FW: 2020 OSF Events & coronavirus

Mark Collier mark at openstack.org
Wed Mar 18 20:40:22 UTC 2020


I wanted to make sure everyone saw this update I just posted to the OSF foundation mailing list: http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/foundation/2020-March/002854.html

The main thing we need now are volunteers to help us plan a virtual PTG (see link in thread above), and it sounds like many people on this thread are already thinking about ways to help :)

I also agree with Julia and others who said it's important to clearly define the purpose of each gathering, as we think through the best way to organize them virtually.

By working together we can make the first ever virtual PTG event a success.

Mark


On Wednesday, March 18, 2020 7:16am, "Sean Mooney" <smooney at redhat.com> said:

> On Tue, 2020-03-17 at 08:18 -0700, Julia Kreger wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I think we need to consider teasing out the reasoning behind events a
>> little more. When we look at summits, they are largely events to
>> broadcast outward our work and provide vendors an avenue to express
>> their new features and functionality, and generate sales leads.
>>
>> Where as the events likely need to be teased apart a little more. What
>> we've traditionally referred to as a summit is largely rooted in
>> broadcasting outward what we as a community are working on and the
>> direction where we are going, while providing a time and space for
>> vendors to to show off their solutions and offerings. To me, this
>> largely seems like a coordinated outreach and marketing Blitz. And
>> this is not one of JUST vendors, but of project teams as well for they
>> need to convey what they have been working on and their focus as a
>> community.
>>
>> If we look the PTG and Forum sorts of events that we have had, they
>> provide more an avenue for collaboration and discussion. That could be
>> as simple as a rough list of topics, and a few predefined "hallways"
>> where random discussion can occur. In a sense, the hallway becomes the
>> un-conference if we empower and enable it.
> of the two types of events i think the second e.g. PTG/Forum is the one that
> we as a comunity would be most impacted by if it was not to go ahead either
> physically or virtually.
> 
> the summit/marketplace may impact sales to a  degree but for those of us
> that work at a company/vendor that makes money form openstack we have large sales
> and marketing teams anyway so the sales lead perspective while valid is not
> really
> that critical to the same degree as losing the opportunity to collaborate and
> cross
> pollinate ideas between different aspect of the comunity.
> 
> it is very true that a lot of conversation happen in the hallway but those
> conversatoin
> can happen on irc or video calls too but the barrier to entry is obviously higher
> to start them.
> 
>>
>> Anyway, before we jump into ideas and implementation scenarios, we
>> need to have a clear motivation behind each "event" that the community
>> and it's partners can rally behind, and I suspect that will only come
>> from the OSF events team as well as track chairs/organizers.
>>
>> -Julia
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 3:56 AM Sagi Shnaidman <sshnaidm at redhat.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi, all
>> > I think the Openstack community has more virtual collaboration experience than
>> any other community and maybe it's a
>> > good chance for us to establish an efficient way to make a virtual summit. I'm
>> not alone thinking virtual
>> > summits/webinars/whatever are much less efficient than in-person meetings and
>> hanging out together. But in current
>> > circumstances, it doesn't seem like an option, so why not try brainstorm about
>> how we still can do a virtual summit
>> > and get most of it?
>> >
>> > Main issues with virtual meetings that I can see are:
>> >
>> > - topics discussions in a big group of people, while virtual meetings often
>> less convenient and sometimes are
>> > tough[1]
>> > - the important things happen also *between* sessions, not during them
>> > - what would replace booths (and swags of course)?
>> > - PTG project rooms which are used both for internal discussions and
>> collaboration between various projects
>> > - informal mingling
>> >
>> > I'm not sure all of these and other issues can be easily replaced virtually,
>> but who knows, maybe we can still make
>> > it work. Like maybe constant open video sessions which mimic rooms and booths,
>> some of the discussions moved to
>> > dedicated IRC channels.
>> > On the flip side, the offline summit had restrictions as well, so we can do
>> things in a virtual summit we couldn't
>> > (or couldn't do so much) in offline ones. Maybe more presenters will have a
>> chance to make sessions since we are not
>> > so limited in time online and all sessions can be recorded as well. And we
>> don't need a projector in every PTG room
>> > now :)
>> > I'd propose creating a page where people can put their ideas on how to make
>> good things we have in the offline
>> > summit to be virtual or add something new, which couldn't be done in the
>> offline summit. Since we created recently
>> > "Ideas for OpenStack" page[2], maybe it's a good candidate to hold these ideas
>> in.
>> > Just reminding that Openstack is not the only project that cancels offline
>> meetings and efficient virtual
>> > collaboration is a very hot topic right now all over the world. I think the
>> Openstack community has all the
>> > resources to contribute from its experience to many other projects and
>> companies and be leading in this area.
>> > WDYT?
>> >
>> > [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYu_bGbZiiQ
>> > [2] https://governance.openstack.org/ideas/index.html
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 4:13 PM <Arkady.Kanevsky at dell.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > Agree that going virtual makes most sense given current status
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > From: Emilien Macchi <emilien at redhat.com>
>> > > Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 5:46 PM
>> > > To: Mark Collier
>> > > Cc: openstack-discuss; Jonathan Bryce
>> > > Subject: Re: FW: 2020 OSF Events & coronavirus
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
>> > >
>> > > Hi Mark,
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Thanks for the transparency, as usual. I have a few thoughts, please read
>> inline.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 4:04 PM Mark Collier <mark at openstack.org> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > upcoming event in Vancouver is no exception. The OpenDev tracks
>> > > > each morning will be programmed by volunteers from the community, and the
>> project
>> > > > teams will be organizing their own conversations as well each afternoon
>> M-W, and
>> > > > all day Thursday.
>> > > >
>> > > > But the larger question is here: should the show go on?
>> > > >
>> > > > The short answer is that as of now, the Vancouver and Berlin events are
>> still
>> > > > scheduled to happen in June (8-11) and October (19-23), respectively.
>> > > >
>> > > > However, we are willing to cancel or approach the events in a different way
>> (i.e.
>> > > > virtual) if the facts indicate that is the best path, and we know the facts
>> are
>> > > > changing rapidly. One of the most critical inputs we need is to hear from
>> each of
>> > > > you. We know that many of you rely on the twice-annual events to get
>> together and
>> > > > make rapid progress on the software, which is one reason we are not making
>> any
>> > > > decisions in haste. We also know that many of you may be unable or
>> unwilling to
>> > > > travel in June, and that is critical information to hear as we get closer
>> to the
>> > > > event so that we can make the most informed decision.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > I believe that we, as a community should show the example and our strengths
>> by cancelling the Vancouver event and
>> > > organize a virtual event like some other big events are doing.
>> > >
>> > > There is an opportunity for the OSF to show leadership in Software
>> communities and acknowledge the risk of spread
>> > > during that meeting; not only for the people attending it but for also those
>> in contact with these people later.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > I'm not a doctor nor I know much about the virus; but I'm not interested to
>> travel and take the risk to 1) catch
>> > > the virus and 2) spread it at home and in my country; and as a community
>> member, I feel like our responsibility is
>> > > also to maintain ourselves healthy.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > In my opinion, the sooner we cancel, the better we can focus on organizing
>> the virtual meetings, and also we can
>> > > influence more communities to take that kind of decisions.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Thanks Mark for starting that discussion, it's a perfect sign of how healthy
>> is our community; and hopefully it
>> > > will continue to be.
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > >
>> > > Emilien Macchi
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Best regards
>> > Sagi Shnaidman
>>
>>
> 
> 





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