[Openinfralabs] Rebuilding the core discussion

Tue Aug 23 15:50:24 UTC 2022

In accordance with the Open Source contributor, "my apologies for the
delay" rule :)

Sorry, I've been super occupied the past two weeks. Comments in-line.

On Thu, Aug 11, 2022 at 4:20 PM Karsten Wade <kwade at redhat.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you Julia for starting this discussion about getting involved in a reset and what to do next. And I appreciate your patience as people (like me!) get my head together and into this discussion (eventually) around important change management, here in the middle of atypically busy months.
>
> Hi all,
>
> I haven't posted much (at all?) to this mailing list, I'm one of the "few of us" Julia refers to below. I'm the community architect for the Operate First project — meaning my role is to lead the design and implementation of a plan to create and scale Open Source communities — as well as the co-Chair of the Operate First Community Special Interest Group (SIG). I have a vested interest in having a defined mission and governance for Open Infra Labs as a project within the Labs.
>
> From later in this thread, I agree about beginning work in our GitHub repository as the commons where we can draw the most brains and hands (today).

I would love to *eventually* move it over to gerrit. But any git, I
think is better. I've got a list of things to discuss with the OpenDev
folks, hopefully during the PTG, to work on easing
access/use/engagement.

I *really* think we've got some discoverability issues mixed in here
which makes it difficult for existing folks to grok what is going on
and vise versa, but those are entirely independent.

>
> tl;dr of below:
> 1. I propose a three step process to write the vision and mission, including lots of time for feedback
> 2. To kick it off, I made this PR:  https://github.com/open-infrastructure-labs/openinfralabs-website/pull/13
>     - Under the "FIles Changed" section ( https://github.com/open-infrastructure-labs/openinfralabs-website/pull/13/files ) you can make line-by-line comments by clicking the + sign next to the line number, and you can use the [+-] button to suggest specific changes.
> 3. That's it!
>

Sounds good to me! I've left a few comments there, but overall most of
them are along the lines of a feeling like we need to swap
mission/vision and maybe provide some historical context, which it
does do.

I've shared a blog post from Zingtrain on 'The Power of Visioning"[0],
which we've used previously in the OpenInfra community  which
primarily talks about the visioning aspects.

[0]: https://www.zingtrain.com/article/the-power-of-visioning/

> Some comments/questions inline below:
>
> On Fri, Jul 8, 2022 at 1:26 PM Julia Kreger <juliaashleykreger at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Greetings everyone,
> >
> > During our recent Open Infrastructure Summit in Berlin, one of the
> > repeated discussion topics I found myself engaged in suggested a
> > breakdown in shared context and communication within OpenInfra Labs. A
> > bit of a root cause analysis occurred, and each discussion quickly
> > determined there is definitely no fault, but more a result of the
> > state of engagement which collided against the pandemic. Further
> > compounded by the time schedule differences which run our various
> > lives and efforts. It did not help us that we did not use the same
> > words to begin with.
>
> In our discussions in Berlin and beyond, I think I've characterized it as something to the effect of,
>
> "We never finished getting alignment before everyone's attention turned to the pandemic. When we drew our attention back out to work on these problems, we saw other people seemed to be out of alignment and on their own paths. Then each of us (person or group) forked just a bit more in chasing our version of the mission while seeing each other as out of alignment with our own vision."
>

++

> > A few of us have continued going back and forth over the last few
> > weeks and we've reached the conclusion we need to rebuild the core
> > consensus and discussion. Ultimately a revision of our mission and
> > long term vision, in order to better support the sharing of knowledge
> > and context which is fundamentally needed to support the efforts
> > occurring within OpenInfra Labs.
> >
> > Before we really continue onward in these discussions, I think it is
> > important for us to widen the audience of engagement and enable a
> > greater chorus of voices to engage as we sort of press the reset
> > button in order to set expectations, intents, and bring us all back to
> > a happier, engaged place. In recognition that no single tool or means
> > will work for everyone, *and* to help provide insight for those that
> > don't necessarily subscribe to mailing lists or whom are unable to
> > join our discussions now, the idea has been floated to write about it.
> > Such as a blog or a journal. To share our story. To share the stories.
> > To spread the knowledge!
> >
> > I think we should start with high bandwidth calls to reach the same
> > page, and then move forward from there.
> >
> > If you're interested in engaging in this discussion, please reply with
> > to this email with the days of the week and times that would work, or
> > that would not work, and I'll try to find a mutually agreeable 30
> > minute window every two weeks for us to start with.
>
> OK, so I agree with this and Julia's later sentiment about getting things started in a git repo.
>
> Let's work on these in parallel, how about this as a process:
>
> 1. If you want to be part of the discussion right now, let's work on this document together:
>
> https://github.com/open-infrastructure-labs/openinfralabs-website/pull/13
>
> That is a straw-draft, meaning it's something we can build a "discussion draft" from.
>
> 2. Next opportunity is helping build the discussion draft. You can continue from straw-draft work or join in for that round of writing-and-editing.
>
> We'll have time in between each step for broad, general feedback.

++, we should setup a meeting in a couple of weeks to force
engagement/interaction. I need someone to drive the scheduling aspect
if at all possible. Any volunteers?

>
> 3. The discussion draft is what we take to the wider OpenInfrastructure community for feedback.
>
> That is three wide rounds of feedback, at least. We can slow down and add more, if needed.
>
> Some of that work can occur in live, high-bandwidth meetings. We also need to commit to coming back and keeping this list well informed.
>

++, we are likely a little early, but perhaps we can find some time
during the week of the project team's gathering.

> Your participation in this is very, very welcome, whenever you arrive into the process. Even when we are "finished" and moving on, we need to really understand our vision and mission as living documents. Maybe we want to have regular review and refresh stages every few years, for example? Just to keep things from getting stale and forgotten.

I've found it *surprisingly* difficult to get people to come back to
revising mission/vision statements as time has gone on. Visions being
far easier, since it is more the guiding light. I think mostly that is
due to people just being busy. But I do agree, this is something that
should be done.

>
> Kind regards,
> - Karsten
>
> > Thanks,
> >
> > -Julia
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
> --
> Karsten Wade [he/him/his] | Principal Community Architect | @quaid
> Red Hat Open Source Program Office (OSPO) : @redhatopen
> The Open Source Way : https://theopensourceway.org
> Operate First : https://operate-first.cloud