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+
+ The Apache HTTP Server Project
+
+ http://httpd.apache.org/
+
+The Apache HTTP Server Project is a collaborative software development effort
+aimed at creating a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available
+source code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. The project is jointly
+managed by a group of volunteers located around the world, using the Internet
+and the Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and its related
+documentation. In addition, hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code,
+and documentation to the project.
+
+This file is intended to briefly describe the history of the Apache Group (as
+it was called in the early days), recognize the many contributors, and explain
+how you can join the fun too.
+
+In February of 1995, the most popular server software on the Web was the
+public domain HTTP daemon developed by Rob McCool at the National Center
+for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
+However, development of that httpd had stalled after Rob left NCSA in
+mid-1994, and many webmasters had developed their own extensions and bug
+fixes that were in need of a common distribution. A small group of these
+webmasters, contacted via private e-mail, gathered together for the purpose
+of coordinating their changes (in the form of "patches"). Brian Behlendorf
+and Cliff Skolnick put together a mailing list, shared information space,
+and logins for the core developers on a machine in the California Bay Area,
+with bandwidth and diskspace donated by HotWired and Organic Online.
+By the end of February, eight core contributors formed the foundation
+of the original Apache Group:
+
+ Brian Behlendorf Roy T. Fielding Rob Hartill
+ David Robinson Cliff Skolnick Randy Terbush
+ Robert S. Thau Andrew Wilson
+
+with additional contributions from
+
+ Eric Hagberg Frank Peters Nicolas Pioch
+
+Using NCSA httpd 1.3 as a base, we added all of the published bug fixes
+and worthwhile enhancements we could find, tested the result on our own
+servers, and made the first official public release (0.6.2) of the Apache
+server in April 1995. By coincidence, NCSA restarted their own development
+during the same period, and Brandon Long and Beth Frank of the NCSA Server
+Development Team joined the list in March as honorary members so that the
+two projects could share ideas and fixes.
+
+The early Apache server was a big hit, but we all knew that the codebase
+needed a general overhaul and redesign. During May-June 1995, while
+Rob Hartill and the rest of the group focused on implementing new features
+for 0.7.x (like pre-forked child processes) and supporting the rapidly growing
+Apache user community, Robert Thau designed a new server architecture
+(code-named Shambhala) which included a modular structure and API for better
+extensibility, pool-based memory allocation, and an adaptive pre-forking
+process model. The group switched to this new server base in July and added
+the features from 0.7.x, resulting in Apache 0.8.8 (and its brethren)
+in August.
+
+After extensive beta testing, many ports to obscure platforms, a new set
+of documentation (by David Robinson), and the addition of many features
+in the form of our standard modules, Apache 1.0 was released on
+December 1, 1995.
+
+Less than a year after the group was formed, the Apache server passed
+NCSA's httpd as the #1 server on the Internet.
+
+The survey by Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com/survey/) shows that Apache
+is today more widely used than all other web servers combined.
+
+ ============================================================================
+
+The current project management committee of the Apache HTTP Server
+project (as of March, 2011) is:
+
+ Aaron Bannert André Malo Astrid Stolper
+ Ben Laurie Bojan Smojver Brad Nicholes
+ Brian Havard Brian McCallister Chris Darroch
+ Chuck Murcko Colm MacCárthaigh Dan Poirier
+ Dirk-Willem van Gulik Doug MacEachern
+ Eric Covener Erik Abele Graham Dumpleton
+ Graham Leggett Greg Ames Greg Stein
+ Gregory Trubetskoy Guenter Knauf Issac Goldstand
+ Jeff Trawick Jim Gallacher Jim Jagielski
+ Joe Orton Joe Schaefer Joshua Slive
+ Justin Erenkrantz Ken Coar Lars Eilebrecht
+ Manoj Kasichainula Marc Slemko Mark J. Cox
+ Martin Kraemer Maxime Petazzoni Nick Kew
+ Nicolas Lehuen Noirin Shirley Paul Querna
+ Philip M. Gollucci Ralf S. Engelschall Randy Kobes
+ Rasmus Lerdorf Rich Bowen Roy T. Fielding
+ Rüdiger Plüm Sander Striker Sander Temm
+ Stefan Fritsch Tony Stevenson Victor J. Orlikowski
+ Wilfredo Sanchez William A. Rowe Jr. Yoshiki Hayashi
+
+Other major contributors
+
+ Howard Fear (mod_include), Florent Guillaume (language negotiation),
+ Koen Holtman (rewrite of mod_negotiation),
+ Kevin Hughes (creator of all those nifty icons),
+ Brandon Long and Beth Frank (NCSA Server Development Team, post-1.3),
+ Ambarish Malpani (Beginning of the NT port),
+ Rob McCool (original author of the NCSA httpd 1.3),
+ Paul Richards (convinced the group to use remote CVS after 1.0),
+ Garey Smiley (OS/2 port), Henry Spencer (author of the regex library).
+
+Many 3rd-party modules, frequently used and recommended, are also
+freely-available and linked from the related projects page:
+<http://modules.apache.org/>, and their authors frequently
+contribute ideas, patches, and testing.
+
+Hundreds of people have made individual contributions to the Apache
+project. Patch contributors are listed in the CHANGES file.
+
+ ============================================================================
+
+How to become involved in the Apache project
+
+There are several levels of contributing. If you just want to send
+in an occasional suggestion/fix, then you can just use the bug reporting
+form at <http://httpd.apache.org/bug_report.html>. You can also subscribe
+to the announcements mailing list (announce-subscribe@httpd.apache.org) which
+we use to broadcast information about new releases, bugfixes, and upcoming
+events. There's a lot of information about the development process (much of
+it in serious need of updating) to be found at <http://httpd.apache.org/dev/>.
+
+If you'd like to become an active contributor to the Apache project (the
+group of volunteers who vote on changes to the distributed server), then
+you need to start by subscribing to the dev@httpd.apache.org mailing list.
+One warning though: traffic is high, 1000 to 1500 messages/month.
+To subscribe to the list, send an email to dev-subscribe@httpd.apache.org.
+We recommend reading the list for a while before trying to jump in to
+development.
+
+ NOTE: The developer mailing list (dev@httpd.apache.org) is not
+ a user support forum; it is for people actively working on development
+ of the server code and documentation, and for planning future
+ directions. If you have user/configuration questions, send them
+ to users list <http://httpd.apache.org/userslist> or to the USENET
+ newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix".or for windows users,
+ the newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows".
+
+There is a core group of contributors (informally called the "core")
+which was formed from the project founders and is augmented from time
+to time when core members nominate outstanding contributors and the
+rest of the core members agree. The core group focus is more on
+"business" issues and limited-circulation things like security problems
+than on mainstream code development. The term "The Apache Group"
+technically refers to this core of project contributors.
+
+The Apache project is a meritocracy--the more work you have done, the more
+you are allowed to do. The group founders set the original rules, but
+they can be changed by vote of the active members. There is a group
+of people who have logins on our server (apache.org) and access to the
+svn repository. Everyone has access to the svn snapshots. Changes to
+the code are proposed on the mailing list and usually voted on by active
+members--three +1 (yes votes) and no -1 (no votes, or vetoes) are needed
+to commit a code change during a release cycle; docs are usually committed
+first and then changed as needed, with conflicts resolved by majority vote.
+
+Our primary method of communication is our mailing list. Approximately 40
+messages a day flow over the list, and are typically very conversational in
+tone. We discuss new features to add, bug fixes, user problems, developments
+in the web server community, release dates, etc. The actual code development
+takes place on the developers' local machines, with proposed changes
+communicated using a patch (output of a unified "diff -u oldfile newfile"
+command), and committed to the source repository by one of the core
+developers using remote svn. Anyone on the mailing list can vote on a
+particular issue, but we only count those made by active members or people
+who are known to be experts on that part of the server. Vetoes must be
+accompanied by a convincing explanation.
+
+New members of the Apache Group are added when a frequent contributor is
+nominated by one member and unanimously approved by the voting members.
+In most cases, this "new" member has been actively contributing to the
+group's work for over six months, so it's usually an easy decision.
+
+The above describes our past and current (as of July 2000) guidelines,
+which will probably change over time as the membership of the group
+changes and our development/coordination tools improve.
+
+ ============================================================================
+
+The Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org)
+
+The Apache Software Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal,
+and financial support for the Apache open-source software projects.
+Founded in June 1999 by the Apache Group, the Foundation has been
+incorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation in order
+to ensure that the Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation
+of individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property
+and funds on a sound basis, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal
+exposure while participating in open-source software projects.
+
+You are invited to participate in The Apache Software Foundation. We welcome
+contributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those individuals
+who have demonstrated a commitment to collaborative open-source software
+development through sustained participation and contributions within the
+Foundation's projects. Many people and companies have contributed towards
+the success of the Apache projects.
+
+ ============================================================================
+
+Why The Apache HTTP Server Is Free
+
+Apache HTTP Server exists to provide a robust and commercial-grade reference
+implementation of the HTTP protocol. It must remain a platform upon which
+individuals and institutions can build reliable systems, both for
+experimental purposes and for mission-critical purposes. We believe the
+tools of online publishing should be in the hands of everyone, and
+software companies should make their money providing value-added services
+such as specialized modules and support, amongst other things. We realize
+that it is often seen as an economic advantage for one company to "own" a
+market - in the software industry that means to control tightly a
+particular conduit such that all others must pay. This is typically done
+by "owning" the protocols through which companies conduct business, at the
+expense of all those other companies. To the extent that the protocols of
+the World Wide Web remain "unowned" by a single company, the Web will
+remain a level playing field for companies large and small. Thus,
+"ownership" of the protocol must be prevented, and the existence of a
+robust reference implementation of the protocol, available absolutely for
+free to all companies, is a tremendously good thing.
+
+Furthermore, Apache httpd is an organic entity; those who benefit from it
+by using it often contribute back to it by providing feature enhancements,
+bug fixes, and support for others in public newsgroups. The amount of
+effort expended by any particular individual is usually fairly light, but
+the resulting product is made very strong. This kind of community can
+only happen with freeware--when someone pays for software, they usually
+aren't willing to fix its bugs. One can argue, then, that Apache's
+strength comes from the fact that it's free, and if it were made "not
+free" it would suffer tremendously, even if that money were spent on a
+real development team.
+
+We want to see Apache httpd used very widely--by large companies, small
+companies, research institutions, schools, individuals, in the intranet
+environment, everywhere--even though this may mean that companies who
+could afford commercial software, and would pay for it without blinking,
+might get a "free ride" by using Apache httpd. We would even be happy if
+some commercial software companies completely dropped their own HTTP server
+development plans and used Apache httpd as a base, with the proper attributions
+as described in the LICENSE file.
+
+Thanks for using Apache HTTP Server!
+