Open Stack

Chris Dent wrote:
> In the discussion on a draft technical vision for OpenStack at
> 
>      https://review.openstack.org/#/c/592205/
> 
> there is a question about whether the TC is "responsible for the
> mission and scope of OpenStack".
> 
> As the discussion there indicates, there is plenty of nuance, but
> underlying it is a pretty fundamental question that seems important
> to answer as we're going into yet another TC election period.
> 
> I've always assumed it was the case: the TC is an elected
> representative body of the so-called active technical contributors
> to OpenStack. So while the TC is not responsible for creating the
> mission from whole cloth, they are responsible for representing the
> goals of the people who elected them and thus for refining,
> documenting and caring for the mission and scope while working with
> all the other people invested in the community.
> 
> Does anyone disagree? If so, who is responsible if not the TC?

A few indications from the bylaws:

The TC manages "technical matters relating to the OpenStack Project".
The "OpenStack project" is defined as "the released projects to enable 
cloud computing and the associated library projects, gating projects, 
and supporting projects".

The TC cooperates with the board to apply the OpenStack trademark : it 
approves components for trademark programs inclusion, and the board 
decides whether to apply it to those or not. In that sense, the TC is in 
charge of the "scope" of "OpenStack", since it decides which components 
may be added to things that bear the "OpenStack" name. But ultimately 
the board is in charge of the trademark, and not apply it even to things 
we deem in scope.

As far as the mission goes, the bylaws just indicate that the OpenStack 
project is an "open source cloud computing project". Beyond that, we 
have an official OpenStack mission statement. In the past, we ruled that 
this statement was co-owned by the Board and the TC, and that changes to 
it would need to pass *both* bodies.

So I think the answer is... The Board and the TC co-own the mission and 
the scope of OpenStack. The TC is in charge of the technical side, 
especially when it comes to implementation. The Board is in charge of 
the trademark side (it ultimately owns what can be called "OpenStack").

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)