add initial TLP application for the Appium project

Author: jlipps

Applications/Appium-TLP.md

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+## Appium + Node Foundation = <3
+
+This document serves as the application for the [Appium](https://appium.io)
+open source mobile automation tool to join the Node Foundation as a [Top-Level
+Project](https://github.com/nodejs/TSC/blob/master/Project-Lifecycle.md#top-level-project-and-working-group-requirements).
+
+### Introduction to the Appium Project
+
+Appium is a Node.js server that exposes a REST API used for automating mobile
+applications (native, hybrid, and web) on iOS, Android, and more (Windows Phone
+coming soon). The most common reason someone would want to automate a mobile
+application is to test it, and Appium has become the world's most popular
+open-source mobile testing tool. Testers use Appium via a client library
+written in the tester's preferred language (thus differentiating Appium from
+other testing tools---it is language-agnostic). Happily, the API that Appium
+exposes is simply an extension of the API used for
+[Selenium](https://seleniumhq.org), the extremely popular browser automation
+tool, and so clients are easy to come by.
+
+Over the last few years of its existence, Appium has grown from a small entrant
+in the mobile testing space to the standard in mobile automation, used by many
+of the world's largest companies as part of their mobile CI, and offered as
+part of cloud testing offerings from Sauce Labs, Amazon.com, Testdroid,
+Perfecto Mobile, and others. Given its wide appeal to non-Node.js users, but
+its adoption of the very latest in Node.js technologies (recently entirely
+rewritten in ES2015), we believe that Appium is an excellent candidate for
+adoption into the Node Foundation as a top-level project. The time has come for
+Appium to formally grow up as an open source project, and Node.js leads the
+pack in open source organization and governance. We want to take advantage of
+this accumulated wisdom and join forces with the Node Foundation for a better
+future for our project.
+
+### History of the Appium Project
+
+Appium's story is well-outlined on [the project's history
+page](http://appium.io/history.html?lang=en). Most recently, we have completely
+rewritten the project in ES2015 + `async/await` with the goal of making the
+project easier to understand, more modular, and more friendly, especially for
+new contributors.
+
+### Scope of the Appium Project
+
+The Appium project's purpose is to make testing apps easier. That means a few
+things for us:
+
+* Use a standard automation API that everyone is already familiar with.
+* Allow users to write test scripts in any language.
+* As far as possible, don't modify the app in order to test it.
+* Appium should be open source! Community > technology.
+
+We chose the Selenium WebDriver [JSON Wire
+Protocol](https://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/JsonWireProtocol) (JSONWP) as
+our foundational API (this is soon going to be superseded by the
+[WebDriver](https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver/) Standard, a W3C draft, but the
+differences are fairly minor). Our goal is thus to provide a translation layer
+between fundamental automation technologies (like those Apple and Google
+provide for automating iOS and Android apps) and the JSONWP, so that users can
+write test scripts for any platform taking advantage of the awesome HTTP
+architecture of the JSONWP API.
+
+For now Appium's platform support includes iOS and Android mobile devices, but
+the future is wide open---we want to build a giant ecosystem of Appium
+"drivers" that add support for automating whatever the apps of tomorrow look
+like. And we want to do all of this in Node.js (except for when we are forced
+to write some other language to connect to another technology, as when we use
+Java in Android's UiAutomator context).
+
+In terms of the scope of the Appium TLP's responsibilities specifically, they
+basically include all aspects of running the Appium open source project. This
+includes:
+
+* Setting the project roadmap
+* Setting release dates
+* Managing the development process, the style guide and code quality
+* Helping contributors with pull requests
+* Determining who can become a committer or a TC member
+* Maintaining infrastructure necessary for the community to operate well, e.g., the GitHub project, our discussion forum, any mailing lists or Slack channels, etc...
+* Maintaining technical infrastructure (CI, for example)
+* General project management for specific endeavors
+* Mediating technical conflicts that may arise
+* Handling conduct violations and ensuring the community remains healthy
+* Organizing and accepting corporate sponsorship
+
+Essentially, the Appium TLP is more or less the Appium project itself--the goal
+is for the project as a whole to come under the umbrella of the Node
+Foundation; of course this scope of responsibility does not extend to Appium's
+use specifically or in general, forks, people giving talks at meetups or
+conferences, or other kinds of community self-organization (though we may want
+to officially recognize or support meetups or conferences).
+
+### User Base, Community, and Ecosystem
+
+* Basic stats (via GitHub) across the Appium org, as of 1/2016:
+	* Over 160 unique contributors
+	* Over 90 releases
+	* Over 8,000 commits
+	* Over 3,200 issues closed
+	* Over 2,000 pull requests merged
+	* Over 3,000 stars
+	* Over 1,900 forks
+* Usage stats:
+	* Over 20,000 NPM downloads of the Appium server in the last month (10/2015). Appium is not an NPM dependency of other projects so this number refers to it being used in an end-user scenario.
+	* New versions of the Appium.app GUI wrapper are downloaded on the order of ~500/day ([source](https://bitbucket.org/appium/appium.app/downloads/))
+	* Supported Appium clients exist in 6 languages and these are downloaded frequently as well
+* Appium has several regularly-occurring meetups around the world, organized independently by community members:
+	* [San Francisco, USA](http://www.meetup.com/Appium-SF/)
+	* [London, UK](http://www.meetup.com/Appium-London/)
+	* [New York City, USA](http://www.meetup.com/Appium-New-York/)
+	* [Bangalore, IN](http://www.meetup.com/Bangalore-Appium-Meetup/)
+* An [Appium Book](https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/appium-essentials) has been written and published.
+* Many tools have been created and maintained by the community, for example a desktop app [GUI](https://github.com/appium/appium-dot-app) wrapper for the server, or a [REPL](https://github.com/Jonahss/AppiumRepl).
+* Many highly-viewed tutorials have been created by the community, even on commercial e-learning sites (like [this one on Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/appium-selendroid-tutorials/)).
+* Dozens of conference talks have been given at conferences and meetups around the world, for example at [LXJS 2013](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsbNVkayYRQ).
+* Appium has become an integral part of many testers' careers. For example, [indeed.com](http://www.indeed.co.uk/jobs?q=appium&l=London) [searches](http://www.indeed.com/jobs?limit=10&as_not=&sort=&jt=all&as_any=&l=San+Francisco%2C+CA&fromage=any&as_cmp=&psf=advsrch&as_phr=&as_ttl=&st=&salary=&as_and=appium&radius=50) for SF, CA and London, UK each show > 100 open jobs with "appium" in the job requirements.
+
+### Contribution Process
+
+Our
+[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)
+formalizes the various kinds of contributions and the processes necessary for
+each. More contribution resources are available:
+
+* [Style Guide](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/contributing-to-appium/style-guide-2.0.md)
+* [Developer's Overview](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/1.5/docs/en/contributing-to-appium/developers-overview.md)
+* [Run-down of Appium packages and organization](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/1.5/docs/en/contributing-to-appium/appium-packages.md)
+* [How to run Appium from source](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/contributing-to-appium/appium-from-source.md)
+
+
+### Governance Process
+
+* Our project's roles and procedures are documented on our [GOVERNANCE.md](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/1.5/GOVERNANCE.md).
+
+### Organizational Tools
+
+* Website: [appium.io](http://appium.io)
+* [Docs](http://appium.io/slate/en/master) (Jekyll + Slate)
+* Source code management: [GitHub](https://github.com/appium/appium)
+	* Appium is split up into dozens of smaller repos and operates as an independent GitHub organization
+* Issue tracking: [GitHub](https://github.com/appium/appium/issues)
+* Milestone tracking: [GitHub](https://github.com/appium/appium/milestones)
+* Releases: [GitHub](https://github.com/appium/appium/releases) and [NPM](https://npmjs.org/package/appium)
+* User discussion forums: [discuss.appium.io](https://discuss.appium.io)
+* User chat: [gitter.im/appium](https://gitter.im/orgs/appium/rooms) (#appium on Freenode is mostly abandoned)
+* Developer/contributor chat: [appium.slack.com](https://appium.slack.com)
+* Developer mailing list: [[email protected]](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/appium-developers)
+
+### Intellectual Property and Other Assets
+
+Appium does not currently have any registered trademarks. We own/manage the
+[appium.io](https://appium.io) domain name. We also have a logomark.
+
+### Initial Technical Committee Members
+
+The Appium TC will initially consist of:
+
+|Name|GitHub profile|Company|Location|
+|----|--------------|-------|--------|
+|Jonathan Lipps|[@jlipps](https://github.com/jlipps)|Sauce Labs|San Francisco, USA|
+|Matthew Edwards|[@bootstraponline](https://github.com/bootstraponline)|InStructure|Boston, USA|
+|Dan Cuellar|[@penguinho](https://github.com/penguinho)|FOODit, Inc.|London, UK|
+|Dan Doveralba|[@dandoveralba](https://github.com/dandoveralba)|FitBit|San Francisco, USA|
+
+### Initial Working Groups
+
+Initially, Appium will only need one working group, responsible for Appium's
+continued development and supporting the various needs of the community.
+Eventually we will want to consider adding working groups based on the
+underlying automation technology (e.g., one group to manage direction for iOS
+testing, another for Android testing, etc...). As the time becomes ripe for
+large Appium community events (conferences, etc...), we will likely also want
+a working group to plan and run such events.
+
+### Important Documents
+
+* [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/CONDUCT.md)
+* [License](https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/LICENSE)
+* [CLA](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lOfXRw_0VCk7gYzjj4WLetGu7yelDVo5LWh0z7pGftE/viewform) (copyright will be transferred to Node/Linux Foundation when appropriate)
+
+
+### TODO
+
+* some of the linked documents are linked to the `1.5` branch since that is where development is currently taking place. Soon we will rename 1.5 to master so we will need to update this document with that change.