Incubation isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different challenges and learning needs appear at different stages of a podling’s journey. Use this page to find the most relevant training and documentation for where your project is today.
Key: 📘 Guide 🖥️ Slide Deck 🎞️ Video 🧩 Quiz 🧠 Practice / Scenario
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Before and Early Incubation
Prepare mentors, IPMC members, and podling communities for a successful start.
Understanding the Incubator
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📘 Joining the Incubator — what to expect before applying, reasons to join (or not), and how the proposal process works
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📘 Select Your Mentors — guidance on choosing a balanced, independent, and effective mentor team before entering incubation
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📘 Incubation Explained — overview of the Incubator’s purpose and process
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📘 Podling Orientation Guide — how incubation works and ASF culture
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📘 Common Myths — correcting misconceptions about incubation and voting
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🖥️ ASF Values (Slide Deck) — the principles behind Apache projects
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🎞️ ASF Values (Video) — transparency, consensus, and community over code
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🎞️ Podling Orientation: Starting Your Apache Journey — first steps for new podlings
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📘 Communication in Apache Projects — mailing lists, chat, and meetings
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📘 International and Cultural Awareness — working across cultures and time zones
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📘 Incubation Readiness — patterns seen when projects are (and are not) ready to enter incubation
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📘 Proposal Discussions — what typically comes up during proposal threads and reviews
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📘 Community Proposals — community formation questions raised during proposal review
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📘 Who Does What — clarifies responsibilities early (PPMC vs mentors vs IPMC)
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📘 Communication in Apache Projects — reinforce early expectations around decisions on-list
Committers and PPMC Members
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📘 Podling Committer Onboarding — expectations and access rights
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🖥️ Committer Onboarding (Slide Deck) — how committers participate and vote
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🎞️ Committer Onboarding (Video) — rights, responsibilities, and good practices
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📘 Podling PPMC Onboarding — managing community decisions
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🖥️ PPMC Onboarding (Slide Deck) — leadership and governance in podlings
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🎞️ PPMC Onboarding (Video) — how podlings self-govern and grow
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🧠 IPMC Scenarios — practice assessing podling health and governance readiness
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📘 Initial Committer Selection — early committer decisions and their long-term impact on governance
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📘 Voting and Consensus in Practice — essential once new committers/PPMC start voting
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📘 Governance in Practice — helps PPMC members operationalize “The Apache Way”
Reporting and Oversight
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📘 Reporting Guide — how to prepare and submit podling reports
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🧠 Incubator Reporting Scenarios — practice writing podling reports
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📘 Who Does What — defining responsibilities across ASF and Incubator bodies
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📘 IPMC Reflection and Oversight — lessons from past oversight patterns to help mentors and IPMC members act early and consistently
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📘 Initial Committer Selection — early committer decisions and their long-term impact on governance
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📘 Releases — practical release issues that commonly arise during early incubation
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📘 Release Review Issues — recurring problems found during podling release reviews
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📘 Release Announcements — practical guidance on announcing podling releases
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📘 Release Votes — patterns and lessons from release vote discussions
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📘 Measuring Podling Health — gives concrete signals to report on (not just activity counts)
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📘 Common Red Flags — helps mentors/PPMC recognize issues worth surfacing in reports
Mentors and IPMC Members
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📘 Mentor Onboarding — how mentors guide and support podlings
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📘 Mentor Quick Start Guide — concise entry point for new mentors
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🖥️ Mentor Onboarding (Slide Deck) — expectations and responsibilities
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🎞️ Mentor Onboarding (Video) — real-world mentoring practices
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📘 Mentor Handbook — full reference to mentoring practices
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🧩 ASF Mentor Onboarding Quiz — self-check for new mentors
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🧠 Mentor Scenarios — real-world mentoring challenges
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📘 Incubator PMC Onboarding — the IPMC’s oversight role
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🖥️ IPMC Onboarding (Slide Deck) — ensuring project compliance and mentoring quality
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🎞️ IPMC Onboarding (Video) — understanding IPMC review and decision processes
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🧩 IPMC Onboarding Quiz — responsibilities and scope
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📘 Vendor Neutrality — early mentor focus: prevent dominance patterns forming
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📘 Neutrality In Practice — practical mentor interventions when imbalance appears
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📘 Mentor Replacement — ensure mentors know this option exists early
Legal and Privacy
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📘 Legal Basics — licensing and contributor agreements
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📘 Privacy and Data Handling — responsible data handling
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📘 Using Emerging Technology — covers AI/tooling choices, transparency, and provenance expectations
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📘 Third-Party Branding and Incubating Projects — legal/trademark-adjacent risks often start early
Mid Incubation: Building Community, Governance, and Identity
Strengthen your community, clarify governance, and ensure early compliance.
Governance, Consensus, and Decision-Making
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📘 Governance in Practice — applying ASF values to community decisions
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🖥️ Governance in Practice (Slide Deck) — how governance works day to day
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📘 Voting and Consensus in Practice — understanding ASF decision processes
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🖥️ Voting and Consensus (Slide Deck) — lazy consensus and formal votes explained
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🎞️ Voting and Consensus (Video) — consensus-building in practice
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🧠 IPMC Scenarios — apply ASF governance and consensus in context
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📘 Using Emerging Technology — adopting new tools (including AI) in ways consistent with ASF values, transparency, and community decision-making
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📘 Edge Cases — uncommon or ambiguous situations raised during incubation
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📘 Who Does What — mid-stage governance clarity when responsibilities start to spread
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📘 Communication in Apache Projects — keep decisions/summaries on-list as activity grows
Branding and Identity
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📘 Third-Party Branding and Incubating Projects — correct use of names and logos
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🖥️ Branding and Identity (Slide Deck) — managing trademarks and project identity
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🎞️ Branding and Identity (Video) — maintaining brand clarity and compliance
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📘 Naming and Branding — identity and presentation issues that arise during incubation
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📘 Naming and Trademarks — trademark-related questions raised in practice
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📘 Third-Party Branding and Incubating Projects — reinforces day-to-day brand hygiene
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📘 Graduation Identity — useful earlier than “late” (projects can fix identity issues midstream)
Community Health and Culture
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📘 Measuring Podling Health — assessing activity, diversity, and responsiveness
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🖥️ Community Building in Practice (Slide Deck) — building diverse, healthy communities
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🎞️ Community Building in Practice (Video) — growing contributors into leaders
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📘 Practicing The Apache Way — real-world examples of ASF culture
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📘 Vendor Neutrality — ensuring balanced governance
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📘Neutrality In Practice — practical guidance on how incubating projects maintain community-led, vendor-neutral governance
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🖥️ Vendor Neutrality (Slide Deck) — avoiding single-vendor dominance
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📘 Mentor Replacement — adjust the mentor roster when engagement, balance, or independence issues appear
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🧠 IPMC Scenarios — apply community health and evaluation principles
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📘 Common Red Flags — maps directly to community health signals
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📘 Practicing The Apache Way — culture examples for common mid-stage friction points
Late Incubation: Readiness, Compliance, and Graduation
Focus on independence, release quality, and maturity.
Maturity and Evaluation
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📘 How To Use the ASF Maturity Model — measuring governance and sustainability
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📘 Incubator Case Studies — lessons learned from past podlings
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📘 Common Incubation Paths — typical ways ASF projects begin and progress through incubation, drawn from past community experience
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🧠 IPMC Scenarios — evaluate podling health and readiness
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📘 Graduation Readiness — issues that commonly surface late in incubation
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📘 Measuring Podling Health — use as evidence during readiness discussions
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📘 Common Red Flags — last check before formal graduation conversation
Graduation and Releases
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📘 Graduation Criteria — readiness indicators
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📘 Graduation and Beyond — transitioning to a Top-Level Project
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🖥️ Incubator Releases (Slide Deck) — how to prepare compliant ASF releases
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📘 Release Vote Insights — analysis of real Incubator release votes and lessons that help mentors and podlings improve readiness
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🧠 IPMC Scenarios — assess graduation readiness and sustainability
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📘 Graduation Readiness — issues that commonly surface late in incubation
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📘 Graduation Identity — branding and public-identity concerns at graduation
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📘 Graduation Votes — how graduation discussions typically unfold
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📘 Release Review Issues — last-mile release compliance problems
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📘 Release Announcements — graduation often triggers “public-facing” release comms scrutiny
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📘 Third-Party Branding and Incubating Projects — frequently reappears in graduation review ---
Post-Graduation
Reflect, offboard mentors, and help future podlings succeed.
Mentoring Practice and Offboarding
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📘 Best Practices for Mentors — examples of effective mentoring
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📘 Common Red Flags — issues to watch for during incubation
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📘 Mentors’ Tough Conversation Guide — resolving conflicts constructively
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📘 Mentor Offboarding — transitioning after graduation
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🧠 Mentor Scenarios — real-world mentoring challenges
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📘 Graduation and Beyond — good anchor for the transition period
Retirement
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📘 Retiring Podlings — when and how to close a project