The Challenge of Transforming OpenStack, together.

I believe that the IT industry needs open places where we can collaborate around shared challenges then innovate and create together. These environments are hard because they have a conflicting charter to both support and abandon their legacy while building the a shared future.

This is the third time that my candidacy for the OpenStack board fell into the strange zone of being in the top 8 most popular (% of people voting for a candidate) but did not achieve sufficient total votes to be elected. I want to thank the broad coalition of people who supported me and acknowledge an often voiced frustration that the system favors groups who vote in affinity blocks such as large companies. In 2011, we tried to change the system to Condorcet and hit legal (not Board willingness) technicalities.

My point is not to complain about the vote results: frankly, I have many other ways to invest my time in building open communities and I have deep respect for those serving on the board.

However, I believe that OpenStack needs help to invigorate it's open source infrastructure mission. It needs to welcome people (and companies) who are willing to show up IN THE COMMUNITY with new ideas that challenge the incumbents. These challenges have always been there and are coming faster and faster. It's up to leaders in the community starting from the Foundation staff, Board and Technical Committee to welcome those challenges. It's also up to members of the community to continue to invest in that process.

With a new year starting, those of us building exciting things in the open infrastructure space need to decide where we want to collaborate. I know that RackN and I will be helping build innovative and welcoming communities that respect operators, users and developers together. It's up to everyone together to build those places.