Mailing List Archive

Foundation Mission Update
Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago we published a draft mission statement for discussion and feedback. We had good responses on the foundation mailing list, during the webinars and in direct discussions with a number of people, including from many of the companies that have demonstrated strong support for OpenStack and others that are getting serious about committing. The number of meeting requests has been a bit overwhelming, but we are making as much time as possible to hear from everyone. This process has taken us past the original timeline, but I think it's worth it to build up as much support for OpenStack as possible.

In general, there was a lot of consensus on the basic mission of the foundation, although there does seem to be a desire to revise the overall OpenStack mission. There was also some input that influences the structure more than the mission, and we'll be incorporating that into the next document that presents a high-level draft structure. Here's a summary of the major themes we saw on the mission:

* The foundation should work to protect the values of the OpenStack community, such as technical meritocracy
* Even though this is a very business-friendly project and community, make clear that we value the individuals who are contributing
* Some specific changes like mentioning testing resources and changing "compatibility" to "interoperability"

These changes were all incorporated and are included in the wiki: http://wiki.openstack.org/Governance/Foundation/Mission and you'll note that we removed the word "Draft", believing we are getting really close on this one and want to turn our attention to the big job of defining the structure. We can certainly continue to tweak the Mission, though.

One common theme was the desire to go back and adjust the original OpenStack Mission from July 2010. We hadn't considered that a part of the exercise of defining the "Foundation Mission", but clearly it's on people's minds so I suggest we tackle that too as a separate work stream (Note that I removed it from the "Foundation Mission" page to keep it separate). While many said that we should change it, there was not as much consensus about what the changes should be. Some people think it should explicitly be limited to infrastructure services, while others think it should be a broader vision that can be valid and stand the test of time. One approach may be to create a broad-based visionary mission that describes the general purpose of OpenStack and also include a short charter that sets out the specific focus of the community currently which can be reviewed and changed periodically.

Next up, we'll post a draft document that summarizes a proposed structure and look to get feedback on that. We'll also be holding a meetup Wednesday 2/15 at 4:30 near Cloud Connect. We'll publish the full details, including location, shortly on the meetup. We will update the timeline on the wiki this week as well.

Mark
@sparkycollier
cell: 512-791-0356
Foundation Mission Update [ In reply to ]
Hi Mark,

This is awesome! This is among the best mission statements I've seen.


If I could suggest a couple general areas for consideration:

* Is there a way to define what users mean in the context of the mission?

* The scope is focused on developers and users -- not that I disagree
that "code talks" -- the mission could better speak to the myriad ways
that people participate in highly valued ways including testing,
documenting, translating, educating, facilitating, financing,
training, supporting, evangelizing, designing, and art making. We can
differentiate OpenStack by better recognizing and celebrating all
participants. Related to this, I'd suggest removing "technical" from
"Respecting the meritocracy which guides technical decision making"


In terms of specific copy, the only phrase that might be a little
awkward is "Educate user community on project roadmap and ensure it's
consistent with real user needs". "Educate <group>" can come across as
inherently negative, is focused on a specific product artifact as
opposed to OpenStack, and that phrase is not as potent as "Users to
have access to great software and provide feedback and input on the
direction". Would it make sense to make that the bullet point in the
mission. Then maybe an updated version of the "Education user..." can
be moved to the Empowering section.


Thank you,
Lloyd

--
@lloyddewolf
http://www.pistoncloud.com/
Foundation Mission Update [ In reply to ]
mark at openstack.org wrote:
> These changes were all incorporated and are included in the wiki: http://wiki.openstack.org/Governance/Foundation/Mission and you'll note that we removed the word "Draft", believing we are getting really close on this one and want to turn our attention to the big job of defining the structure. We can certainly continue to tweak the Mission, though.

I think it covers the key areas, and we can safely move to discussing
the structure best suited to achieve those goals.

Just noticed a typo:
"Responsibilties" -> "Responsibilities"

> One common theme was the desire to go back and adjust the original OpenStack Mission from July 2010. We hadn't considered that a part of the exercise of defining the "Foundation Mission", but clearly it's on people's minds so I suggest we tackle that too as a separate work stream (Note that I removed it from the "Foundation Mission" page to keep it separate). While many said that we should change it, there was not as much consensus about what the changes should be. Some people think it should explicitly be limited to infrastructure services, while others think it should be a broader vision that can be valid and stand the test of time. One approach may be to create a broad-based visionary mission that describes the general purpose of OpenStack and also include a short charter that sets out the specific focus of the community currently which can be reviewed and changed periodically.

I agree that the re-definition of the "OpenStack Mission" (which could
also be named "OpenStack Core software scope") might have trouble to
reach wide consensus, and therefore it might be preferable to wait for
the Foundation structure to be set up (including the new technical
board) so that we have a formal way to select between competing proposed
objectives.

Regards,

--
Thierry Carrez (ttx)
Release Manager, OpenStack
Foundation Mission Update [ In reply to ]
On Feb 8, 2012, at 5:15 AM, Thierry Carrez wrote:
> Just noticed a typo:
> "Responsibilties" -> "Responsibilities"

Fixed
Foundation Mission Update [ In reply to ]
On Wednesday, February 8, 2012 6:15am, "Thierry Carrez" <thierry at openstack.org> said:

> mark at openstack.org wrote:
>> These changes were all incorporated and are included in the wiki:
>> http://wiki.openstack.org/Governance/Foundation/Mission and you'll note that we
>> removed the word "Draft", believing we are getting really close on this one and
>> want to turn our attention to the big job of defining the structure. We can
>> certainly continue to tweak the Mission, though.
>
> I think it covers the key areas, and we can safely move to discussing
> the structure best suited to achieve those goals.
>
> Just noticed a typo:
> "Responsibilties" -> "Responsibilities"
>
>> One common theme was the desire to go back and adjust the original OpenStack
>> Mission from July 2010. We hadn't considered that a part of the exercise of
>> defining the "Foundation Mission", but clearly it's on people's minds so I
>> suggest we tackle that too as a separate work stream (Note that I removed it from
>> the "Foundation Mission" page to keep it separate). While many said that we
>> should change it, there was not as much consensus about what the changes should
>> be. Some people think it should explicitly be limited to infrastructure services,
>> while others think it should be a broader vision that can be valid and stand the
>> test of time. One approach may be to create a broad-based visionary mission that
>> describes the general purpose of OpenStack and also include a short charter that
>> sets out the specific focus of the community currently which can be reviewed and
>> changed periodically.


>
> I agree that the re-definition of the "OpenStack Mission" (which could
> also be named "OpenStack Core software scope") might have trouble to
> reach wide consensus, and therefore it might be preferable to wait for
> the Foundation structure to be set up (including the new technical
> board) so that we have a formal way to select between competing proposed
> objectives.
>
> Regards,

I would also prefer to wait on tackling a change to the OpenStack Mission, unless there is a really strong interest to work on it now, given the important work of defining the structure we need to focus on at the moment.



>
> --
> Thierry Carrez (ttx)
> Release Manager, OpenStack
> _______________________________________________
> Foundation mailing list
> Foundation at lists.openstack.org
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foundation
>
Foundation Mission Update [ In reply to ]
On 2/5/12 12:20 PM, "Lloyd Dewolf" <lloydostack at gmail.com> wrote:

>Hi Mark,
>
>This is awesome! This is among the best mission statements I've seen.
>
>
>If I could suggest a couple general areas for consideration:
>
>* Is there a way to define what users mean in the context of the mission?

That is a tough one. I'm not sure.

>
>* The scope is focused on developers and users -- not that I disagree
>that "code talks" -- the mission could better speak to the myriad ways
>that people participate in highly valued ways including testing,
>documenting, translating, educating, facilitating, financing,
>training, supporting, evangelizing, designing, and art making. We can
>differentiate OpenStack by better recognizing and celebrating all
>participants.

I agree it's always good to emphasize the many ways in which contributors
are valued, so I added your list to help illustrate the point under the
"values" section.

>Related to this, I'd suggest removing "technical" from
>"Respecting the meritocracy which guides technical decision making"

Done.


>
>
>In terms of specific copy, the only phrase that might be a little
>awkward is "Educate user community on project roadmap and ensure it's
>consistent with real user needs". "Educate <group>" can come across as
>inherently negative, is focused on a specific product artifact as
>opposed to OpenStack, and that phrase is not as potent as "Users to
>have access to great software and provide feedback and input on the
>direction". Would it make sense to make that the bullet point in the
>mission. Then maybe an updated version of the "Education user..." can
>be moved to the Empowering section.


Good suggestion. I made some edits long those lines. Let me know what
you think.


>
>
>Thank you,
>Lloyd
>
>--
>@lloyddewolf
>http://www.pistoncloud.com/
Foundation Mission Update [ In reply to ]
On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 9:16 AM, Mark Collier <mark at openstack.org> wrote:
>
> Good suggestion. ?I made some edits long those lines. ?Let me know what
> you think.

All the tighter. Love it!

--
@lloyddewolf
http://www.pistoncloud.com/