Open Stack

I think OpenStack faces two key challenges. One is technical, the other is a people issue.

The technical issue is that the project needs to transition to stability. As I have noted in other contexts, I feel there is a very strong current of pursuing elegance and technical purity over "ownership" concerns. Where ownership concerns include the stability of an operational platform, interoperability with other OpenStack (and other cloud environments), support for ecosystem tools, and ability to migrate to future builds without issue. OpenStack isn't just problematic in this area; it's notoriously bad. Essex is an improvement, but it's was easy to improve over Diablo/Cactus -> Diablo.

The people issue is a perception of undue corporate influence. Some of that is a result of early mis-steps in the evolution of OpenStack governance. Other parts result from unnecessary controversies like this. This whole individual board member thing really is an example of the OpenStack governance mechanism shooting itself in the foot.

I think it will be impossible to address the technical issues without addressing the people issues. In particular, any attempts to push any agenda are going to be viewed by the community at large as well as the external world through the lens of who is on the board. If the board is dominated by a handful of corporate sponsors, their decisions will be viewed with great suspicion and it will make it difficult to impossible to drive through an agenda. I don't mean to use the word "agenda" here disparagingly. The board will ideally drive an agenda. I sincerely hope it is one related to the stability of the platform. Whatever the agenda, the community at large needs to be able to trust that it is for the benefit of the platform as a whole and not solely for the select business interests of a few.

In short, the board needs to have the perception of balance. If all or most of the individual seats (which were actually created to reduce sponsor influence in favor of the general community) and held by people with fiduciary responsibilities to corporate sponsors, the board will lack legitimacy.

-George

--
George Reese (george.reese at imaginary.com)
t: @GeorgeReese               m: +1(207)956-0217               Skype: nspollution
cal: http://tungle.me/GeorgeReese   




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