"So, how do you get to be a Struts Committer?"

Struts is a project of the Apache Software Foundation. The ASF is a high-profile organization and security-conscious. We cannot request accounts with an ASF server for volunteers on an ad-hoc basis. The ASF is a meritocracy; committers must earn their stripe.

When a Struts volunteer has contributed above-and-beyond the level of other members of the community, the PMC will often invite the volunteer to become a committer. Recently, Hubert Rabago and Niall Pemberton became Struts committers. Niall has gone on to join the PMC.

ASF projects do not follow the "benevolent dictator" pattern. Every member of the PMC is an equal member. If other members are unavailable for a time, every member of the PMC is expected to be able to run the project, soup to nuts.

Accordingly, the volunteers invited to be committers are most often people who have created their own Struts-related site: People who have shown that they can mentor a complete project, and its community, beginning to end, on their own merit.

Another criteria is sustained interest. Usually, a volunteer is not invited to be a committer unless they have been publically involved with Struts for at least six months. After becoming a committer, the PMC will usually wait another six months before inviting a committer to join the PMC.

The most important criteria is a deep understanding of collaborative development and meritocracy. Many very fine developers do not grok ASF group dynamics. Group dynamics are vital in a volunteer effort, especially when there is not a "benevolent dictator", and all members of the group are peers.

For more about Struts and the ASF, see

"But that sounds like so much work. Isn't there a simpler way?"

Sure. If you got some working Struts code to share, either an extension or an application, you can create a site on Source{{`Forge. Or, if setting up your own site is too much work, there's already a site on Source}}`Forge that collects Struts extensions and applications.

Struts.SourceForge.Net is an independant site, not affiliated with the ASF. The volunteer bar at Struts.Source{{`Forge.Net is much lower. All you need is code to share and a free Source}}`Forge account. Everyone who is ready, willing, and able to help, is welcome.

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