Open Stack

Hi,

I'd like to propose my candidacy for a seat on the OpenStack Technical
Committee.

I've been an ATC working full time on OpenStack for about a year and a half
now.  I was currently re-elected as PTL for the Cinder project which I
started back in the Folsom release.  I've also had the privilege of serving
on the TC as a result of my role as PTL.  My goal over the past year and a
half has been focused on building the Cinder project and getting it on it's
way to being a healthy, diverse and active community driven project.
 During that time I've taken an active interest in all things OpenStack,
and over the next year I'd like to continue growing that interest and
participating more in OpenStack and it's future as a whole.

As far as my background, I'm not associated with a specific OpenStack
Distribution or a Service Provider, but I am employed by a storage startup
(SolidFire Inc) specifically to contribute to OpenStack as a whole.  I
believe that I have a slightly different (and valuable) perspective on
OpenStack.  Coming from a device vendor, and a company that implements an
OpenStack private cloud in house, I have a strong interest in the
user-experience, whether that user be the dev-ops or sys-admin's deploying
OpenStack or the end-user actually consuming the resources made available.
 My emphasis is on compatibility, regardless of distribution, hardware
devices deployed, virtualization technologies used etc. I spend a lot of my
time talking and more importantly, listening to a variety of folks about
OpenStack, including vendors and most of all folks that are implementing
OpenStack.  I like to hear their feedback regarding what's working, what's
not and how we can do better.  I'd like the opportunity to take that
feedback and help drive towards an ever improving OpenStack.

I believe that the TC (as well as the role of PTL) actually serves an
important function in the community.  In both cases these roles in my
opinion should take into account acting as an advocate for the overall well
being of OpenStack and it's technical direction.  It has nothing to do with
"titles" or "special benefits", it's just a lot of extra hard work that
needs to be done, and not everybody is willing to do it, as well as
providing a point of contact for folks that are looking for technical
answers or explanation.

To me, this means much more than just voting on proposed new projects.  New
projects and growth are important to OpenStack however I don't think that
uncontrolled and disjointed growth in the form of new projects is a good
thing, in fact I think it's detrimental to OpenStack as a whole.  I
personally would like to see the TC have more involvement in terms of
recommending/investigating new projects before they're proposed or started
by others.  By the same token, I'd also like to see the TC take a more
active role in the projects we currently have and how they all tie
together.  I personally believe that having 10 or so individual projects
operating in their own silos is not the right direction.  My opinion here
does NOT equate to "more control", but instead should equate to being more
helpful.  With the continued growth of OpenStack I believe it's critical to
have some sort of vision and some resources that have a deep understanding
of the entire eco-system.

If you have any questions about my views, opinions or anything feel free to
drop me an email or hit me up on irc.

Thanks,
John

OpenStack code contributions:
https://review.openstack.org/#/q/status:merged+owner:%2522John+Griffith%2522,n,z
OpenStack code reviews:
https://review.openstack.org/#/q/reviewer:%2522John+Griffith%2522,n,z
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