Open Stack

Like Arkady I think branding and trademarking should be at the Project
level but also with an overall brand and trademark for the Foundation.
Interoperability is a more difficult thing in my mind. I think we should
still have interoperability between vendors who offer a product based on
one of the OIF's projects. So as mentioned the same OpenStack API call in
theory that works on one vendor should work on all vendors, a Kata
container should work the same, etc.

Where I think it gets a bit more difficult is as we add more projects
should those new projects be interoperable with existing projects. In
planning the face to face meeting, we had discussed the goal of adding
projects that complemented what we had already to create an overall Open
IInfrastructure in which case all 'Open Infrastructure' projects should be
able to work together. But if more distantly related projects are added I
don't think it can be expected to have that same interoperability.

Thanks,

Amy

On Mon, Nov 30, 2020 at 10:30 AM Kanevsky, Arkady <Arkady.Kanevsky at dell.com>
wrote:

> Dell Customer Communication - Confidential
>
> I will skip by-laws angle as it is only means to achieve a goal.
>
> Trademarks really serve two purposes:
> 1. it is a common definition and common language.
> 2. protection and path to branding.
>
> As we moved to OIF, trademark for OIF as the whole does not bring value.
> But having trademarks for each projects under OIF umbrella make sense.
>
> Suggest we look at two audiences.
> 1. Users/Operators
> 2. Vendors/Providers.
>
> The first ones want to ensure that when they develop apps/tools using OIF
> projects APIs they will work on "all" vendor/providers "products"
> (including upstream).
> The second ones deliver products/services based on OIF projects.
>
> Both parties want to have branding for the "contract" between two
> audiences.
> And interop is just a tool for that branding.
>
> In my view, interop cam at the right time when there were a lot of churn
> and a lot of implementations, and unclearness which openstack projects work
> together.
> We are past that stage for OpenStack.
> But for other OIF projects we are in various stages.
> Some of them are two new to have multiple implementations or vendor
> products based on them.
> Some, like Kata Containers, never intended to be standalone.
>
> But we still need branding, but in my view per OIF project.
> My 2c.
>
> Thanks,
> Arkady
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thierry Carrez <thierry at openstack.org>
> Sent: Monday, November 30, 2020 3:51 AM
> To: foundation at lists.openstack.org; foundation-board at lists.openstack.org
> Subject: Re: [Foundation Board] [OpenStack Foundation] [board][interop] Is
> it time to revisit: Trademarks, Branding, and Interoperability?
>
>
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
>
> Julia Kreger wrote:
> > Over the past few weeks I’ve been in a number of discussions regarding
> > some of our most very fun topics. Branding, Trademarks, and
> > Interoperability.
> > [...]
>
> Thanks Julia for starting this timely and important discussion.
>
> I agree that trademarks are not a goal in themselves, they are just means
> to an end, and periodically revising those end goals is necessary.
>
> To add some historical context, my summary would be that until now the
> Board has been using trademarks to drive two strategic objectives:
>
> 1- Interoperability: a enduser-centric view of what to expect when
> interacting with "openstack", driving ideally towards an identical
> experience. The tactics (driven by RefStack) were focused on making sure a
> minimal set of APIs were available in products allowed to call themselves
> "openstack", and try to grow that set over time.
>
> 2- Branding: an ecosystem-centric view of building a set of "compatible"
> products, driving ideally toward establishing a large marketplace. The
> tactics used for the first objective encouraged products to apply for the
> trademark programs, which was used as a funnel for the marketplace.
>
> As we enter the OIF era, are those end goals still valuable? Are
> trademarks the best tool to achieve them? Are there other key goals we
> should leverage trademarks for? Are the current tactics we use (Refstack
> and powered-by trademark programs) still valid ?
>
> --
> Thierry Carrez (ttx)
>
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