[ovs-discuss] Request for comments on Open vSwitch joining the Linux Foundation

[Flavio Leitner]

On Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 12:35:34PM -0700, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> [adding ovs-dev]
> 
> On Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 09:36:47AM -0700, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > Since roughly October, some of the OVS committers have been talking over
> > the idea of bringing Open vSwitch into a foundation.  Originally the
> > group discussing the idea was Justin, Russell, Thomas, and me, but we
> > later expanded it to include all of the OVS committers.
> > 
> > The kinds of changes we're interested in include transferring
> > ownership of the openvswitch.org and ovn.org domain names, hosting and
> > administration of the website, mailing lists, and forwarding email
> > addresses for ovn.org, formalizing the existing processes for adding
> > and removing committers, and obtaining support for organizing the
> > annual Open vSwitch conference.  Possibly, OVS could benefit from
> > joining a foundation in other ways, such as trademark registration,
> > founding a centralized test or performance lab, etc., but those
> > potential benefits have not been our focus.
> > 
> > We think that Open vSwitch development works quite well as a rule and
> > we have no desire to disrupt that, so we also have a list of changes
> > that we do *not* want to make.  These include introducing new
> > processes for committers such as requiring copyright assignments or
> > CLAs (contributor license agreements), significant changes to other
> > policies and processes we have that are working, and significant
> > technical changes to our repositories on the basis of e.g. legal
> > requirements from a foundation.
> > 
> > One option is to form our own foundation.  To do this right, it would
> > be a lot of work.  We did not seriously pursue this possibility.
> > 
> > We seriously considered three options:
> > 
> >     - Apache Software Foundation.  We had a call with members of the
> >       Apache board.  Apache would offer OVS all of the services that
> >       we want.  (They contract with the Linux Foundation to handle
> >       events such as conferences.)  However, they are very "cookie
> >       cutter" in that every Apache project is expected to fit into its
> >       strictly defined model.  This would be difficult for OVS.  For
> >       example, the only acceptable license is the Apache license,
> >       which means that the Linux kernel portions of the OVS project
> >       would have to be broken out into a separate repository and could
> >       not be officially part of the project.  (We asked specifically
> >       about this.)  As a second example, Apache requires use of their
> >       CLA and all of the committers would be required to sign it and
> >       to get their employers to sign it.  We considered these issues
> >       to be too disruptive to the project.
> > 
> >     - Software in the Public Interest (spi-inc.org), aka SPI, the
> >       parent of the Debian project.  In many ways it is almost the
> >       diametric opposite of the Apache Software Foundation.  Projects
> >       have a lot of freedom to operate as they choose, which is a
> >       positive, but on the other hand SPI does not provide much in the
> >       way of services.  SPI could accept assets such as domain names,
> >       and hold donations, but it's questionable whether SPI could
> >       relieve us from burdens in hosting and administering even
> >       mailing lists, and we could not expect help in running events.
> > 
> >     - Linux Foundation (LF).  We held calls and meetings with LF
> >       executive director Jim Zemlin and vice president Mike Dolan.  LF
> >       has all the services we're interested in.  For established
> >       projects, like OVS, they aim to avoid disrupting processes and
> >       policies that work, so we could retain, unchanged, most of the
> >       existing OVS governance.
> > 
> > We came to consensus among our small group and then among the
> > committers in joining the Linux Foundation.  Since then, we've
> > iterated through a few versions of a proposed charter for the Open
> > vSwitch project within Linux Foundation.  I'm attaching a PDF of the
> > most recent version.  The committers have come to informal consensus
> > in favor of this charter.  VMware, which owns or employs owners of
> > some OVS-related assets, is also on board.
> > 
> > Here's my summary of the document.  Very little is changing.  Under
> > the LF, OVS would have a technical steering committee (TSC), whose
> > membership is the current OVS committers.  OVS retains its existing
> > documented procedures.  The most important of these is the procedure
> > for adding new committers, in which existing committers nominate new
> > ones based on their contributions to the project.  The details are
> > here:
> > 
> >     https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/blob/master/Documentation/committer-grant-revocation.md
> > 
> > The OVS committers span a number of organizations and specialties and
> > represent the top contributors to the project.  A current list is
> > included in the main repo:
> > 
> >     https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/blob/master/MAINTAINERS.md
> > 
> > Inclusion in the group of committers is tied to an individual's
> > contributions, not their affiliation.
> > 
> > LF expects OVS to be a rather small budgetary burden, due to the
> > project's simple structure.  The TSC will coordinate with LF for any
> > budgetary needs.

Moving to Linux Foundation seems to be a step in a good direction and
the attached document looks good enough that the community is pretty
much unaffected by the change.

You mentioned OVS is expected to have small budgetary burden but we
usually had a conference once in a year that has a significant cost.
Has this been considered? Any expected changes for this year?

You also mentioned that VMware is on board, so I assume that we have
at least one official sponsor signing in?

I suspect some companies out there would be willing to support OVS,
but it's not clear what will be required to signing in and/or the
advantages to do so.

Thanks,
fbl

> > At this point, I'd like to suggest that people read over the draft
> > and, if you have comments, bring them up here for discussion.  After
> > allowing time for discussion, the committers will hold a vote on
> > joining the Linux Foundation.  I believe that that is the final step
> > in the plan.
> > 
> > Ben Pfaff (on behalf of all the OVS committers)
> > 
> > P.S. Please ignore the dates in the charter.  We will update them.
> 
> 
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-- 
fbl