OpenStack and Shenanigans - A Case Study in Open Source Governance
Channel: Linux.conf.au 2015 -- Auckland, New Zealand
Date: 17/01/2015

Mark McLoughlin
http://lca2015.linux.org.au/schedule/30189/view_talk
In its four years of existance, OpenStack has grown at an incredible rate into one of the largest open-source projects on the planet. As with any software project - open-source or not - what's ultimately important is the software we produce but yet we must invest much
effort into perfecting how we produce it. For a project to scale dozens of contributors to thousands of contributors, that's especially true.

This talk with cover the full gamut of OpenStack's governance model - from code reviewing, to CI systems, to release processes, to per-project fiefdoms, to consensus and voting, to overarching beaucracies. Particular attention will be paid to a particularly unusual aspect of OpenStack governance - how the project maintains a balance between commercial interests sponsoring the vast majority of the work done on the project, and the open, transparent and welcoming 'doacracy' which creates the ideal environment for technical collaboration.

This past year has seen a number of fascinating debates within OpenStack - around commercial trademark usage policies, our contributor license agreements, voting methods, cross-project governence, the increase in scope of project, and much more. In this talk, Mark will share his perspective on these debates from his vantage point as a contributor, technical committee member and director of the foundation.