Open Stack

Chris Dent wrote:
>
> There's a governance proposal in progress at
> https://review.openstack.org/#/c/357260/ that I think is worth a
> visit by anyone interested in the definition and evolution of
> OpenStack's identity and the processes and guidelines used in OpenStack.
>
> I'm assuming that not everyone regularly cruises the governance
> project so this thing, which is pretty important, has probably not
> been seen yet by many community members. It is full of many
> assertions, some probably controversial, about what OpenStack is and
> what we get up to.
>
> At the moment a lot of the reviews are obsessing over the details and
> interpretations of various phrases and paragraphs. This is in
> preparation for a later presentation to the community that ought to
> engender a long email thread where we will discuss it and try to ratify.
> I fear that discussion will also obsess over the details.
>
> The ordering here is backwards from a process that could be happening if
> what we want is effective engagement and a useful outcome (one where we
> agree). We should first have a conversation about the general principles
> that are desired, then capture those into a document and only then
> obsess over the details. The current process will inevitably privilege
> the existing text and thus the bias of the authors[1].
>
> I presume that the process that is happening was chosen to avoid too
> much bikeshedding. The issue with that is that the work we need to
> do is stepping back a bit and concerning ourselves not with the color of
> the shed, but with whether it is for bikes, or even a shed. Last we
> talked about it, it was a tent, but there's no consensus that that is
> going well.
>
> [1] I don't wish to indicate that there's anything wrong (or right!)
> about the current text, simply that it is a presentation of a few
> authors, including some written in the past, not a summary of an open
> discussion in the present day.

Thanks for starting this chris, and I do also find it a little odd, but 
on a slightly different aspect...

This one along with https://review.openstack.org/#/c/365590/ (and others 
that I don't know about?) make me wonder what is going on with/in 
certain TC folks heads (not in a bad way, but the thought processes that 
are spurring these documents to be generated). Why the sudden desire to 
write down principles and intents and 'community' beliefs all of a 
sudden when it has been about 5 (or is it 6 now) years since the 
community started.

Is there something I'm missing that all of a sudden as the going gets 
tough for various companies using openstack (businesses getting merged 
into other businesses, some going back into private ownership...) and 
the big tent IMHO diluted what is openstack (I believe to dangerous 
levels) that all of a sudden it felt like a useful thing to spend time 
on beliefs or principles vs say like ummm, technical things (the T in 
TC) :-/

Just strikes at least myself, as sort of weird; and not exactly a thing 
I would realistically be worried about if I was in a technical committee 
position at the current time.

-Josh