Open Stack

Clint Byrum wrote:
> I think there's some perspective warping going on, and it's very
> concerning to me.
> 
> Productivity inside the project is great, and we should definitely box
> out more than just one day of the PTG for just those high bandwidth
> internal project face to face discussions.
> 
> However, I think there's a danger of siloing even further if all three
> days are just project team open ended face time. Those 40 minute sessions
> may not seem productive to the project team, but they are massively
> helpful for newcomers, for those who are shifting focus, and for those
> who want to influence design at the early stages. They're also incredibly
> useful for being able to tell the general developer community what the
> project is doing, which I'm surprised more people don't want.
> [...]

The PTG event is (currently) optimized for team productivity (much like
the midcycles, and the "work sessions" or the "contributors meetups" at
the past Design Summits). There will be space for inter-project and
cross-project/horizontal stuff, but mostly for getting work done
cross-project and inter-project, rather than discuss high-level stuff.

In contrast, the OpenStack Summit is when we'll reach out beyond
existing team members for feedback, recruitment or very early design
requirements. It's where the operators and newcomers you need to have
that discussion with will be. So the "forum" in Boston will be where we
can have those open, beyond-the-team discussions: the plan is to keep
the scheduled 40-min format and fishbowl setup for that. We should also
have specific space reserved for recruitment sessions -- if you want to
welcome new contributors and give them an overview of how the team
works, the current focus, and an introduction to hacking on your
project, the goal is to have space for that at the Summit as well.

For newcomers, or for "those who want to influence design at the early
stages", the Forum at the OpenStack Summit should be the best place. At
the PTG it should really be too late to "influence design at the early
stages". It's more where you decide what actually will get worked on in
the cycle, priorities, and get quick progress on critical work, with the
people who are already signed up to do some work.

> Whatever we do, please consider dismantling the silos, rather than
> reinforcing them.

We do dismantle the silos. (1) the upstream silos between vertical and
horizontal teams, by setting up different timeframes in the PTG week for
both, allowing and encouraging people to participate in both. (2) the
silos between upstream and downstream, by making sure that upstream devs
are no longer bunkered in team rooms during the summit week, and more
available to engage with and listen to the rest of the community. The
whole idea behind splitting the design summit into two events is to
remove the conflicts between getting things done and listening to
others, by setting clear separated times for each.

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)