On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 12:00 AM, Dave Lester <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello Mesos Community! > > About a week ago I had an email exchange with the Mesos PMC regarding the > future of MesosCon, the community-driven conference for the Apache Mesos > community. This is an abbreviated version of that email — I wanted to make > sure we are transparent about where things stand, and give a peak at next > year! > > *MesosCon in 2016* > We’re looking at holding three MesosCon events in 2016: North America in > (early) June, MesosCon Europe (date TBD), and to expand the conference > internationally with MesosCon China (end of year, possibly December). The > Linux Foundation will continue to handle logistics and sponsorship for > these events, and we’re excited to continue our relationship with them as > we grow the conference in scale and internationally. The only potential > difference is that our 2016 events may be stand-alone instead of co-located > with LinuxCon. > > An announcement regarding the location and dates for MesosCon North > American 2016 should be made in early January. We’ll keep the mailing lists > up-to-date on MesosCon Europe and MesosCon China as well, and the Linux > Foundation has already begun exploring locations in Europe. > > *Structure of MesosCon Program Committee* > Following the first two MesosCon events (Chicago 2014, Seattle 2015) where > I was conference chair, we shook up our organizational structure for > MesosCon Europe 2015 by adopting a conference chair trio, including myself > (independent), David Greenberg (Two Sigma), and Kiersten Gaffney > (Mesosphere). > > Why the structure of three co-chairs? To ensure there aren’t bottle-necks > in the planning process, to better divide up the conference work without > having too many people involved, and to ensure balanced representation and > neutral participation — no one company or group will dominate the direction > or organization of the conference. Final decisions are being made by the > three of us. > > Coming out of MesosCon Europe, we’ve continued that structure and have > also included Chris Schaefer and Chris Aniszczyk in the provisional > planning of 2016 conferences given their consistent participation in > planning previous events. The idea is to add additional program committee > members as needed and during the proposal review process, but finalize the > basics before we grow our ranks — we’ll let the mailing lists know if/when > we need your help! > I'm confused, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the earlier structure where the PMC was decided on as a result of a call to action on the mailing list. This resulted in a very open and democratic PMC with fairly broad participation from the community. This year, for instance we had representatives from multiple companies and geographic regions. Openness and community participation has been a hallmark of Mesoscon. Reaching out the community has been a constant theme (e.g asking community participation for selecting talks) and one which has made Mesoscon one of the most inclusive and open conferences. Having a very small group decide the basics and further decide if any help is needed seems like a step in the reverse direction. I can understand that there are logistical issues and challenges as Mesoscon grows bigger, but we should also keep in mind the spirit of Mesoscon. As it stands the current standing committee is much less diverse both in terms of corporate background and geographical spread than this year's PMC. Perhaps we can keep the core and invite volunteers from the community from the get go rather than on a as needed basis for narrowly defined roles ? > > If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, let us know! We look > forward to sharing future updates, and seeing you at a MesosCon in 2016! > > Dave >
