Value: the importance, worth, usefulness or impact of something. Talking about an organization's value is second nature in the business world. We talk about a startup like Uber having a $17 billion valuation, or a company like VMware having a $43 billion dollar market capitalization. But looking at traditional business metrics doesn't work for the Apache Software Foundation or most other non-profit organizations. We don't have customers or profit, we don't have showcase offices, or buildings. The ASF doesn't really have that much money; and it's completely dependent on the kindness and generosity of sponsors for what money it does bring in. Does that mean that the ASF isn't valuable, or doesn't have impact? How do we even measure our worth as an organization? What is our place in the technology world? Why bother asking the question?
