[openstack-dev] [tc] [all] TC Report 18-24

Chris Dent cdent+os at anticdent.org
Tue Jun 12 22:19:39 UTC 2018


HTML: https://anticdent.org/tc-report-18-24.html

Here's TC Report 24. The last one was 4 weeks ago, itself following
a gap. In the intervening time new TC members (Graham Hayes,
Mohammed Naser, and Zane Bitter) and a new Chair (Doug Hellman) have
found their feet very well, we had a successful and moderately
dramatic OpenStack Summit in Vancouver, and there have been some
tweaks to how the TC reports its actions and engages with the
community.

There's a refreshed commitment to using email to give regular
updates to in-progress TC activity, including a somewhat more
detailed [official weekly
status](http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2018-June/131359.html),
as well as increased use of
[StoryBoard](https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/project/923) to
track goverance changes.

The [Technical Committee
Tracker](https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Technical_Committee_Tracker)
wiki page now includes expanded information on in-progress
[initiatives](https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Technical_Committee_Tracker#Other_Initiatives)
and there's a [health tracker
page](https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/OpenStack_health_tracker)
listing liaisons for working groups, SIGs, and project teams and
outstanding issues those groups are facing.

The thrice-weekly office hours are now [logged by
meetbot](http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/tc/2018/) to make
them easier to find. Here, for example, is
[today's](http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/tc/2018/tc.2018-06-12-09.02.log.html).

All of these things are designed to increase the visibility and
accessibility of the work being done by the TC and many other
people.

This is all _great_. Since becoming aware of the TC, enhancing
visibility and engagement has been one of my main goals so this is
something like success.

But it does present a bit of a problem for what to do with these
reports; there's a lot of other reporting going on.

My intention was always to provide a subjective insight into the
activity of the TC and by reflection the entire OpenStack community.
Over the course of the year of my first term the subjectivity ebbed
and flowed as the value of simply pointing at stuff was made clear.

Things are different, lots of people are pointing to lots of
things, so perhaps now is a good time [to
restate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShdmErv5jvs) [my
assumptions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UuCgIi3Dgk).

1. An important, if not the most important, job of the TC is to
    represent and improve the situation of the people who elected
    them, the so-called "technical" contributors.

2. Representing people means listening to, observing, and engaging
    with people. Improving things means _change_.

3. In either activity, with any group of any size, the possibilities
    for different understandings of meaning of events, actions and
    terms are legion. Resolving those differences to some kind of
    consensual reality, a shared understanding, is what the TC must
    do with much of its time. It is why we (or any group) chat so
    much.

4. It is exceptionally easy to believe that a group has reached
    a shared understanding and for that not to be the case. Earlier
    today four TC members were struggling to agree on what "cloud"
    means despite working to build it for several years.

5. The differences of understanding can be incredibly nuanced, but
    remarkably important.

6. Resolving those differences leads to better representation and
    better action so highlighting them, though often contentious, can
    lead to better results.

With those in mind, where I imagine these reports can continue to
provide some value is subjectively interpreting the meaning emerging
from the various TC-related discussions (in all media) to provide a
focal point (one of many, I hope) for me and anyone else to
speculate on where those meanings fall short, collide or woot,
nailed it. We can do a little recursive dance of feedback and
refinement.

I'm not fully back in the loop, and this is long enough already, so
look for something of substance next week. In the meantime, here are
a few links to discussions in progress where there's been some
emerging understanding:

* [recent office hours
   logs](http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/tc/2018/)
* [review of requirements for affiliation
   diversity](https://review.openstack.org/#/c/567944/)
* [review principles, including "less
   nitpicking"](https://review.openstack.org/#/c/570940/)
* [making Castellan a base
   service](https://review.openstack.org/#/c/572656/)
* [ongoing updates on the status of
   StarlingX](http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2018-June/131159.html)

_Acknowledgement: Thanks [to persia](http://p.anticdent.org/31Ik)
for helping to crystallize some of these thoughts._

-- 
Chris Dent                       ٩◔̯◔۶           https://anticdent.org/
freenode: cdent                                         tw: @anticdent


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