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Introduction

Many organisations are wanting to find out how effective they are at attracting a diverse range of people. The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) promotes open, community focussed projects that are welcoming to all, yet have never collected any information to support this.

The main purpose of this survey was to gather feedback from all existing ASF committers about the current level of diversity. Although there are many aspects to diversity including socio-economic, disability, education etc which may be addressed in a future survey, this initial survey was focussed on three broad areas of age, gender and ethnicity. It also captured information about why people contribute to Apache projects.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All responses to this survey were voluntary and anonymous. There was no obligation for any of the ASF committers to respond.

Responses and Response Frequency

The survey was open for a total of 14 days (28th November - 11th December 2016)
A total of 765 responses were recorded (out of a committer base of 5861 at the time that the survey was carried out)
The majority of responses were recorded during the first day
A second peak of responses occurred after a survey reminder was sent out close to the end of the survey period.

	Total	Percentage
Responded to the Survey	765	13%
Didn't Respond to the Survey	5096	87%
Total Committers	5861	100

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Responses.png

Date	Number of Responses
28 Nov 16	434
29 Nov 16	61
30 Nov 16	37
1 Dec 16	17
2 Dec 16	6
3 Dec 16	6
4 Dec 16	2
5 Dec 16	5
6 Dec 16	3
7 Dec 16	5
8 Dec 16	3
9 Dec 16	140
10 Dec 16	22
11 Dec 16	24
Total	765

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_ResponseFreq.png

Comments

The survey response percentage was 13% (765 out of 5861)
How significant is this as an indication of the total committer population?

Survey Questions

Question 1: How long have you been involved with any Apache project community?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Less than 3 years	34%	257
3 to 5 years	24%	184
5 to 10 years	25%	193
Over 10 years	17%	131
Prefer not to say	0%	0

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question1.png

Comments:

The objective of this question was to find out how long the committer had been involved with the ASF and to see if it remained balanced over time (e.g. Are people joining as ASF as contributors but then not staying?)
All respondents answered this question
The largest group of respondents (257) had been with the ASF for less than 3 years.
The second largest group of respondents (193) had been with the ASF 5 to 10 years,
The third largest group of respondents (184) had been with the ASF 3 to 5 years
It is good to see that the largest group are 'newcomers' which seems to indicate that the ASF is attracting them

Question 2: How long have you been a committer on any Apache project?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Less than 3 years	50.2%	384
3 to 5 years	21.6%	165
5 to 10 years	19.3%	148
Over 10 years	8.8%	67
Prefer not to say	0.1%	1

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question2.png

Comments

The objective of this question was to find out how long the committer had been a committer, and to see if it was inline with the previous question about how long people had been involved with the ASF.
One person preferred not to respond to this question.
The largest group of respondents (384) had been a committer for less than 3 years

Question 3: In general, do you contribute to Apache as an individual or as an employee of a company?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Individual (unemployed)	2.7%	21
Individual (retired)	1.3%	10
Individual (outside regular job)	39.5%	302
Employee	49.4	378
Prefer not to say	1.8%	14
Other	5.2%	40

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question3.png

Additional Breakdown of 'Other' Category	Number of Responses
Both an employee and an individual	26
Student	2
Individual Self Employed Contractor / Consultant	9
Uncategorised	3
TOTAL	40

Comments

The objective of this question was to find out in general how and why people are contributing to Apache projects
Fourteen people preferred not to answer this question
The largest group of respondents (378) contribute to Apache projects as an Employee, so as part of their employment
The second largest group of respondents (302) contribute to Apache individually outside their regular employment. This means that they are volunteering their free time to contribute.

Question 4: How would you like to record your gender for the purposes of this survey?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Female	5.2%	40
Male	91.9%	703
Trans female	0.5%	4
Trans male	0%	0
Gender variant / Non-conforming / Non-binary	0.8%	6
Prefer not to say	1.3%	10
Not listed (please specify)	0.3%	2

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question4.png

Comments

The objective of this question was to get a picture of the gender breakdown / diversity of the Apache committers
Ten people preferred not to answer this question
The two not listed responses did not specify a gender and instead commented on the question
The largest group of respondents (703) were male

Question 5: What is your age range?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
24 or younger	2.6%	20
25 to 34	35.0%	268
35 to 44	38.2%	292
45 to 54	17.1%	131
55 to 64	4.5%	34
Over 65	1.4%	11
Prefer not to say	1.2%	9

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question5.png

Comments

The objective of this question was to find out the age range of Apache committers and to see if this was balanced
Nine people preferred not to answer this question
The largest group of respondents (292) came from 35 to 44 age range
The second largest group of respondents (268) came from the 25 to 34 age range
It is also interesting to see that the ASF is also attracting people in the under 24 and over 65 age ranges

Question 6: Which of the following would you use to describe yourself?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Asian	23.0%	176
Black / African	0.1%	1
Caucasian / White	67.1%	513
Hawaiian / Pacific islander	0%	0
Latino / Hispanic	2.6%	20
Multi-racial	1.5%	11
Prefer not to say	3.9%	30
Other (please specify)	1.8%	14

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question6.png

Additional Breakdown of 'Other' category	Number of Responses
European	4
Indian	2
Middle Eastern	2
Native American	1
Native American and European	1
Homo sapiens / Human	2
Uncategorised	2

Comments

The objective of this question was to get a picture of the high level ethnic diversity of the Apache committers
Thirty people preferred not to answer this question
The largest group of respondents (513) were Caucasian / White
The second largest group of respondents (176) were Asian

Question 7: How often to you refer to ASF policies, processes or guidelines?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Never	6.3%	48
Rarely (less than once a month)	54.3%	415
Sometimes (less than once a week)	26.0%	199
Often (once a week or more)	11.5%	88
Prefer not to say	1.3%	10
Other (please specify)	0.6%	5

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question7.png

NOTE: 'Other' category included specific comments so could not be broken down further

Comments

The objective of this question was to find out if the documentation around policies and guidelines were being refered to by committers
Ten people preferred not to answer this question
The largest group of respondents (415) said that they rarely referred to ASF processes, policies or guidelines

Question 8: When you need to locate information about ASF processes, policies or guidelines, which of the following describes your experience?

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Information about processes, policies or guidelines is always easy to find	22.5%	172
Information about processes, policies or guidelines is sometimes a little difficult to find	59.5%	455
Information about processes, policies or guidelines is quite difficult to find	8.4%	64
Prefer not to say	6.9%	53
None of the above (please specify)	2.7%	21

Community Development > ASF Committer Diversity Survey - 2016 > ASFCS_Question8.png

Additional breakdown of 'None of the above (please specify)' category	Number of Responses
Never looked	8
Mixed (sometimes easy, sometimes hard)	3
Uncategorised	10

Uncategorised included some comments on the following themes

General use of Google to search
Get help from other community members to find details
No standard search engine for ASF documents (e.g Google search on 'Apache' returns 'httpd' related items)

Comments

The objective of this question was to find out how easy it was to locate information about policies, processes or guidelines
Fifty-three people preferred not to answer this question
The largest group of respondents (455) said that sometimes information was a little difficult to find

Question 9: Please use the box below to provide any additional comments or feedback about this survey, diversity at the ASF or the ASF in general

NOTE: This question included a special note requesting permission to quote from any comments made.

Answer Choices	Percentage	Number of Responses
Yes - you have my permission to quote from my comments for this question only	54.9%	245
No - you do not have my permission to quote from my comments for this question only	45.1%	201

Responses and Response Frequency

Survey Questions

Question 1: How long have you been involved with any Apache project community?

Question 2: How long have you been a committer on any Apache project?

Question 3: In general, do you contribute to Apache as an individual or as an employee of a company?

49.4

Question 4: How would you like to record your gender for the purposes of this survey?

Question 5: What is your age range?

Question 6: Which of the following would you use to describe yourself?

Question 7: How often to you refer to ASF policies, processes or guidelines?

Question 8: When you need to locate information about ASF processes, policies or guidelines, which of the following describes your experience?