It was announced on the OpenStack-dev mailing list that the splitting of the summit is now official. Barcelona will be the last ‘traditional’ summit for OpenStack devs and operators. In it’s place will be two separate summits, at separate locations and times: The “Forum” and the “Project Teams Gathering”. Let’s discuss how will this impact the community.
You can read the announcement here: First Project Teams Gathering – Atlanta Feb 20-24, 2017
Let’s take a look at some important points from the newly released FAQ:
Q: How is the change helping upstream developers?
A: During the Summit week, upstream developers have a lot of different goals. We leverage the Summit to communicate new things (give presentations), learn new things (attend presentations), get feedback from users and operators over our last release, gather pain points and priorities for upcoming development, propose changes and see what the community thinks of them, recruit and onboard new team members, have essential cross-project discussions, meet with our existing project team members, kickstart the work on the new cycle, and get things done. There is just not enough time in 4 or 5 days to do all of that, so we usually drop half of those goals…
Problem: The real issue here, IMO, is that entirely too much time and too many large rooms are given to needless, repetitive ‘How Company X does OpenStack’ presentations that contain little to know useful information. Very little code is shared, just boisterous talks that PR departments put together for engineers to present.
Real Solution: Fewer talks, vetted speakers (I don’t want to hear Company X’s story, that’s content for an engineering blog), more time for developers and getting involved with developing software.
Q: What is the “Forum”?
A: “Forum” is the codename for the part of the Design Summit (Ops+Devs) that will still happen at the main Summit event. It will primarily be focused on strategic discussions and planning for the next release (the “what”), essentially the start of the next release cycle even though development will not begin for another 3 months. We should still take advantage of having all of our community (Devs, Ops, End users…) represented to hold cross-community discussions there…
My Take: The forum is the majority of what the summit is now. Company X is going to discuss how they use OpenStack. Company V(endor) will present how their product will make you agile.
Q: What is the “Project Teams Gathering”?
A: “Project Teams Gathering” is the codename for the part of the Design Summit that will happen as a separate event, starting in 2017. It will primarily provide space for project teams to meet, make implementation decisions and start development work (the “how”)…
My Take: This seems reasonable.
Q: What is the “Project Teams Gathering”? (cont)
A: …If you are not part of a specific project team (or can’t pick one team), you could still come but your experience of the event would likely not be optimal, since the goal of the attendees at this event is to get things done, not listen to feedback or engage with newcomers…
My Take: Newcomers not welcome. This is not an inclusive event. Do you actively contribute to more than one project? This isn’t for you either.
Q: What about mid-cycles?
A: Mid-cycle sprints were organized separately by project teams as a way to gather team members and get things done. They grew in popularity as the distractions at the main Summit increased and it became hard for project teams to get together, build social bonds and generally be productive at the Design Summit. We hope that teams will get back that lost productivity and social bonding at the Project Teams Gathering, eliminating the need for separate team-specific sprints.
My Take: Mid-cycles used to be free (more on this later) and self-organized to best accommodate those members in each project. This also allowed projects to pick separate dates from each other, or for projects to co-locate with each other, as the projects saw fit.
And the cash grab:
Q: What about ATC passes for the Summit?
A: The OpenStack Foundation gave discounted passes to a subset of upstream contributors (not all ATCs) who contributed in the last six months, so that they could more easily attend the Summit. We’ll likely change the model since we would be funding a second event, but will focus on minimizing costs for people who have to travel to both the Summit and the Project Teams Gathering. The initial proposal is to charge a minimal fee for the Project Teams Gathering (to better gauge attendance and help keep sponsorship presence to a minimum), and then anyone who was physically present at the Project Teams Gathering would receive a discount code to attend the next Summit. Something similar is also being looked into for contributors represented by the User Committee (eg. ops). At the same time, we’ll likely beef up the Travel Support Program so that we can get all the needed people at the right events.
My Take: The nice thing about attending the summit was that the entry fee was gratis for ATC’s and other impactful contributors. What I was told in-person by a foundation representative at a recent Mid Cycle was that 1) The PTG will not be free for ATC’s (possibly $100-$300), and that purchase would get you (possibly) a free ticket to the other summit. In closing, no more free passes for ATC’s.
In closing, I believe the fracturing of the summit is going to hurt more than help. Instead of addressing the actual problem of too many distractions at the summit, the foundation believes it can now 1) Charge developers for the privilege of getting together to develop free software (which companies are already footing travel and lodging and paying salaries to these developers), and 2) keep the distraction laden, low-value presentation summit. The summit was a carefully balanced ecosystem of vendors and sponsors subsidizing the costs of the event, and in turn getting access to contributors and operators. Instead of trimming the fat and making the event more valuable for both vendors and contributors, we now have a developer summit, and a carnival.
I was also told (cannot remember by whom) that the developer summit will try to be more or less vendor free. That’s why it’s going to cost money to attend, because we don’t have sponsors and vendors footing the bill. I’m quite confident that this model will fail with immediate expediency.
I don’t plan on ever attending the ‘presentation’ only summit, and I’m hoping PTL’s and companies will summarily ignore the PTG events and continue to host their own, very effective, mid cycles.
Link to the FAQ: http://www.openstack.org/ptg/ptgfaq/