Pratocracy Article

Some months ago, Apache PR (aka Sally) launched a monthly series under the generic title “Success at Apache”, and solicited volunteers to write articles on topics of relevance to the Apache Way and how things work.  I was one of many to reply, and she put me down for this month’s piece.  A few days ago it went live, here.

The original proposal was to discuss the Just Do It and Scratch Your Own Itch aspects of Apache projects and how, with the checks and balances provided by the meritocratic and democratic elements of project governance, that Just Works.  Some (linguistically) very ugly words for this have been floating around, so I’ve made an attempt to improve on them with a new coinage to avoid muddling English and Greek.  Pratocracy: the Rule of the Makers.

Sometime before I started writing, a question came up on the Apache Members list about any guidelines for companies looking to get involved with an Apache project.  It appears most of what’s been written is on the negative side: things not to do!  This seems to be a question that dovetails well with my original plan, so I decided to try and tackle it in my article.  This became the longest section of the article, and may hopefully prove useful to someone out there!

Sadly I was recovering from a nasty lurgy at the time I was writing it, and I can’t help feeling that the prose falls short of my most inspired efforts.  I’ve avoided repeating Apache Way orthodoxy that’s been spoken and written before by many of my colleagues, but in doing so I may have left too much unsaid for a more general readership.  At times I may have done the opposite and blathered on about the perfectly obvious.  Ho, hum.