Open Stack

> So there are certain words that mean certain things, most don't, some do.
> 
> If words that mean certain things are used then some folks start using
> the word and have expectations around the word and the OpenStack
> Technical Committee and other OpenStack programs find themselves on the
> hook for behaviours that they didn't agree to.
> 
> Currently the word under discussion is "certified" and its derivatives:
> certification, certifying, and others with root word "certificate".
> 
> This came to my attention at the summit with a cinder summit session
> with the one of the cerficiate words in the title. I had thought my
> point had been made but it appears that there needs to be more
> discussion on this. So let's discuss.
> 
> Let's start with the definition of certify:
> cer·ti·fy
> verb (used with object), cer·ti·fied, cer·ti·fy·ing.
> 1. to attest as certain; give reliable information of; confirm: He
> certified the truth of his claim.
> 2. to testify to or vouch for in writing: The medical examiner will
> certify his findings to the court.
> 3. to guarantee; endorse reliably: to certify a document with an
> official seal.
> 4. to guarantee (a check) by writing on its face that the account
> against which it is drawn has sufficient funds to pay it.
> 5. to award a certificate to (a person) attesting to the completion of a
> course of study or the passing of a qualifying examination.
> Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/certify
> 
> The issue I have with the word certify is that it requires someone or a
> group of someones to attest to something. The thing attested to is only
> as credible as the someone or the group of someones doing the attesting.
> We have no process, nor do I feel we want to have a process for
> evaluating the reliability of the somones or groups of someones doing
> the attesting.
> 
> I think that having testing in place in line with other programs testing
> of patches (third party ci) in cinder should be sufficient to address
> the underlying concern, namely reliability of opensource hooks to
> proprietary code and/or hardware. I would like the use of the word
> "certificate" and all its roots to no longer be used in OpenStack
> programs with regard to testing. This won't happen until we get some
> discussion and agreement on this, which I would like to have.
> 
> Thank you for your participation,
> Anita.

Hi Anita,

Just a note on cross-posting to both the os-dev and os-tc lists.

Anyone not on the TC who will hits reply-all is likely to see their
post be rejected by the TC list moderator, but go through to the
more open dev list.

As a result, the thread diverges (as we saw with the recent election
stats/turnout thread).

Also, moderation rejects are an unpleasant user experience.

So if a post is intended to reach out for input from the wider dev
community, it's better to post *only* to the -dev list, or vice versa
if you want to interact with a narrower audience.

Thanks,
Eoghan