Open Stack

Good evening to you all.

As others have so kindly stepped up - I would also like to self-nominate
myself for as candidate for the User committee.

I have been involved in the OpenStack community since the Icehouse release.

>From day 1,  I felt that the user community was not completely accepted
as a part of the OpenStack community and that there was a clear and
broad disconnect between the two parts of OpenStack.

Instead of going all the way back - and stepping through time to explain
who I am and what I have done - I have chosen a few significant points
along the way - of where I think I made an impact - sometimes small -
but also sometimes a lot bigger.

- The OpenStack Architecture Design Guide [1]. This was my first
Opensource project and it was an honor to participate and help the
community to produce such a valuable resource. 

- Running for the TC for the first time [2]. I was not elected
- Running for the TC for the second time [3]. Again I was not elected.
(There has never been a member of the User community elected to a TC
seat - AFAIK)

In my original candidacy proposal - I mentioned the inclusion of others.

Which is why I so proud of the achievement of the definition of the AUC
from the last cycle and the workgroup [3] that Shamail Tahir and I
co-chaired
(Needless to say that a **huge** amount of the credit goes also to all
the other members of the WG that were involved!!) in making this happen.

Over the years I think I have tried to make difference (perhaps not
always in the right way) - maybe the developer community was not ready
for such a drastic change - and I still think that they are not.

Now is a time for change.

I think that the User Committee and these upcoming election (which are
the first ever) are a critical time for all of us that are part of the
OpenStack community - who contribute in numerous ways - **but do not
contribute code**.

The User Committee is now becoming what it should have been from the
start, an equal participant in the 3 pillars of OpenStack.

I would like to be a part, actually I would be honored to be a part, of
ensuring that this comes to fruition and would like to request your vote
for the User Committee.

Now down to the nitty gritty. If elected I would like to focus on the
following (but not only):

1. Establishing the User committee as significant part of OpenStack -
and continue the amazing collaboration that has been forged over the
past two years. The tangible feedback to the OpenStack community
provided by the Working Groups have defined clear requirements coming
from the trenches and need to be addressed throughout the community as a
whole.

2. Expand the AUC constituency - both by adding additional criteria and
by encouraging more participation in the community according to the
initial defined criteria.

3. Establish a clear and fruitful working relationship with Technical
committee - enabling the whole of OpenStack to continue to evolve,
produce features and functionality that is not only cutting edge but
also fundamental and crucial to anyone and everyone using OpenStack today.

Last but not least - I would like to point you to a blog post I wrote
almost a year ago [5].

My views have not changed. OpenStack is evolving and needs participation
not only from the developer community (which by the way is facing more
than enough of its own challenges) but also from us who use, and operate
OpenStack.

For me - we are already in a better place - and things will only get
better - regardless of who leads the User committee.

Thank you for your consideration - and I would like to wish the best of
luck to all the other candidates.

-- 
Best Regards,
Maish Saidel-Keesing

[1]
http://technodrone.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-openstack-architecture-design-guide.html

[2]
http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2015-April/062372.html

[3]
http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2015-September/075773.html

[4] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/AUCRecognition

[5]
http://technodrone.blogspot.com/2016/03/we-are-all-openstack-are-we-really.html