Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Registering Project Application and Approval Process

How do I register a new project?

Follow the procedures described on the Create Project page. It should only take about 10 minutes.

What kind of information will I be asked to provide?

We will ask for the project name (like anyone would expect), the purpose of the project, licenses, and things like that. This can't be so difficult, right?

How long does it take for the approval process?

According to our record, it takes about a few hours for 50% of the time, and we send a notice mail within 24 hours for 98% of the time. However, all authorization is handled manually, therefore there's no guaranteeing your case will follow suit.

What draws the line between giving approval to and dismissing the project?

We base our judgement solely on the purpose of the project and the licenses. Admin who is in charge of the authorization can only see the project name and the aforementioned information on his/her page. We (OSDN) will most definitely approve a project who is open source and has clear purpose. You do not have to elaborate on the project purpose at length. If there should a case where we would have to disapprove, the reason isn't because we are not satisfied with the purpose. It is usually based on very trivial misunderstanding. Also, please fill out the form using either Japanese or English (unfortunately, none of the current members on our staff can read nor write in other languages). Therefore, if you use other languages, your project will be disapproved. We also listed some of the other cases that will be denied.

• When the description is judged to have been copied and pasted from other existing project.

There is no purpose. I just want my project to be approved.

Even for a very small software, there should be a purpose for developing it. We will not discriminate projects based on the purposes, so just relax. All we want is the commitment to what will be created on your project.

My project is not great enough to be registered on OSDN.

Our goal is to provide necessary resources for open source developers to work on their development, and OSDN is the exact environment for that. We do not and will not discriminate projects based on the size, purpose, and property. For anyone that feels OSDN to be useful, he/she shouldn't hold back on using OSDN for any reason. Sometimes we encounter people who hesitate to create multiple projects, but once you start using OSDN, you will realize this is a very useful environment for managing multiple projects. Don't hold back.

I can't find my project's license in the list.

Even you can't find the license in the list, as long as your license follows the Open Source Definition, we will acknowledge it to be open source. If the project is open source, and the license is shown to us, nothing should block your way for getting approval.

I have no idea what each license means.

Just take your time to read each license.

My project is not open source.

In Japan, there are times we encounter licenses that don't approve the ultimate freedom of using and redistributing in certain areas, but in such cases, we respond to them accordingly to their situations. And we try our best to process the approval as quickly as possible. Most of the time, this happens when the developer lacks in the knowledge of license, or the license was attached without given enough thought. We think that if that project is truly beneficial, by being hosted on OSDN, the project will be pressured into taking steps toward transforming itself to being ultimately open source. If not beneficial, it will simply disappear.

Also, there's a chance we approve a project that is not open source now but has the plan of becoming open source with a road map to prove. By the way, it won't be useful at all to use OSDN as long as the source code is not released.

There won't be any development, but can you host my project?

OSDN provides resources not only for open source software development. So, projects (including personal projects) that are involved in open source will be given approval. User group activity and document maintenance may be good examples that give you an idea. If we judge that the activity has good effect on open source, then it is very likely that we are going to approve. Application for a project that fits this case should provide explicit explanation on what will be done on the project with what purpose.

I want to make it public domain.

OSDN takes a stance that there are no public domains in Japan. By that we mean, there are no public domains based on the definition that the copy right can not be relinquished due to the fact that in Japan, the rights of an author can not be relinquished. We understand that there are objections to this view, and we don't intend to argue over the definition. What we have in mind is to simply avoid unnecessary confusion. There are people who come upon troubles for not having the licenses defined properly. Most of the cases in which people want to make it public domain show that those people happen to have not enough knowledge regarding licenses, or just simply want to able to use without any limit. In such cases, this could be solved by licenses in BSD style or simple licenses like nkf. Nkf license is very short and simple.

Can I host commercial software on OSDN?

If it is open source, or it has the plan to be open source in the future, the answer is yes, you can host the commercial software. Also, even if the software is not open source, but hosting it will give good effect on the open source software that has any kind of connection to it, you will be able to host it on OSDN. In such cases, you will have to elaborate on the purposes on the application form.

I was told there's a license conflict.

There are times even when the license you chose don't have any problem, but when verified with the purpose, it just doesn't hold. In situations like this, this license is not an option.

Could once denied application have a second chance for approval?

Yes. When the application is denied, there will be a notice mail to explain why the application was denied. If fix the problem you were notified with, and let us know about it via mail, then we will take a look at it, and when we find that there's no more problem, your project will be approved immediately.