I am Running for the OpenStack User Committee

Posted on 4 mins read

Two days ago I decided to submit my candidacy for one of the two spots up for election (for the first time!) on the OpenStack User committee.

I am pasting my proposal verbatim (original email link here)…

Good evening to you all.

As others have so kindly stepped up - I would also like to self-nominate myself for as candidate for the User committee.

I have been involved in the OpenStack community since the Icehouse release.

From day 1,  I felt that the user community was not completely accepted as a part of the OpenStack community and that there was a clear and broad disconnect between the two parts of OpenStack.

Instead of going all the way back - and stepping through time to explain who I am and what I have done - I have chosen a few significant points along the way - of where I think I made an impact - sometimes small - but also sometimes a lot bigger.

  • The OpenStack Architecture Design Guide [1]. This was my first Opensource project and it was an honor to participate and help the community to produce such a valuable resource.

  • Running for the TC for the first time [2]. I was not elected.

  • Running for the TC for the second time [3]. Again I was not elected.

    (There has never been a member of the User community elected to a TC seat - AFAIK)

In my original candidacy [2] proposal - I mentioned the inclusion of others.

Which is why I so proud of the achievement of the definition of the AUC from the last cycle and the workgroup [3] that Shamail Tahir and I co-chaired
(Needless to say that a huge amount of the credit goes also to all the other members of the WG that were involved!!) in making this happen.

Over the years I think I have tried to make difference (perhaps not always in the right way) - maybe the developer community was not ready for such a drastic change - and I still think that they are not.

Now is a time for change.

I think that the User Committee and these upcoming election (which are the first ever) are a critical time for all of us that are part of the OpenStack community - who contribute in numerous ways - but do not contribute code.

The User Committee is now becoming what it should have been from the start, an equal participant in the 3 pillars of OpenStack.

I would like to be a part, actually I would be honored to be a part, of ensuring that this comes to fruition and would like to request your vote for the User Committee.

Now down to the nitty gritty. If elected I would like to focus on the following (but not only):

  1. Establishing the User committee as significant part of OpenStack - and continue the amazing collaboration that has been forged over the past two years. The tangible feedback to the OpenStack community provided by the Working Groups have defined clear requirements coming from the trenches and need to be addressed throughout the community as a whole.

  1. Expand the AUC constituency - both by adding additional criteria and by encouraging more participation in the community according to the initial defined criteria.

  2. Establish a clear and fruitful working relationship with Technical committee - enabling the whole of OpenStack to continue to evolve, produce features and functionality that is not only cutting edge but also fundamental and crucial to anyone and everyone using OpenStack today.

Last but not least - I would like to point you to a blog post I wrote almost a year ago [5].

My views have not changed. OpenStack is evolving and needs participation not only from the developer community (which by the way is facing more than enough of its own challenges) but also from us who use, and operate OpenStack.

For me - we are already in a better place - and things will only get better - regardless of who leads the User committee.

Thank you for your consideration - and I would like to wish the best of luck to all the other candidates.

Best Regards,
Maish Saidel-Keesing

[1] https://blog.technodrone.cloud/2014/08/the-openstack-architecture-design-guide.html

[2] https://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2015-April/062372.html

[3] https://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2015-September/075773.html

[4] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/AUCRecognition

[5] https://blog.technodrone.cloud/2016/03/we-are-all-openstack-are-we-really.html

Elections open up on February 13th and only those who have been recognized as AUC (Active User Contributors) are eligible to vote.

Don’t forget to vote!