This was extracted (@ 2026-01-21 23:10) from a list of minutes
which have been approved by the Board.
Please Note
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beginning of every Board meeting; therefore, the list below does not
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WARNING: these pages may omit some original contents of the minutes.
BifroMQ is a Java-based, high-performance, distributed MQTT broker with
native multi-tenancy support, designed for large-scale
connections and message delivery.
BifroMQ has been incubating since 2025-04-22.
### Three most important unfinished issues to address before graduating:
1. Complete the first Apache Incubator release and establish a regular
release cadence.
2. Increase public communication on dev@ and ensure all project decisions
and planning are captured on the mailing list.
3. Grow community participation beyond the original contributors, including
attracting new reviewers and contributors.
### Are there any issues that the IPMC or ASF Board need to be aware of?
The primary concern is low traffic on the dev@ list and limited visibility
of development discussions.
Recent mentor feedback highlighted the need to move architectural
decisions, release planning, and prioritization discussions onto dev@ to
comply with ASF governance expectations.
In addition, regarding the “BifroMQ” trademark transfer in China: in
response to a time-limited office action from the China National
Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), Baidu submitted the requested
supplemental materials before the deadline. We are now waiting for an
update from ASF on the status and next steps.
### How has the community developed since the last report?
Community activity on GitHub remains steady, but public communication has
been low.
Following mentor feedback, the PPMC began improving transparency by
starting public discussion threads, including a DISCUSS thread for the
first release.
We also launched the “BifroMQ” WeChat Official Account to support outreach
to the Chinese-speaking community. The account name currently uses
“BifroMQ” (without the “Apache” prefix) because the platform requires
formal authorization to use “Apache” in the account name. The account
description clearly identifies the project as “Apache BifroMQ (Incubating)”.
Official project discussions and decisions continue to happen on the
mailing list.
### How has the project developed since the last report?
Work toward the first incubator release has been completed, including
architectural refactoring, API stabilization, and Apache compliance work
(LICENSE/NOTICE, headers, package renaming, distribution scripts).
A DISCUSS thread(https://github.com/apache/bifromq/discussions/192) for the
4.0.0-incubating release has been opened to gather community feedback
before preparing RC1.
A significant amount of work came from supporting an early enterprise
adopter running BifroMQ in production, resulting in important optimizations
and bug fixes now included in the upcoming release.
### How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
- [ ] Initial setup
- [X] Working towards first release
- [ ] Community building
- [ ] Nearing graduation
- [ ] Other:
### Date of last release:
2025-02-25
### When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
No new committers or PPMC members have been added since incubation started.
### Have your mentors been helpful and responsive?
Yes, our mentors are very helpful.
### Is the PPMC managing the podling's brand / trademarks?
Yes. The podling name “BifroMQ” has been reviewed by the VP, Brand. We are
not aware of any misuse by third parties.
For outreach to the Chinese-speaking community, we have created a WeChat
Official Account currently named “BifroMQ”. The platform requires an
authorization document to use “Apache” in the account name, so we are
temporarily using “BifroMQ” as the account name while clearly stating
“Apache BifroMQ (Incubating)” in the description.
We would appreciate guidance from ASF (Incubator and Brand) on the proper
process to obtain authorization for using the full “Apache BifroMQ” name
for this account, so that we can align fully with the Incubator publicity
policy.
### Signed-off-by:
- [X] (bifromq) Christofer Dutz
Comments: The "last release" was a pre-Apache release. Since I last
brought up the issue of the lack of public discussions, more discsussions
are showing up. I hope the project will continue doing that and not only
for trivial things.
- [ ] (bifromq) Xiangdong Huang
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Calvin Kirs
Comments:
- [X] (bifromq) Penghui Li
Comments: LGTM
- [ ] (bifromq) Sheng Wu
Comments:
### IPMC/Shepherd notes:
BifroMQ is a Java-based, high-performance, distributed MQTT broker with
native multi-tenancy support, designed for large-scale connections and
message delivery.
BifroMQ has been incubating since 2025-04-22.
### Three most important unfinished issues to address before graduating:
1. Complete the first incubator release.
2. Gain more public exposure and user base.
3. Attract more contributors.
### Are there any issues that the IPMC or ASF Board need to be aware of?
We received confirmation from Mark that the paperwork for the trademark
transfer has been submitted. The process is expected to take around six
months to complete.
### How has the community developed since the last report?
1. One contributor joined the community.
2. A press release was published via a company media channel to promote
Apache BifroMQ.
3. One of the largest smart home appliance companies adopted Apache
BifroMQ.
### How has the project developed since the last report?
1. Working toward a code freeze for the first incubator release (9 PRs
merged).
2. Fixed multiple issues identified in real production usage.
### How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
- [ ] Initial setup
- [X] Working towards first release
- [ ] Community building
- [ ] Nearing graduation
- [ ] Other:
### Date of last release:
2025-02-25
### When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
None since entering the incubator.
### Have your mentors been helpful and responsive?
Yes, we have received helpful guidance.
### Is the PPMC managing the podling's brand / trademarks?
The transfer of BifroMQ’s trademark is in progress.
### Signed-off-by:
- [ ] (bifromq) Christofer Dutz
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Xiangdong Huang
Comments:
- [X] (bifromq) Calvin Kirs
Comments:
- [X] (bifromq) Penghui Li
Comments: Good progress on stabilizing the project and preparing for
the first release. Encouraging to see ongoing community growth.
- [ ] (bifromq) Sheng Wu
Comments:
### IPMC/Shepherd notes:
BifroMQ is a Java-based, high-performance, distributed MQTT broker with
native multi-tenancy support, designed for large-scale connections and
message delivery.
BifroMQ has been incubating since 2025-04-22.
### Three most important unfinished issues to address before graduating:
1. Complete the first incubator release
2. Gain more public exposure and grow the community
### Are there any issues that the IPMC or ASF Board need to be aware of?
The signed documents for transferring the trademark have been accepted.
We are waiting for the process to be completed and for a copy of the
ASF-stamped agreement, so we can complete the donation contract workflow.
### How has the community developed since the last report?
I attended Apache Community Over Code Asia and spoke at the Incubator
Track, making connections with potential users and adopters.
### How has the project developed since the last report?
* We are working toward a code freeze for the first incubator release
* Updated the website with a detailed contribution guide in the community
section
### How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
- [X] Initial setup
- [X] Working towards first release
- [ ] Community building
- [ ] Nearing graduation
- [ ] Other:
### Date of last release:
2025-02-25
### When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
None since entering the incubator
### Have your mentors been helpful and responsive?
Yes, we get helpful and timely guidance from the mentors
### Is the PPMC managing the podling's brand / trademarks?
The transfer of BifroMQ’s trademark is in progress.
### Signed-off-by:
- [ ] (bifromq) Christofer Dutz
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Xiangdong Huang
Comments:
- [X] (bifromq) Calvin Kirs
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Penghui Li
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Sheng Wu
Comments:
### IPMC/Shepherd notes:
BifroMQ is a Java-based, high-performance, distributed MQTT broker with
native multi-tenancy support, designed for large-scale connections and
message delivery.
BifroMQ has been incubating since 2025-04-22.
### Three most important unfinished issues to address before graduating:
1. The first incubator release
2. Community growth
### Are there any issues that the IPMC or ASF Board need to be aware of?
None at this time.
### How has the community developed since the last report?
* Migrated the official website to ASF infrastructure and updated the
contents to comply with ASF requirements.
* Published roadmap on the website to address common concerns from
potential contributors.
### How has the project developed since the last report?
We are still working on the first incubator release, but have completed the
following tasks:
* Added license headers to all source files and set up a corresponding CI
action for checking
* Updated LICENSE and NOTICE files with third-party dependency information
for both source and binary distributions
* Renamed all Java packages to `org.apache.bifromq.*`
### How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
- [X] Initial setup
- [X] Working towards first release
- [ ] Community building
- [ ] Nearing graduation
- [ ] Other:
### Date of last release:
2025-02-25
### When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
None since joining the incubator
### Have your mentors been helpful and responsive?
Yes, we get helpful and timely guidance from the mentors
### Is the PPMC managing the podling's brand / trademarks?
The transfer of BifroMQ’s trademark is in progress.
### Signed-off-by:
- [X] (bifromq) Christofer Dutz
Comments: So far not much discussion has been happening on any of the
mailing-lists.
- [ ] (bifromq) Xiangdong Huang
Comments:
- [X] (bifromq) Calvin Kirs
Comments: Things are going well, The new website looks great.
- [ ] (bifromq) Penghui Li
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Sheng Wu
Comments:
### IPMC/Shepherd notes:
BifroMQ is a Java-based, high-performance, distributed MQTT broker with
native multi-tenancy support, designed for large-scale connections and
message delivery.
BifroMQ has been incubating since 2025-04-22.
### Three most important unfinished issues to address before graduating:
1. Successful repository migration and completion of the first release
process
2. Website building and grow the community
3. Complete the Trademark Assignment process
### Are there any issues that the IPMC or ASF Board need to be aware of?
Baidu manages the SGA, CCLA, and Trademark Assignment as a unified
"Corporate Contract" workflow. The SGA and CCLA documents have been
successfully submitted to the ASF.
We are eager to advance the Trademark Assignment process to finalize the
Corporate Contract workflow, rather than delaying it until graduation from
the incubator.
### How has the community developed since the last report?
- Added 2 contributors since incubation began
### How has the project developed since the last report?
- Two repositories have been transferred to the Apache GitHub organization
(apache/bifromq, apache/bifromq-sites).
### How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
- [X] Initial setup
- [ ] Working towards first release
- [ ] Community building
- [ ] Nearing graduation
- [ ] Other:
### Date of last release:
2025-02-25
### When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
None since joining the incubator
### Have your mentors been helpful and responsive?
Yes, we get helpful and timely guidance from the mentors
### Is the PPMC managing the podling's brand / trademarks?
Yes, The name 'BifroMQ' has passed the name search:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PODLINGNAMESEARCH-237
### Signed-off-by:
- [ ] (bifromq) Christofer Dutz
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Xiangdong Huang
Comments:
- [X] (bifromq) Calvin Kirs
Comments: Progress is going well.
- [ ] (bifromq) Penghui Li
Comments:
- [ ] (bifromq) Sheng Wu
Comments:
### IPMC/Shepherd notes: