DRAFT – FOR REVIEW
This content is subject to review by the IPMC and the project community. This material was developed by individuals outside the individual podling communities, who may view events differently than those directly involved. Some content was AI-generated and may contain errors; however, the material has been reviewed and verified by a human for accuracy. It is provided for training and discussion purposes and may include minor simplifications or clarity adjustments.
Since 2002, the Apache Incubator has supported more than 200 podlings. While each community has taken its own approach, some patterns are clear in how projects develop, communicate, manage themselves, and eventually graduate or retire. These case studies bring together those experiences to help mentors, PPMC members, and ASF participants spot familiar situations and learn from what others have done.
The goal is not to evaluate or rank projects, but to preserve and share practical lessons about how incubation works.
Each case study focuses on a recurring aspect of incubation, supported by examples drawn from verified ASF reports and public mailing list discussions. Together, they form a record of how ASF values, openness, consensus, independence, and diversity emerge in real project life.
| Case Study Area | What It Explores | Example Projects (historical) |
|---|---|---|
| Community Growth and Diversity | How small or company-originated teams became open, multi-organisation communities through transparent communication and shared decision-making. | Pinot, Superset, Airflow, ECharts, APISIX |
| Corporate Origins and Independence | How projects with strong corporate roots adapted to ASF governance and built vendor-neutral, community-led decision processes. | Iceberg, Kafka, Cassandra, Pulsar, Airflow |
| Complex or Extended Incubation | How technically large or long-running podlings maintained engagement and transparency through migration, IP clearance, or major refactoring. | NetBeans, IoTDB, Trafodion |
| Lifecycle and Transition | How projects approached graduation, withdrawal, or retirement openly and responsibly, treating each outcome as part of healthy project life. | MXNet, Mesos, Wave, Blur, Zipkin |
| Global and Cross-Language Collaboration | How geographically distributed or multilingual communities built inclusive participation while maintaining ASF’s transparency norms. | ECharts, IoTDB, Kylin, APISIX |
Each case study includes:
This case study summarises information from ASF public mailing lists, podling reports, and status pages. It was written from the perspective of observers outside the individual podling communities. Community members may hold differing views on events or timelines, and minor simplifications may be made for clarity or training purposes. It includes historical information drawn from public ASF sources and does not represent the current state of any project mentioned. This content may contain errors or omissions due to AI-generated elements. However, the material has been reviewed and verified by a human for accuracy. These factors do not reduce its value as a reference for understanding patterns of incubation and global collaboration.