Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-13 Thread Ildiko Vancsa 

> You all have proven yourselves to be crucial parts of the community and I 
> just wanted to say good luck to each one of you in the upcoming election!

Thank you. :)

> -What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like 
> the TC and how do you counteract it? 

I can be too obsessed with the ‘big picture’ and get distracted by it when it 
comes to details and defining the next steps. While it is very important to 
keep in mind, I need to learn to map it to practical actions in a faster and 
more efficient way.

Being aware of and conscious about our own weaknesses and take steps to improve 
them is crucial, but it is also what makes the TC a diverse group. In my view 
many of the traits mentioned in this thread are traits for the individuals but 
become strength for the group when it operates as a team by having the broad, 
strategic view, the technical depth and the awareness of new and emerging 
technologies all represented and being part of the decision making.

> - What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the 
> TC?

For me it is finding the balance, as making OpenStack an innovative and 
continuously evolving environment while keeping the software stable and 
flexible within all the circumstances mentioned in this thread is challenging. 
We need to keep moving away from the perception that OpenStack is a large, 
monolithic software package and help our users and operators to find the best 
setup that fulfills their needs. In addition we should be more open to provide 
the space and opportunity to people to experiment with their ideas, let that be 
new functionality or an attempt to improve something existing.

Reflecting back to what Thierry mentioned about involving our users and 
operators more, I think that would help with the aforementioned challenges and 
points towards a more balanced environment. I would mention Telecom operators 
as an area where we have good examples to community involvement already and I 
get more and more questions about how our community works and how operators 
could get more involved. As these companies are sometimes new to open source 
they need help from us in order to take the next steps and succeed.

> And one lighthearted question: 
> 
> -What is your favorite thing about OpenStack? 

My favorite thing is to feel extremely lucky every day to be part of it! :)

This community made me a better person by becoming more optimistic, 
collaborative and forward looking. It is of course the people who build this 
amazing environment where I found friends, mentors and technology experts, the 
individuals who care, share knowledge, keep you up to date with new technology, 
remind you to add more tests to your patch, or simply make you laugh on a 
hopeless Monday.

Thank you All!

Best Regards,
Ildikó


> Thank you for your answers! 
> 
> -Kendall Nelson
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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-13 Thread Flavio Percoco 

On 12/04/17 16:19 +, Kendall Nelson wrote:

Hello Candidates!
-What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like
the TC and how do you counteract it?


I love agreement, I'd rather have everyone agree everytime. This makes it hard
for me to drive some conversations. I'd rather have everyone happy but that is
not something we can always afford.

I work hard not to have disagreement but to find ways we can all agree when
there's disagreement. At the very least, find the things that we can live by.


- What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the
TC?


As there hadn't been enough change, I believe we're about to go through a new
change (or phase of realizations if you will). The work to define the vision is
ongoing and we're also working out how we like to think about OpenStack. These
changes/conversations require the community to work together, they require lots
of discussions.

I don't think these conversations/changes are roadblocks but they will require
focus and contributions from the entire community, which is struggling to stay
focused and find contributions in some areas.



And one lighthearted question:

-What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?


The community! I know other's have said this but it is the thing I like the
most. I talk about it[0] whenever I can. I share our experiences and how it's
grown (and helped me grow). It's like a common (huge) Italian family. You don't
always know everyone, there are discussions, disagreements, etc. but we always
work towards a common goal. Oh, and we love eating and drinking :D

Flavio

[0] 
https://speakerdeck.com/flaper87/keeping-up-with-the-pace-of-a-fast-growing-community-without-dying


--
@flaper87
Flavio Percoco


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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-13 Thread John Garbutt 
On 12 April 2017 at 17:19, Kendall Nelson  wrote:
> -What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like
> the TC and how do you counteract it?

My inability to say no to more work (and being too interested in everything).

I think I am slowly getting better at focusing, delegating and saying
no. (Although folks who were in the Nova PTG room might be laughing
and rolling around on the floor right now.)

> - What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the
> TC?

In terms of the TC making progress on the vision, getting distracted
by minucia and the past is probably two big traps.

Overall progress for the whole of OpenStack, I think its all about
retaining contributors and making it easier to get deeply involved.
The need for a more diverse set of sponsoring companies for the top
5-10% of contributors is possibly just a symptom, but its very
related.

> -What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?

Its the people, their passion and the general spirit of collaboration.
(I was thinking hard to say something new... but its totally the people)

Thanks,
johnthetubaguy

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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-13 Thread Thierry Carrez 
Kendall Nelson wrote:
> -What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups
> like the TC and how do you counteract it? 

I dislike conflict, and would always like everyone to win. I consider
most people in this community as good friends and I like when they are
all happy. This drives me to look for solutions that accommodate
everyone in our community, which are not necessarily the best technical
solution. That said, I've been getting better at saying "no" and having
hard discussions lately. It's just a natural bias I need to be aware of,
and keep under control.

> - What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for
> the TC?

As others have mentioned, I think our biggest challenge is to handle the
drop in contributions, or rather handle the transition from an era of
too many contributors to an era of not enough contributors. Our
challenge used to be to handle the growth and not collapse under the
in-take. Our new challenge is to scale back to more "normal" levels of
contribution, focus more, operate horizontal services with less humans,
and transition from a mostly vendor-driven contributor base to a more
balanced contributor base. This will require tweaking a few old rules,
and facilitating direct involvement from users (which we have plenty of)
in development.

> And one lighthearted question: 
> 
> -What is your favorite thing about OpenStack? 

Beyond the awesome community, the shared openness values and principles,
I like the social experiment. OpenStack upstream project governance is
pretty unique, being under control of the contributors with all-elected
leadership positions, and no paid-for seats. I think this ownership
feeling is one of the reasons that make people attached to the project,
beyond the organization they are affiliated with. This model is not
without flaws, but I believe it's a good long-term model, and would
definitely like to see where it goes.

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)

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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-12 Thread Joshua Hesketh 
On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 2:19 AM, Kendall Nelson 
wrote:

> Hello Candidates!
>
> You all have proven yourselves to be crucial parts of the community and I
> just wanted to say good luck to each one of you in the upcoming election!
>
> Also though, I thought it might be good to ask a few more questions. It's
> easy to talk about what you all want to champion on the TC and about the
> ideal breakdown of how you want to spend your time, but it's much harder to
> answer questions that might highlight some of the daily struggles. So!
> Interview time:
>
> -What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like
> the TC and how do you counteract it?
>

I think the obvious one is going to be the remoteness and timezones. These
have effects that are being discussed at length in some of the other
threads. However there have been some good suggestions in those threads on
how to mitigate it through utilising other media more effectively.

Another challenge is balancing the needs of the many. I think the community
does a great job at being accommodating to as many individuals, companies
and technologies as they can. However this can often come at the cost of
actually getting things done (perfection is the enemy of progress etc). I
think the TC will need to be pragmatic about its decisions and begin to be
more opinionated in order to be able to be focused and not over burdened.


>
> - What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for
> the TC?
>

In terms of the releases I think we need to be careful not to bite off more
than we can chew. Recently we've been focusing on making the base layers
more stable, upgrades more seamless etc. and I think these are great. It's
easy to be ambitious with what we want to achieve in a cycle but we also
need to be realistic about our resources as the product matures.



>
> And one lighthearted question:
>
> -What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?
>


The community - it's such a pleasure to work with everybody. Everyone is so
incredibly helpful and always go out of their way as we try to work towards
a common goal.


>
> Thank you for your answers!
>

Thank you for the questions :-)

Cheers,
Josh


>
> -Kendall Nelson
>
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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-12 Thread Sean McGinnis 
On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 04:19:55PM +, Kendall Nelson wrote:
> Hello Candidates!
> 
> You all have proven yourselves to be crucial parts of the community and I
> just wanted to say good luck to each one of you in the upcoming election!
> 
> Also though, I thought it might be good to ask a few more questions. It's
> easy to talk about what you all want to champion on the TC and about the
> ideal breakdown of how you want to spend your time, but it's much harder to
> answer questions that might highlight some of the daily struggles. So!
> Interview time:
> 
> -What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like
> the TC and how do you counteract it?

I like to help facilitate to get things done, but to be honest, sometimes when
a particular topic does not interest me I don't spend as much time as I should
digging into the nitty gritty in order to give deeper and more valuable input.

> 
> - What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the
> TC?

Having skimmed through some of the other responses, I'm a bit of a broken
record. I think the biggest roadblock is getting contributors and investment
from companies to get the big issues taken care of. I think the TC can have
an impact on encouraging involvement, and the policies we help form will have
a direct impact on that.

There's been some talk of not being influenced too strongly by vendors. I think
we need to turn that around a little though. I think we need to help vendors,
both to get them involved and to help them meet their goals with OpenStack. At
the end of the day, OpenStack investment is most useful to those trying to make
money from using it. If we can help direct their wants into something commonly
beneficial, then it improves OpenStack, it helps the vendors on the business
side, and in return it increases the odds of continued investment in time and
resources towards getting more done.

I'm definitely not saying we should base technical decisions on the demands of
whoever has the biggest bank account. But if we can make it easier in general
for them and be receptive to what they see as priorities, then _where it makes
sense_, we can all benefit.

> 
> And one lighthearted question:
> 
> -What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?

Broken record again, but the people are my favorite part of OpenStack as well.
This has been the best community I've been invovled in and have learned so
much for being part of it. If everyone here decided to drop this and go off
to produce a ubiquitous Open Source cat picture platform that is easy to use,
simple to implement, etc., I'd be tempted to join them. :)
 
> 
> Thank you for your answers!
> 
> -Kendall Nelson

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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-12 Thread Chris Dent 

On Wed, 12 Apr 2017, Kendall Nelson wrote:


-What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like
the TC and how do you counteract it?


There are many, I'm sure. But one that is frequent and embarrassing
is that I have a serious problem with homophones, contractions (or
word combinations that could be), and apostrophes when typing --
especially in IRC. The worst expression of this is leaving out "not"
in a sentence like "The cow should jump off the cliff" when
actually, I like cows and would prefer they not jump to
they're^wthere^their deaths. As you can imagine this is dire when
trying to state a position or express an opinion in a group like the
TC where stating positions and expressing opinions, in IRC, is a big
chunk of what you do.

As with so many things the method to counteract this is to stop
being so urgent, be conscious, and breathe a bit; it'll keep.


- What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the
TC?


Like others, I'm concerned about the amount and direction of
corporate interests. We're currently seeing a great deal of interest
and investment from Telcos and the NFV community. This is
simultaneously exciting and concerning. There will be a clash of
cultures that will be both difficult and productive.


-What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?


You asked this in a lighthearted way, but I feel pretty serious
about this: The thing I like most about OpenStack is that the people
I work with everyday -- the people I regularly call my coworkers
(and friends!) when mentioning them to (other) friends and family --
are not all paid by the same company as me. That is _awesome_.

--
Chris Dent ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   https://anticdent.org/
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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-12 Thread Ed Leafe 
On Apr 12, 2017, at 11:19 AM, Kendall Nelson  wrote:

> -What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like 
> the TC and how do you counteract it?

My natural tendency is to speak bluntly, which can often come across as 
dismissive of other points of view. As I've gotten older I've learned a few 
tricks to soften my words, but it's a constant effort.

> - What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the 
> TC?

The pull of corporate interests, both to steer development in directions that 
will benefit their business, and also by pulling developers off of OpenStack 
work. Neither of these is new, but they certainly seem to be increasing lately 
with no sign of letting up.

> And one lighthearted question:
> 
> -What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?

I'm sure everyone will write pretty much the same thing here: the community, 
getting to interact with so many talented and interesting people. Because it 
certainly is! So I'll throw in my *second* favorite thing: being a part of 
creating something that can change the world of computing. It's already played 
a role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, and I'm sure that someday it will 
enable technologies that haven't yet been dreamed up. Being able to look back 
someday and say "I helped to build that" will be pretty satisfying.


-- Ed Leafe







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Re: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

2017-04-12 Thread German Eichberger 
-What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like the 
TC and how do you counteract it?
I am probably overly fascinated by new technology and would be the first to 
re-invent the wheel. I am probably in good company with that at the TC but I 
have internalized the lean startup mantra and started asking even if the 
technology is shiny does it really help our users? Does it enable new features? 
Does it take care of some tech debt?

- What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the TC?
I have seen budgets and priorities shift for companies sponsoring work on 
OpenStack. I see this as the biggest road block and as a community we need to 
do a better job to attract contributors and sponsors.

-What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?
The people. I have never met nicer and more dedicated people then the 
developers in OpenStack. This is also a main reason for running to give back 
and help them.

German

From: Kendall Nelson 
Reply-To: "OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)" 

Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 12:19 PM
To: "OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)" 

Subject: [openstack-dev] [tc][election] Questions for Candidates

Hello Candidates!

You all have proven yourselves to be crucial parts of the community and I just 
wanted to say good luck to each one of you in the upcoming election!

Also though, I thought it might be good to ask a few more questions. It's easy 
to talk about what you all want to champion on the TC and about the ideal 
breakdown of how you want to spend your time, but it's much harder to answer 
questions that might highlight some of the daily struggles. So! Interview time:

-What is one trait you have that makes it difficult to work in groups like the 
TC and how do you counteract it?

- What do you see as the biggest roadblock in the upcoming releases for the TC?
And one lighthearted question:

-What is your favorite thing about OpenStack?

Thank you for your answers!

-Kendall Nelson
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