By Chia-Ping Tsai
ALC Taipei Lead
[Figure 1] Long-time Apache Kafka contributors Jiunn-Yang and Chih-Yuan introducing ALC Taipei’s contributions to open-source veterans Brian Behlendorf and Justin McLean
Introduction
With the globally renowned Computex Taipei now behind us, it’s the perfect time to look back at how ALC Taipei has brought the Apache Way to life in Taiwan.
First and foremost, ALC Taipei successfully brought a diverse array of ASF projects straight to Computex. You could say this was the very first time the Computex exhibition floor featured a showcase purely dedicated to ASF open-source projects. It sparked engaging discussions among public sector representatives, industry leaders, and journalists, helping more people in Taiwan truly understand the value of open source and the Apache Way.
Second, ALC Taipei is steadily weaving the spirit of the Apache Way into public digital policy. We haven’t just joined digital policy discussions — we’ve also participated in press conferences, collaborating with the public sector to encourage more industries to invest their resources into open-source software.
Third, we are sparking new fires for the future. ALC Taipei has partnered with top universities in Taiwan to co-launch open-source courses. This allows students to grasp the Apache Way during their college years, dive into open-source contributions directly through their classes, and build real-world, hands-on experience.
Finally, we are fostering deeper community-to-community exchanges. ALC Taipei continues to serve as a bridge, inviting experts from other prominent open-source projects to grab a bite and dive into deep tech discussions. Our goal is for participants to not just get to know ALC Taipei, but to use us as a gateway to connect with the entire world.
The Spark: A Unified ASF Presence at Computex
For this event, ALC Taipei mobilized an incredible crew of over 30 members. For five straight days, eight hours a day, they were on the floor at the globally renowned Computex Taipei, passionately introducing every visitor to the world of open source and the Apache Way. And the team staffing the booth wasn’t just made up of the Apache Kafka folks you might have spotted in the photos! We were also joined by maintainers from a fantastic lineup of other ASF projects, including Apache Ozone, Apache Airflow, Apache Mahout, Apache YuniKorn, Apache DataFusion, and Apache Gravitino. The collaborative spirit didn’t even stop there — maintainers from projects under other open-source foundations, such as Ray and Flyte, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with ALC Taipei to champion the open-source movement together.
Beyond the bustling booth, several of our members also took the stage to deliver insightful talks. Dr. Wei-Chiu shared his deep insights and valuable experiences on navigating the intersection of open-source and commercial development. Zhe-you and Wei Lee gave a great presentation on how Airflow is evolving and leveling up in the AI era. Meanwhile, You-Cheng from the Ray project shared an inspiring story about how, by connecting through ALC Taipei, they successfully collaborated with a wave of external contributors to hit major open-source milestones.
Looking past the final day of Computex, ALC Taipei has established a multi-layered roadmap designed to integrate open-source ideals into the broader digital and educational ecosystem:
The Long-Term Blueprint: Rooting the Apache Way in Taiwan
Looking past the final day of Computex, ALC Taipei has established a multi-layered roadmap designed to integrate open-source ideals into the broader digital and educational ecosystem:
1. Integrating with Digital Policy
Building directly on recent high-level institutional discussions on open-source digital policy, the goal is to advocate for community-driven development frameworks in the public sector. Establishing official channels ensures that open-source methodologies become a core element of broader software strategy.
[Figure 3] Dr. Chia-Ping Tsai, ALC Taipei Lead, speaking at an official Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) press conference to advocate for open-source frameworks in public digital policy.
2. Cultivating the Next Generation: A Two-Pronged Mentorship Strategy
To secure the sustainable growth of open source, ALC Taipei is rolling out a comprehensive mentorship and talent development framework split into two core pillars:
- Mobilizing Ecosystem Resources for Mentorship: We are collaborating across sectors, aligning with public-sector institutions and industry partners to mobilize vital resources. This collective effort aims to rally a broader network of experienced open-source mentors to guide and cultivate top-tier engineering talent, building a resilient pipeline of future contributors.
[Figure 4] Shaping collaborative digital frameworks: KubeRay maintainer Han-Ju, representing the ALC Taipei community, engages in a direct dialogue with public sector leaders and policy makers to deliver strategic recommendations on open-source policy
- Bringing Open Governance Back to Universities: In partnership with leading universities, we are mobilizing active open-source mentors from within our OpenSource4You community to return to academic classrooms. These mentors teach practical open-source technologies and methodologies for upstream contributions, directly bridging the gap between theoretical computer science and global engineering practices.
[Figure 5] Bringing open governance to academia: Apache Kafka Committer Po-An returning to the university classroom to teach upstream contribution methodologies.
3. Fostering Grassroots Technical Ecosystems via OpenSource4You
In parallel with public sector and academic initiatives, ALC Taipei continues to nurture a vibrant local ecosystem by leveraging its foundation as OpenSource4You, its core technical community. Operating as a unified grassroots hub, it provides a welcoming environment where developers can share technical storytelling, network, and seamlessly practice the Apache Way in their daily workflows.
[Figure 6] Keeping it real: Open-source is built on human connection. This photo captures community members who traveled from across the country—via high-speed rail and flights—to gather over dinner, creating a grassroots space to discuss open-source sustainability, career growth, and mentorship.
Conclusion: Keeping the Journey Going
Although we have accomplished many unprecedented open-source milestones in Taiwan over the past year, this is truly just the beginning. Moving forward, we will continue to push the Apache Way further. This includes collaborating with the public sector and enterprise partners to channel funding and support for independent open-source developers.
At the same time, ALC Taipei will be leading delegations to participate in Community Over Code (C/C) in both Beijing and Glasgow. We are also actively in the early planning stages to bring a C/C event right here to Taipei!
Simply put, ALC Taipei is steadily evolving from a grassroots developer community into an organization with real policy impact and commercial appeal — perhaps even laying the groundwork for a future Taiwan Open Source Foundation. Yet, what allows us to stay true to our roots every step of the way is not just our unwavering belief in the Apache Way, but our incredible group of outstanding open-source engineers.
Thank you to The ASF, and thank you to everyone involved. Let’s continue using open source to make the world a better place, and let the world see the brilliant open-source energy coming from Taiwan!
[Figure 7] The face of upstream contribution: A powerful lineup of core maintainers, PMC members, and committers from the OpenSource4You and ALC Taipei community
