what and why - oVirt positioning

[Karsten Wade]

There was a short and lively discussion on the phone today about why
we are building an open virtualization community from the ground
up. For example, people are being asked why we aren't putting this
energy in to joining existing open-virt efforts.

The problem with the latter discussion is it too easily gets in to
comparing fresh oranges with dried bananas - that is, it appears to be
a common discussion domain (fruit!), but the form, function, and
contents are very different. In the end, if you are going to talk
about fresh oranges, it doesn't make sense to bring up dried bananas.

Bringing this discussion to the mailing list, this gives us a chance
to work out our ideas in an open forum (that is, these archives will
eventually be open to the public.) Thus a consensus here about why to
do this project proves the point that this is an open leadership
community from the outset.

One theme that came up today I paraphrase here:

  We have very specific ideas about how to do things the open source
  way, learned from places such as Apache and Eclipse: 

  * Involve key stakeholders from the beginning;
  * Require them to put a real stake down to be first-movers;
  * Make the community from the very outset openly constructed for
    shared control and management;
  * Show how to earn a seat at the board table;
  * Design and build leadership so consensus rolls up and down from
    sub-projects to a central governance body;
  * The community sets the project's direction by consensus from the
    outset.

... then condensing it:

  The only way to ensure a community is open and moving in the correct
  direction is to do it right from the start. There's no mistake in
  starting a new effort to accomplish those goals.

... another version:

  We're building an open virtualization project from the ground-up,
  involving key stakeholders as a start, and aggressively focusing on
  an open governance and project model. As we proceed, if our
  technology and community-style fit with all these other
  virtualization and cloud efforts, then integration will go more
  smoothly.

Those are some ideas to start off.

Why do *you* think we are doing the oVirt Project?

- Karsten
-- 
name:  Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Sr. Community Gardener
team:   Red Hat Community Architecture & Leadership
uri:             http://communityleadershipteam.org
                        http://TheOpenSourceWay.org
gpg:                                       AD0E0C41
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