Until a few months ago, the MySQL community had several complaints about the contribution process. The two biggest obstacles were an unfriendly revision control system and a too demanding contributor agreement. The revision control system was changed in June. Exit BitKeeper, enter Bazaar. And now goes the second obstacle. Today, Kaj Arnö announced that MySQL has adopted the Sun Contributors Agreement. Kudos!

There are still a few impediments, but the database group management seems well determined to tackle the problem and become contributions friendly. There is more in the making. Stay tuned!

• Community: Closing on Tomcat?, New SCA, Hudson Podcast, GF@FOSS.IN • Real-Life Stories: GF at the Airport • GF Know-How: SSL, Provisioning, Seam and Maven • Experimental: Alternate Mac JVM • Comet: with IceFaces, with DWR • SailFin: ATT's ECharts • OpenESB on JavaSE and JBoss; New OpenDS Build

After so many years working with lawyers whose job was to make sure we didn't say the wrong thing, I smile every time I see a post by Mike :-). Anyhow, directly from the lawyer's keyboard, the latest Sun Contribution Agreement (v1.5) is out. The new SCA is still under 1 page. And there are no changes in the legal implications, it is just... more readable! Amazing! Check it out here. The plan is to switch to the new SCA in all our communities, but, if you signed the old one, no need to sign the new one and resubmit.

There is a new update to the SCA - the Sun Contribution Agreement (see What is the SCA and Why we Have One). Check the new version here. Quoting Simon, improvements include: "compatibility with the FSF's contributor agreement and a commitment by Sun to keep contributions as Free software".