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Version: 0.4

Community Overview

The Apache Mahout community consists of developers, users, data scientists, researchers, and open-source contributors who collaborate to build scalable machine-learning libraries on the Apache platform. Mahout follows the principles of the Apache Software Foundation — openness, transparency, community-driven development, and meritocracy.

This page explains the official communication channels, how to participate, and how to contribute to the project.

There are numerous ways to engage with the Mahout community, no matter your background or skill level. Some options include:

Biweekly Community Meeting​

Apache Mahout is committed to work consistently and conducts its meetings once in two weeks. To get invovled, please subscribe Google Calendar to view and join the meeting. Meeting Link

How to Participate​

There are several ways to engage with the Mahout community:

💬 Mailing Lists​

All official communication for Mahout happens on Apache-managed public mailing lists:

To subscribe, send an empty email to:

  • user-subscribe@mahout.apache.org
  • dev-subscribe@mahout.apache.org

🐛 Issue Tracking & Contributions​

Mahout uses GitHub Issues and Pull Requests for development.

If you find a bug or want to propose a feature:

  1. Open a GitHub issue
  2. Discuss the design on the dev mailing list
  3. Submit a Pull Request

📘 Documentation & Website​

Contribute to documentation or help update website pages (like this one):

Documentation improvements are always welcome — fixing broken links, updating examples, adding explanations, etc.

Contribution Guidelines​

Apache Mahout follows the ASF standard contribution process:

  • Communicate on the mailing list before large changes
  • Submit well-tested Pull Requests
  • Follow project coding style and review guidelines
  • Participate in community discussions and votes
  • Respect others — Mahout operates under the ASF Code of Conduct

ASF Code of Conduct: https://www.apache.org/foundation/policies/conduct

Community and Governance​

Mahout is governed by the Apache Mahout PMC (Project Management Committee). The PMC is responsible for project direction, releases, and community oversight.

Contributors who consistently help the project through code, documentation, or community involvement may be invited to become:

  • Committers — have write access to the repository
  • PMC Members — participate in project decision-making

Mahout community decisions are made publicly on the dev@mahout.apache.org mailing list following ASF voting rules.

Thank you for being part of the Apache Mahout community! Contributions of all kinds — code, documentation, discussion, or feedback — help keep the project healthy and evolving.