning: I have joined the Apache Software Foundation for a long time. The organizational ladder of Apache starts from Committer, to PMC member, Apache Member and then to Board member. In 2006, I joined Apache CXF as its Initial Committer, then participated in the development of Apache Camel and Apache ServiceMix, and became an Apache Member after voting in 2011.
It took me 11 years to grow from an Apache Member to an Apache Board. The reason why it takes so long is that ASF members will participate in specific projects, and most of their energy is spent on project development and optimization. I really participated in open source community governance when I became an Apache incubator mentor in 2015, especially after I started guiding ServiceComb and joined Huawei in 2017. In the process of gradually getting in touch with members of the foundation, I also learned that there are actually many things we can participate in in the foundation. Therefore, in February 2020, we established ALC Beijing, dedicated to promoting the way of Apache in China and helping the growth of domestic open source colleagues. During this period, we helped about 10 Apache projects hatch. This is a gradual process, although it took a long time, but I think it has been a solid journey.
The election for board members this year is relatively fierce. More than 20 people were nominated, and 15 people finally participated in the election. Finally, 9 board members will be elected. Thank you very much for the support of domestic Apache members, and thank you members for giving me a vote of trust. It is a great honor for me to be elected as a Board Member of Apache this year.
CSDN: From the beginning of your career in 2003 to today for about 19 years, have you ever encountered insurmountable difficulties or wavered in your faith along the way?
Jiang Ning: So far, I have not thought of giving up. I agree with the open source path very much, and I believe it will go wider and wider. But in 2008, I experienced a storm. At that time, I was working in the IONA R&D center. Before the Spring Festival, we received news that the company was going to be closed and layoffs were required. At that time, I had just entered the open source circle, and it was rare to have a job that allowed me to do open source during working hours. The company left me and another colleague to wind up, and the uncertainty about the future made me suffer for the last two months. I thought about changing careers to do consulting, and I learned some open source skills to guide others, but I quickly gave up and finally decided to follow my inner passion for open source. So I wrote a letter to the management, expressing my love for open source and hoping to continue participating in the projects I maintain.
There was also an interesting episode at the time, I was working on Apache Camel at the time, and I wanted to win community recognition for my contributions. I was encouraged by the good news of my promotion to Apache Camel Committer when the company was closing its doors. I have been involved in this project for more than half a year, which is the main reason why I wrote to the management.
Until March 2009, things ushered in a turning point, I got a job that can continue to engage in open source development. The 10 colleagues who left before joined Red Hat Software, and our company was also acquired by Red Hat. By chance, we successfully joined forces. This also confirms that the road of open source will become wider and wider, and I will stick to the road of open source in the future.
CSDN: Where should some students and technicians who want to play open source start to participate in open source and enhance their personal influence in the community? Could you please give some suggestions?
Jiang Ning: Most people participate in open source starting from open source users. The best way to participate in open source is to choose a project you are interested in and really integrate into the community. There will be many big guys here to help you grow. I also started as a novice and gradually grew up with the help of many big cows in the community.
An important part of integrating into the community is to interact with the upstream community. I found that many people in the open source community are limited to personal use and modification of projects, and do not participate in upstream community communication, which will actually miss rare opportunities for growth. Many open source communities also organize summer camps or programming practice activities. I especially recommend that college students or technical newcomers participate in these activities to gain experience. Good engineering practice cannot be obtained from books, and needs to be accumulated slowly in project practice. If you have no practical experience in open source, when you first participate in open source, the first thing you need to adapt to is the code style. The first time I submitted code to the Apache project, I spent a whole day modifying my code style.
For newcomers in the community, the most difficult thing is how to win the trust of the community. I suggest that it can be achieved in a variety of ways. On the one hand, you have to show your best side and get recognized by the community by making continuous contributions. As long as you persist, it is easy to do. On the other hand, you also have to have enough patience, especially when others give suggestions for modifying your code. Once in a project I participated in, the code submitted by someone was reviewed with 85 amendments. Treat the code review as an opportunity to learn by yourself, and polish the code with your heart. I believe that you will have a great sense of accomplishment the day the code is merged. In this way, as you interact with the community and contribute more and more, you will naturally be Voted as a Committer and gradually assume greater responsibilities. This is the process of building trust.
"Become a bridge connecting Apache and domestic open source enthusiasts"
CSDN: You initiated the organization of ALC Beijing in China. At present, it has become an important bridge connecting the Apache Foundation and domestic open source partners. What is the reason or opportunity for you to initiate this organization?
Jiang Ning: ALC Beijing is a by-product, and the reason for its birth is related to the mechanism of the Apache Foundation.
The essence of open source collaboration is that a group of people gather together for a common idea and work together to complete a project. This is also the original intention of the Apache Software Foundation. Therefore, it is very important to agree with Apache's culture and achieve effective coordination. At that time, the Apache Foundation often carried out the construction of the Apache Local Community, organizing everyone to communicate face-to-face, and at the same time conduct training and evangelism. I got acquainted with some open source colleagues when I was tutoring the project, and everyone often joins together to hold Meet ups. But in fact, most members of the Apache Foundation are in the United States, far away from domestic partners, so I took this as an opportunity to launch ALC Beijing.
I originally wanted to apply for funding from Huawei to organize a party, but because of the epidemic, we were forced to move the event online, and applied for a public account and a blog account. In operation, we found that the transmission efficiency of this method is very high. Therefore, ALC Beijing is known to more domestic open source enthusiasts. Last year, small partners in Shenzhen also launched ALC Shenzhen. As a Mentor, I provided some experience and guidance. Since then, the ALC organization has truly connected domestic open source enthusiasts together. At the same time, these achievements also laid the foundation for me to run for the ASF board of directors. These positive drives are also the beauty of open source.
CSDN: You have multiple roles as the initiator of ALC Beijing, Huawei open source technology expert, and Apache board member. How will you balance the relationship between various identities when you encounter conflicts between the interests of the foundation and the company?
Jiang Ning: From a relatively high perspective, these jobs have in common that they master the basic concepts of open source and help more people understand it. Whether it's at the company level or at the foundation level, I'm playing the role of "bridge", not much different. In the Apache Foundation, especially in the process of directing the incubator project, I will come into contact with various successes or failures. Help company colleagues understand how open source works, and use open source best practices to promote company software development. All this knowledge can be smoothly transferred through my "bridge".
When the interests of the company and the foundation conflict, the most important thing is to "wear two different hats" when thinking about the problem.
Here is also a small story to share with you. Around 2012, a colleague of the PMC Chair of the Apache Camel project resigned (Note: Apache Camel is an open source software maintained by Red Hat), and we believe that he is no longer suitable to continue to serve as the PMC of the project. Chair. At first I also agreed with this point of view, we are safeguarding the interests of the company. This incident sparked debate and continued to ferment in the community and on mailing lists, and some colleagues even launched personal attacks on him. Until a senior Apache Member wrote back on the mailing list and said that when we put on the hat of the community to think, we should not deal with this matter like this. This sentence made me enlightened. As a member of the open source community, you also need to maintain the image of the community and let the community operate according to the rules. In fact, the foundation has clear guidance on such issues, and we can completely implement them in accordance with the established rules of the community through voting. But at that time, the biggest problem with our quarreling on the mailing list was that we only wore the company hat and dealt with community issues from the perspective of the company's interests, which was wrong.
After this incident, the first thing I learned is that in the community, we should consider issues from the perspective of the community, safeguard the interests of the community, seek common ground while reserving differences, and promote the development of the community towards the common goal of everyone. Once we switch our perspective, some things become easier. The second point is that when expressing opinions in emails, you can write a sentence "Put on the hat of..." before your opinions. When you express the thoughts of different characters, everyone will feel that you are thoughtful and considerate. Easier to accept your suggestion.
"Open source is one of the few pure lands where everyone can cooperate, and we need to take care of it carefully"
CSDN: You once said that one of the most beautiful things in the open source world is sharing. What do you think drives the desire to share in the open source community?
Jiang Ning: I think the main driving force is "I have good things, I want to show off!". Most of the early open source software was written by hackers in the community. They did not pursue financial gain, but just wanted others to admit that they were awesome. How to prove how good he is? The most direct way is to show the code you wrote for everyone to see. Some software is very difficult to build, but he can do it smartly and quickly. In addition, with the development of the Internet, the infrastructure is still in the growth stage. Once your code plays an important role, it will become part of the infrastructure. When the code produced can help a group of people in a certain corner of the world and change the world, it is a very fulfilling thing.
In addition, if we trace the concept of Open Source, we will know its origin with Free Software (free software). Richard Stallman, the father of free software, proposed that we should defend software freedom and ensure that users have the four freedoms of learning, researching, using, and distributing software, which also laid the foundation for the development of open source. In my opinion, the cornerstone of freedom is to share good things with everyone, let more people participate through open licenses, and gradually let developers from all over the world gather together to jointly overcome technical problems. ASF now has more than 300 projects, which support the operation of most of the Internet. Every time I think of this, I feel excited. But looking back, this thing simply wouldn't have been possible without this shared gene.
CSDN: Neutrality, equality, and openness are all important components of the spirit of open source. Recently, affected by international relations and geopolitics, some open source communities, such as React and Node.js, have chosen sides. How do you feel about this problem?
Jiang Ning: From a personal point of view, we are all against war, which is understandable, but we cannot impose our personal will on the community. The open source community emphasizes diversity and seeks common ground among differences. To give an interesting example, we often send congratulatory emails on the mailing list when the holidays come, but when Christmas or New Year is approaching, everyone talks more about "Happy new year" than "Merry Christmas". Because Christmas is related to religion, many people in the community do not celebrate Christmas, so "Happy new year" applies to everyone. This means that everyone is looking for common ground to work together, rather than tearing the community apart.
The OSI (Open Source Initiative) definition of open source also includes non-discrimination clauses: non-discrimination against individuals and organizations, and non-discrimination against the use of open source software. Open source needs to seek great harmony and let more people participate in it. When you bring ideology to the open source community, it will cause us to deviate from the idea that open source benefits the public, consider issues from a geopolitical perspective, and be used by politics. Open source is one of the few pure lands where everyone can cooperate, and it needs our careful care.
The Fascination and New Direction of Apache
CSDN: Apache takes "developing software useful to the public" as its mission. But as a virtual organization, why can it have such a large influence in the world? What is its charm?
Jiang Ning: ASF is a virtual organization all over the world, and its participants all participate in their personal capacities. When we become an Apache committer, we need to sign a CLA (Contributor Agreement). This agreement can give full play to people's subjective initiative, which is a bit like contracting production to households. Even if one day I leave the company, all my work in the community will still be under my own name. Apache provides developers with a Legal Shelter (legal shelter), and signing the CLA under its legal framework is actually to protect the rights and interests of contributors.
Another attraction is the way it works. From Committer to PMC, Member and even to Board, it is not an organizational promotion, but your contribution is recognized by everyone. The more you contribute, the more you will naturally get the corresponding rights. Apache calls this method "Meritocracy" (appointing people on their merits). You don't need to flatter or falsify performance. Diligent open source developers or community contributors will definitely have a platform to display their talents. This is a very good way of operation.
At the same time, Apache is a volunteer organization. Someone always asked me before: "You write code in Apache, do they pay you?". In Apache, only the infrastructure and public relations teams are paid, and others are not paid. At the same time, the most fundamental reason why Apache can have global influence is that everyone agrees with the mission of "developing software that is useful to the public". What should we do if we want to eat? In this regard, ASF's approach is not to exclude open source commercial development in the legal framework, so we see more and more open source commercial companies appearing, such as StreamNative, API7, and SphereEx all employ developers to do open source. Including me, I am also lucky. From the first day I participated in the Apache project, my employer paid me a salary. This is very valuable to me, because I can do what I like and have a stable income at the same time.
Finally, there is the power of community. Apache's software serves users all over the world and will continue to receive their feedback. The most interesting thing when I was maintaining Apache Camel was to check the email every morning, and I always received some weird usage methods from users, and they also wrote their ideas into code and submitted them. For me, one of my favorite things to do at the time was to collect their patches. And I believe that many R&D developers have similar experiences. We did not consider some corner cases (edge issues) when we designed the code. If we can get timely feedback from users, the development efficiency will be higher. This is easy to achieve in the open source community. The code written that day may be used by "good people" and will give feedback immediately, and even some capable people will write patches and tests, and I only need to merge these to the trunk. . Therefore, I think the biggest advantage of open source software development is that the software can be polished better and better with the help of user feedback.
CSDN: In the open source world, in addition to Apache, there are other foundations such as Linux and CNCF. For an open source project, what benefits can it bring by donating it to the foundation?
Jiang Ning: There are many benefits to donating projects to foundations. First of all, the Foundation is a neutral organization and does not represent any manufacturer. Therefore, project participants in the Foundation include personnel from all parties, and multi-participant projects will naturally develop better. Secondly, during the donation process, the intellectual property rights, code copyright, trademark, and name of the project need to be handed over to the foundation. In this way, participants will feel more at ease when contributing, believing that the project is not controlled by the company, and they are not working for the company. I think this is also the main purpose of the foundation.
In addition, the foundation is particularly cautious at the level of project compliance. In Apache, after project donation, it must go through incubation to help the project comply with the regulations and ensure that the project complies with the license. When releasing the version, we need to list the third-party open source software used, and check whether their licenses conflict with the Apache License. If there are conflicts, we need to remove and replace them. If the project wants to develop further, especially for commercialization, it is crucial to clarify the copyright information of the project. Therefore, the foundation will also educate community members on copyright protection and license compliance awareness.
CSDN: When you ran for the director of Apache, you mentioned that you would help ASF break down barriers of geography, culture, and language. What plans or intentions do you have in this regard?
Jiang Ning: I initiated the organization ALC Beijing, which to a certain extent has the purpose of breaking down geographical barriers. Since 2018, I have insisted on gathering domestic Committers together to organize meet ups, and invited representatives of Apache to come to Shanghai to communicate with domestic partners. During this process, we helped many projects find Mentor, and brought the domestic open source community and Apache closer. At the same time, domestic open source colleagues also have more opportunities to exchange project incubation experience. These activities have also mobilized domestic open source enthusiasm and helped more projects enter Apache. It is worth mentioning that the five incubation projects of Apache last year all came from China.
The main manifestation of culture clashes is the mailing list. We have always emphasized that important things should be communicated in emails during the project incubation process. The Apache culture requires that "what doesn't happen in the mail doesn't happen", and we are constantly helping everyone understand the importance of the mailing list based on this philosophy.
Another aspect is language. English is essential to communicate in the open source community, but we have also made a balance, allowing everyone to speak Chinese in the community, but in order for more people to understand us, try to use English as much as possible when communicating. Some well-done projects will use automatic translation software, or use bilingual messages in the communication process, and take care of small partners who are not good at English while being in line with international standards, so as to help communication.
Although I have not yet participated in the Apache Board Meeting as a member of the board of directors, I would be happy to help you speak out if I have the opportunity in the future, and I hope to bring my views to the board of directors and play the role of a "bridge" to help the Apache board of directors and The domestic open source circle is in harmony and progresses together.
Postscript: Where is the "destination" of Jiang Ning's road to open source?
After the interview, we chatted with Jiang Ning about an old friend of his in the open source circle—Shi Shi. Students who pay attention to this column may have the impression that the guest of the previous "Open Source Interview Record" is Shisi. Shi Shi once said that if one day he can go back to write code with peace of mind, it means that his open source mission has been completed. What is the "destination" of his open source road? Jiang Ning replied with a smile: "When more developers can participate in open source, and learn the excellent practices of open source, better collaboration, improve work efficiency, there will be no more 996, and work and life balance will be achieved. Then, my mission will be complete."
This goal paints us a beautiful picture of the open source world, sincere and down-to-earth, just like Jiang Ning himself. I hope that more open source enthusiasts will strive towards this goal, and the picture will eventually become a reality!
"Open Source Interviews" is an interview column focusing on the development of open source. Every week, a representative and influential open source expert will be invited to discuss open source topics that are widely concerned by everyone, and restore the true face of the open source circle from different angles.