I believe this is the voice we really need in the TC. THANK YOU. - Qiming
On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 11:47:12PM +0000, Jeremy Stanley wrote: > I guess I'll send a copy of mine to the ML too, since all the cool > kids seem to be doing it... > > Most of you probably know me as "that short dude in the Hawaiian > shirt and long hair." I'll answer to "Jeremy," "fungi" or even just > "hey you." I'm starting my third cycle as PTL of the Infrastructure > team, and have been a core reviewer and root sysadmin for > OpenStack's community-maintained project infrastructure for the past > four years. I've also been doing vulnerability management in > OpenStack for almost as long, chaired conference tracks, and given > talks to other communities on a variety of OpenStack-related topics. > I help with elections, attend and participate in TC meetings and > review proposed changes to governance. I have consistent, strong > views in favor of free software and open/transparent community > process. > > https://wiki.openstack.org/user:fungi > > I see OpenStack not as software, but as a community of people who > come together to build something for the common good. We've been > fortunate enough to experience a bubble of corporate interest which > has provided amazing initial momentum in the form of able software > developers and generous funding, but that can't last forever. As > time goes on, we will need to rely increasingly on effort from > people who contribute to OpenStack because it interests them, rather > than because some company is paying them to do so. The way I see it, > we should be preparing now for the future of our project: > independent, volunteer contributors drawn from the global free > software community. However, we're not succeeding in attracting them > the way some other projects do, which brings me to a major > concern... > > OpenStack has a public relations problem we need to solve, and soon. > I know I'm not the only one who struggles to convince contributors > in other communities that we're really like them, writing free > software under transparent processes open to any who wish to help. > This skepticism comes from many sources, some overt (like our > massive trade conferences and marketing budget) while others > seemingly inconsequential (such as our constant influx of new > community members who are unfamiliar with free software concepts and > lack traditional netiquette). Overcoming this not-really-free > perception is something we absolutely must do to be able to attract > the unaffiliated volunteers who will continue to maintain OpenStack > through the eventual loss of our current benefactors and well into > stabilization. > > Prior to OpenStack, I worked for longer than I care to remember as > an "operator" at Internet service, hosting and telecommunications > providers doing Unix systems administration, network engineering, > virtualization and information security. When I first started my > career, you couldn't be a capable systems administrator without a > firm grasp of programming fundamentals and couldn't be a good > programmer without understanding the basics of systems > administration. I'm relieved that, after many years of companies > trying to tell us otherwise, our industry as a whole is finally > coming back around to the same realization. Similarly, I don't > believe we as a community benefit by socializing a separation of > "operators" from "developers" and feel the role distinction many > attempt to strike between the two is at best vague, while at its > worst completely alienating a potential source of current and future > contributions. > > What causes software to succeed in the long run is not hype, > limitless funding or even technical superiority, it's the size and > connectedness of its community of volunteers and users who invest > themselves and their personal time. The work we're doing now is > great, don't get me wrong, but for it to survive into the next > decade and beyond we need to focus more on building a close-knit > community of interested contributors even if it's not in the best > interests of industry pundits or vendor product roadmaps. > > OpenStack is people. If we lose sight of that, it's over. > -- > Jeremy Stanley __________________________________________________________________________ OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions) Unsubscribe: openstack-dev-requ...@lists.openstack.org?subject:unsubscribe http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev
