Open Stack

Hello all,

It's fantastic to see all of the PTG planning that has been going on in 
recent threads. It's clear there's a bit of confusion too, and as 
mriedem notes - us "mere mortals" are probably going to take some time 
to figure it out. Nothing's final of course, and we're going to take a 
while and iterate to success.

With that in mind, I'm going to don the flame-proof suit and try to list 
a few very short, simple things to try and help, particularly to 
understand from the ops-y side of things. Throwing away all the context 
and nuance here that could stave off attacks, so please be nice :)


* The OpenStack Summit is the start of a release cycle *

If you do nothing else, please check out the diagram on the PTG site - 
it's good. We're finally acknowledging that a release cycle starts with 
planning, rather than when the code branch opens :) It means that we'll 
be finalizing development on one release while planning another, though 
we've actually been doing that already. The difference is that with this 
change, we'll have the summit in the right place to get decent feedback 
and ideas from users: at the very start of the cycle.



* The OpenStack Summit is the place where the entire community gets 
together *

Just because there's the PTG, doesn't mean the Summit becomes some 
marketing thing. If you want to have pre-spec brainstorming or feedback 
discussions with users: Summit. If you need to be involved in the 
strategic direction of OpenStack: Summit. If you just want to hang out 
with your project team and talk code only: you're going to love the PTG :)


* Don't expect Ops at the PTG *

The PTG has been designed for you to have a space to get stuff done.
Unless a user is so deep into code that you basically look at them as 
"one of the team", they're not going to be there. If you'd like feedback 
and ideas from users, plan that to happen at the start of the cycle - 
i.e. Summit :)



Thank you for your exceptional patience as we work all this out! Ready 
for the flame-tan now :)



Regards,


Tom