Natives in Tech asks the Apache Software Foundation to change its name

Natives in Tech a non-profit group representing indigenous peoples in technology, is asking the Apache Software Foundation to change its name, drawing on part of the foundation's own code of conduct.

Through a Natives in Tech blog post he launched his petition for the Apache Software Foundation to change his name, the names of the projects that it hosts and also change its logo, this arguing that they have appropriated the indigenous culture.

Natives in Tech is a collective of indigenous technologists (in the United States, the Native American community) who are building free and open technologies that empower indigenous peoples. Natives in Tech originated as a Slack group in 2017 with just 17 members, and by the end of 2020, the group numbered nearly 2019. It gained nonprofit status in XNUMX and held its first conference the same year.

To understand the request from Natives in Tech to the Apache Software Foundation, the same organization details that Apache appeared in April 1995 and was originally a collection of fixes. and additions to the NCSA HTTPd server, which was in the public domain and the most popular HTTP server at the time.

From this source, many people claim that the name Apache comes from a ragged server. Subsequently, Apache was completely rewritten, so in version 2 there is no trace of NCSA HTTPd.

At first, Apache was the only serious and free alternative to Netscape's HTTP server. (iPlanet, now Sun ONE). Since April 1996, according to ongoing Netcraft study, Apache has become the most popular HTTP server on the Internet.

The organization disagrees with Apache co-creator Brian Behlendorf's explanation of why he suggested the name and its "Spaghetti Western" tropes, as well as the Foundation's feather logo and its "reverence and appreciation." .

I thought, maybe something a little more interesting, a little more romantic and, not to be a cultural appropriator or anything, but I had just seen a documentary about Geronimo and the last days of the natives. American tribe called Apaches, right? Who succumbed to the invasion from the West, from the United States, and were the last tribe to cede their territory.

And to me, that almost romantically represented what I felt like we were doing with this web server project, which at the time was that Microsoft owned 95 percent of the desktops; all they had to do was create a browser and a server, and if they had both links, it was game over.

The Organization non profit, questioned why the software foundation chose the name Apache first. About the demand made in the publication is the following:

We urge The Apache® Software Foundation to take the necessary steps to express the ally they promote so deeply on their website, to act in accordance with their own code of conduct, to “be careful what words [they] choose”, and change your name.

Giving a positive and sympathetic response to Natives In Tech would be in keeping with the Apache Way, but changing the name, not only of ASF but also of the myriad of projects that fall under its umbrella, would be a big step. However, in an emailed statement to The Register, which first reported this story, the ASF said it had heard the concerns and was listening, but would need time to make a decision.

Natives in Tech asks the Apache Foundation to change its name:

Once again, we urge The Apache® Software Foundation to take the necessary steps to express the [claiming Apache] ally on their website, to act in accordance with their own code of conduct to "be careful with the words [that] choose”, and change its name.

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