Open Stack

On 08/01/2012 04:24 PM, Gil Yehuda wrote:
> Monty, I don't think the question is whether an individual who is
> committed to the community should stand in accusation simply because
> they happen to be employed.  Surely you, Soren, and many others will
> do more than your fair share of balancing your loyalty to the
> corporation who pays you, and your community who respects you.  This
> equation is part of every open source community member's psyche who
> is employed by a company. (For more ramblings on this topic on this
> read: http://www.gilyehuda.com/2012/01/23/two-opposites-of-trust/)
> 
> I see a larger issue, not of the individual committed to the project,
> but of the maintaining this balance at scale.  When a company is
> perceived as over-representing their interests, they invite an
> erosion of community trust.  This does not cast doubt on any one
> individual, especially those who have clearly been great community
> members. But it does invite speculation about the ability for any
> individual who is in a smaller company to have a voice..  I've seen
> this in other Open Source activities and we should take steps to
> prevent this well-known pattern from negatively impacting this one.

Yes, I agree. However, I do think that there is already a safety valve
in there in the board membership cap. Having seen Postgres go to crap
when all of their core members were employed by EnterpriseDB, I think we
can safely say that we have learned something about ensuring
representation is at least spread across different backgrounds. HP and
Rackspace might have hundreds of foundation members, but they each still
have a board member cap. Additionally, I might point out, HP and
Rackspace are the ones running public OpenStack-based clouds at the
moment ... so they might actually _HAVE_ that many people actually
working on OpenStack related things. I also don't want to unfairly pick
on them because they are the ones who have decided to jump all-in on
this bet.

> Let me put it this way: Let's not repeat other people's mistakes.
> Let's make new ones of our own.

Ah, I think we do that every day... :)

> gil yehuda director of open source and standards, Yahoo! Inc. 
> gyehuda at yahoo-inc.com | (408) 336-4857
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Monty Taylor
> [mailto:mordred at inaugust.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2012 2:04
> PM To: Soren Hansen Cc: foundation at lists.openstack.org Subject: Re:
> [OpenStack Foundation] Nomination Process Updates
> 
> On 08/01/2012 03:48 PM, Soren Hansen wrote:
>> 2012/8/1 Benjamin Black <b at b3k.us>:
>>> Even further, why are employees of platinum and gold member
>>> companies allows to run at all given that the point of the
>>> individual seats is to expand representation to include those
>>> unable to pay to play?
>> 
>> Just like my ramblings on the Internet are a manifestation of my
>> own views and not those of my employer, the inverse holds true as
>> well: Cisco does not represent me. I've worked for no less than
>> three companies during my involvement with OpenStack. I have much
>> more history with OpenStack than I do with Cisco. Why on Earth
>> should I not be allowed to run for the board of directors?
> 
> I could not possibly agree more with Soren on this - and I think
> anyone who knows either of us will attest that, from the moment we
> both started working on helping set up this project we have both
> consistently acted with the interests of the project in mind. I have
> regularly told both Rackspace and HP that they are wrong in choices
> they have made, and I have fought for what I personally believe is
> right for OpenStack as a project. If I am elected to the board I can
> promise you that my actions will have not be those of a puppet sat
> there to do as his employer tells him - and I will expect that if I
> move companies again, I will not only retain my seat, but I will
> retain my ability to be re-elected.
> 
> If anything, any Platinum member for whom I might be employed is
> getting the short end of the stick, because without me as an
> employee, they might be more able to put people on the board with
> more of a mind to represent their business interests.
> 
> Monty
> 
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