Take three code bases, six teams and a foundation...

The Apache Rave project provides an interesting case-study for bringing together multiple academic sector projects from the EU and the US, each with an already mature code base. To this mix is added a commercial partner and the Apache Software Foundation. This union of these initial project teams will result in significant cost savings for all parties, as well as a higher quality product as the experiences of all participants are embodied in the new project code. Under the guidance of the Apache Way, the Apache Rave project will become a truly sustainable open source project that continues to server initial partners and newcomers alike.

Rave members are also working together to reach out to other related open source projects like Shindig and Wookie, and to other potentially interested projects and developers both within and outside Apache. The goal for Apache Rave is to become a leading open-source, context-aware User Experience Platform capable of delivering a wide variety of interaction channels, using open standards technologies as OpenSocial and W3C widgets and REST based services. As Rave advances, it will add features like content integration, collaboration, personalization, and rich user application features.

Apache Rave was initiated in 2010 at ApacheCON in Atlanta where Ate Douma, of the dutch based open source CMS company Hippo, brought together existing contributors on related projects to identify common needs and potential solutions. Some of these solutions were brought together during the first Eurpean OpenSocial Event in Utrecht (The Netherlands), and thereafter the Apache Rave project was created as an Apache incubator project.

In this session two of the original proposers will present a potted history of Apache Rave and describe how and why the collaboration came about.