After receiving positive feedback from my earlier posting about the OpenStack Technical Committee, I've decided to run to be a member instead of just writing about it. What follows is my candidacy statement, required to initiate the process.
Hello,
A few weeks ago I made a blog posting in which I wrote about the issues I would consider important to address if I were a member of the Technical Committee. Several people encouraged me to act on my concerns and actually run.
Therefore, I'd like to submit my candidacy for election to the Technical Committee. I think the health of the TC and OpenStack in general is dependent on a diversity of strong opinions from people who are willing to be convinced they may be incorrect. I like to think I have plenty of opinions. I am eager to have the interactions that will weaken some opinions and strengthen others.
To summarize the blog posting linked above: I am concerned with not just maintaining but increasing the quality of the OpenStack experience for the people who install and use it and, critically, for the people who build it. To achieve this we need to have a clear idea about what OpenStack is and who it is for. Trying to be everything to all people results in diffuse effort and difficulty making decisions when, inevitably, compromises and sacrifices must be made in our resource constrained world.
By being more clear to ourselves and others about what OpenStack is we can be more effective about what we are doing and more useful when building bridges with other communities.
In practical terms this will require determining the constraints on the big tent. I expect this will be the major work of the TC in the immediate future and I'd like to be a part of it as a representative of the community.
If you have specific questions about my goals, my background or anything else, please feel free to ask. I'm on IRC as cdent or send some email. Thank you for your consideration.