Node.js Foundation Advances Community Collaboration, Announces New Members and Ratified Technical Governance

Developer communities and industry backers come together under new foundation

SAN FRANCISCO, June 16, 2015 – The Node.js and io.js developer communities today are announcing a collaboration to merge their respective code bases and continue their work in a neutral forum, the Node.js Foundation, hosted by The Linux Foundation. 

The intent to form the Node.js Foundation was announced earlier this year with the purpose of supporting the ongoing growth and evolution of the Node.js platform, while maintaining a collaborative environment to benefit all. Founding and new members include Platinum members Famous, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Microsoft and PayPal. Gold members include GoDaddy, NodeSource and Progress Software, and Silver members include Codefresh, DigitalOcean, Fidelity, Groupon, nearForm, npm, Sauce Labs, SAP, StrongLoop and YLD!. 

Node.js today is used by tens of thousands of organizations in more than 200 countries and amasses more than 2 million downloads per month. Node.js is the runtime of choice for high-performance, low latency applications, powering everything from enterprise applications to robots to API engines to cloud stacks, IoT, and mobile websites. Over the last two years, more large enterprises, including IBM, PayPal, Fidelity and Microsoft have adopted Node.js as part of their enterprise fabric.  

“The Node.js Foundation provides a neutral structure to balance the needs of all constituents in the community: the users, vendors and contributors. As projects grow to the size of Node.js, they benefit from the neutrality, open governance and community that only a foundation can provide,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “By tapping into the strength of an empowered, unified community, the Node.js Foundation will advance this rapidly growing platform that supports millions of users around the world.” 

The Node.js Foundation today is also announcing its ratified open governance structure. The open, technical governance model that will guide the project was determined with input from the public, including contributors from both the Node.js and io.js communities. The model includes a Technical Steering Committee that will direct technical decisions, oversee working group projects and manage contributions to the node code base, and a Board of Directors to guide business decisions. The Node.js and io.js Technical Committees are merging to form the Node.js Foundation Technical Steering Committee, demonstrating the formal collaboration these communities will pursue to advance the code bases. Additionally, there will be an individual membership class, which will have representation on the board. 

For more information about Node Foundation, please visit: http://nodejs.org.

Node.js Foundation is a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. By spreading the collaborative DNA of the largest collaborative software development project in history, The Linux Foundation provides the essential collaborative and organizational framework so project hosts can focus on innovation and results. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects span the enterprise, mobile, embedded and life sciences markets and are backed by many of the largest names in technology. For more information about Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects, please visit: http://collabprojects.linuxfoundation.org/

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences including LinuxCon, and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org. 

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QUOTE SHEET

Comments from Node.js Foundation Members

Codefresh 

“The new Node.js Foundation will be able to aggregate the talent, energy and passion of everyone involved in the Node ecosystem, from the newest committers to community-minded corporate users,” said Raziel Tabib, CEO, Codefresh. “With many hands and voices involved in pushing Node forward, we anticipate rapid iterations and new releases.” 

DigitalOcean 

“As a neutral third-party, the new Node.js Foundation is attractive to all Node developers focused on delivering quality-driven releases to be run at scale,” said Ben Uretsky, CEO of DigitalOcean. “io.js and Node.js developers will certainly be able to continue their rapid rate of innovation and experimentation, which is key to advancing the project.” 

Famous

“Famous is very proud to be joining, serving and supporting the Node.js Foundation” said Steve Newcomb, founder and CEO of Famous. “Supporting the Node.js Foundation and the jQuery Foundation is a core part of Famous’ mission: to empower developers to build beautiful interfaces, apps and sites on every device using free, open source JavaScript.”  

Fidelity

“Node.js sits at the center of the full stack Javascript revolution,” said Travell Perkins, Vice President of Web Architecture, Fidelity. “The Node.js Foundation is providing critical infrastructure for the Node.js and io.js communities and the results will be faster, simpler, and more efficient high-performance applications across a variety of areas.” 

Groupon

“Node.js infrastructure has been extremely important to us as we’ve expanded globally and into areas like mobile over the last few years,” said Sri Viswanath Chief Technology Officer, Groupon. “By becoming a Node.js Foundation member, we’re able to give back to open source and support a technology that continues to drive Groupon’s business forward.” 

GoDaddy

“GoDaddy and the Node.js Foundation share a common goal: widespread adoption and accelerated development of Node.js. That’s why we’re joining the Node.js Foundation,” said Charlie Robbins, Director of Engineering, GoDaddy. “We serve billions of requests for our customers’ websites every month with Node.js and are using it more and more throughout our business. With this usage and the acquisition of Nodejitsu, we are committed to Node.js internally. Joining the Node.js Foundation is another example of our commitment and we want to share the skills, benefits and lessons we learned. 

IBM

“An independent Node.js Foundation built on open governance is a major industry wide event as it ensures the continued adoption and growth of one of the world’s most ubiquitous programming languages. The Node.js foundation will provide developers with a top development platform that when combined with the power of IBM Cloud and Mobile will accelerate time to application concept, deployment, and refinement.  As a platinum member of the foundation, IBM looks forward to continued partnership in developing and promoting Node.js and the inevitable expansion of this vibrant community,” said Angel Diaz, Vice President, Cloud Architecture & Technology, IBM. 

Intel

“Intel is proud to help lead the Node.js Foundation. The convergence of key open source projects with an open, neutral governance and broad participation of the community will stimulate innovation and help deliver on the full potential of Node.js. As this project matures, there is a tremendous opportunity to support additional downstream projects such as nw.js and expand in markets ranging from Cloud to tiny Internet of Things,” said Imad Sousou, vice president and general manager of the Open Source Technology Center, Intel Corporation. 

Joyent

“From the earliest days of the project, Joyent has championed and aggressively invested in the growth of Node.  Now, the project has reached a level of adoption and maturity where it is best governed by a neutral, community-driven forum that can unite a broad spectrum of developers and stakeholders in the common goal of advancing Node.  We look forward to working with the new members of the Node.js Foundation and the broader Node and IO.js community to help drive the project to new heights over the coming years,” said Scott Hammond, CEO, Joyent. 

Microsoft 

“The Node.js Foundation is on a great path forward with a broad group of members, a sound governance model, and io.js and Node.js project working together toward a unified project that benefits both developers and end users,” said Gianugo Rabellino, senior director of Open Source Communities, Microsoft Open Technologies. “At Microsoft we are looking forward to supporting Node.js and Io.js developers with technical collaboration through the Node.js Foundation, as it continues to grow and deliver innovative open source software.”

nearForm

“Enterprises across the world are transforming to become digital companies, from electronics to travel, media, financial services, retail and many more industries, businesses need to deliver digital services more rapidly than ever,” said Cian Ó Maidín, CEO, nearForm. “We’ve been seriously committed to Node.js since 2011 and believe the timing is perfect for a neutral organisation such as the Node.js Foundation to unite the open source community to advance the future of Node.” 

NodeSource

“One Node = Infinite possibilities.  We’re excited to move forward as part of a stronger unified Node community.  The Node.js Foundation will only accelerate the adoption and deployment of Node in the enterprise.  We at NodeSource, along with other corporate partners like IBM, PayPal, and Microsoft, believe that a single Node.js standard will serve to further catalyze innovation for all.”  —Dan Shaw, Co-Founder and CPO. 

npm

“Healthy social interaction is every bit as important as robust code for the success of Open Source Software.  We are confident that this foundation is an important step towards meeting the needs of everyone using JavaScript.” — Isaac Z. Schlueter, CEO of npm, Inc. 

PayPal 

“The Node.js Foundation is built on transparency and enabling community voice. By evolving the way decisions are made regarding technical and business advancements like Node.js, we’re moving to a much more meritocratic model that enables both developers and end users to fully maximize our investment in this code base,” said Danese Cooper, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff – Open Source at PayPal.  

Progress Software

“Progress is truly committed to the advancement of Node.js in the enterprise, not only through investment in our own Modulus platform and developer community, but by providing support to organizations such as the Node.js Foundation. We share the collective goal of widespread adoption, participation and technical contribution to the Node.js community and its related modules and are confident that the Node.js Foundation will play a pivotal role in the proliferation of Node.js to developers and business users worldwide.”  Karen Tegan Padir, President, AppDev, Progress. 

SAP

“With companies facing digitalization of their businesses and the Internet of Things progressing massively, agile environments for high-performance applications in the cloud are more important than ever,” said Bjoern Görke, EVP and corporate officer, Product & Innovation Technology, SAP SE. “JavaScript through node.js and io.js will help SAP to better serve our customers. Thanks to the node.js and io.js developers and their commitments to the future of this critical platform, we’re confident about the future of this area of technology.” 

Sauce Labs Inc. 

“Sauce Labs is a major open source proponent as both a user and contributor,” said Adam Christian, VP of Engineering, Sauce Labs. “Node.js is the underlying technology that powers the Appium mobile test automation framework. Appium is one of the many open source testing tools that becomes extremely powerful at scale when combined with Sauce Labs’ cloud infrastructure. By backing the Node.js Foundation, Sauce Labs is able to help shape the future of this critical platform.” 

StrongLoop

“With the Node.js and io.js communities coming together both organizationally and technically, Node.js developers will benefit from the open governance, transparency, and accelerated innovation,” said Juan Carlos Soto, CEO, StrongLoop. “We see a very bright future ahead for Node.js use within enterprises of all sizes.  By addressing community issues through the establishment of the Node.js Foundation, everyone in the ecosystem can return to focusing on advancing Node.js as the best technical choice for developing APIs.”  

YLD!

“The Node.js Foundation brings much needed maturity and governance to the Node ecosystem, whilst maintaining the ethos and focus of an open community,” said Pedro Teixeira, Founder & CTO, YLD!. “It’s exciting to have the reassurance that the technical innovation will have structures within which to flourish, as Node.js becomes more and more critical to our businesses.” 

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