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* [dpdk-dev] Project Governance and Linux Foundation
@ 2016-10-10  8:33 O'Driscoll, Tim
  2016-10-17 10:23 ` Hobywan Kenoby
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 20+ messages in thread
From: O'Driscoll, Tim @ 2016-10-10  8:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: dev, users

This email is being sent on behalf of: Cavium, Cisco, Intel, NXP & Red Hat.


Since its creation as an open source project in 2013, DPDK has grown significantly. The number of DPDK users, contributors, commercial products that use DPDK and open source projects that depend on it have all increased consistently over that time. DPDK is now a key ingredient in networking and NFV, and we need to ensure that the project structure and governance are appropriate for such a critical project, and that they facilitate the project's continued growth.

For over a year now we've been discussing moving DPDK to the Linux Foundation. We believe it's now time to conclude that discussion and make the move. The benefits of doing this would include:
- The infrastructure for a project like DPDK should not be owned and controlled by any single company.
- Remove any remaining perception that DPDK is not truly open.
- Allow the project to avail of the infrastructure and services provided by the Linux Foundation. These include things like: Ability to host infrastructure for integration and testing (the FD.io CSIT lab is an example of this - see https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/CSIT_LF_testbed); Support for legal issues including trademarks and branding, and the ability to sign agreements on behalf of the project; Ability to pool resources for events and brand promotion; Safe haven for community IP resources.

We don't propose to debate the details here. Instead, an open discussion session on DPDK Project Growth has been included in the agenda for the DPDK Summit Userspace 2016 event in Dublin. We propose using that session to agree that the DPDK project will move to the Linux Foundation, and then to move on to discussing the specifics. Things that we'll need to consider include:
- Whether DPDK moves to the Linux Foundation as an independent project or as part of a larger project like FD.io.
- Creation of a project charter similar to those created for FD.io (https://fd.io/governance/technical-community-charter) and Open vSwitch (see http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20160619/5a2df53e/attachment-0001.pdf).
- Agreement on budget, membership levels etc. A draft budget was created by the LF during previous discussions (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3686Xb_jf4FtxdX8Mus9UwIxUb2vI_ppmJV5GnXcLg/edit#gid=302618256), but it is possible to adopt an even more lightweight model.

We could look at alternatives to the Linux Foundation, but a) we've been talking to the LF for over a year now, and b) the preponderance of networking projects in LF, like ODL, FD.io, and OVS, makes it a natural destination for DPDK.

As highlighted in previous discussions on this topic, it's important to stress that the intent is not to make significant changes to the technical governance and decision making of the project. The project has a strong set of maintainers and a Technical Board in place already. What's required is to supplement that with an open governance structure taking advantage of the services offered by the Linux Foundation.

The purpose of this email is to outline what we want to achieve during that discussion session in Dublin, and to allow people to consider the issue and prepare in advance. If people want to comment via email on the mailing list, that's obviously fine, but we believe that an open and frank discussion when people meet in person in Dublin is the best way to progress this.


For reference, below is a brief history of the previous discussions on this topic:

September 2015:
- A DPDK community call was held to discuss project growth and possible improvements. This was the first public discussion on possible governance changes. The agreed next step was to discuss this in more detail at the 2015 DPDK Summit Userspace event Dublin. Minutes of the call are at: http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-September/024120.html.

October 2015:
- An open discussion session on project governance was held at the 2015 DPDK Summit Userspace event. For technical governance, we agreed to investigate creating a technical steering committee. For non-technical governance (including things like event planning, legal and trademark issues, hosting of the website etc.), we agreed to work with the Linux Foundation on a proposal for a lightweight governance model for DPDK. Minutes of the discussion are at: http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-October/024825.html.

- The proposal for a technical steering committee was subsequently discussed on the mailing list (http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-October/026598.html) and agreed, leading to the creation of the DPDK Technical Board (http://dpdk.org/dev#board).

December 2015:
- A community call was held to discuss migration to the Linux Foundation. Mike Dolan (VP of Strategic Programs at The Linux Foundation) gave an overview of the LF and the services they can provide. We agreed to form a small sub-team (Dave Neary, Thomas Monjalon, Stephen Hemminger, Tim O'Driscoll) to work with the LF on a more detailed proposal. Minutes of the call are at: http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-December/030532.html.

February 2016:
- A community call was held to discuss the LF budget proposal (see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3686Xb_jf4FtxdX8Mus9UwIxUb2vI_ppmJV5GnXcLg/edit#gid=302618256). We agreed to discuss this further on the dev mailing list due to limited attendance on the call. Minutes of the call are at: http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/032720.html.

- A request was made on the dev and announce mailing lists too determine who supported the proposal to move to the Linux Foundation (http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033192.html). There was public support from Intel (http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033297.html) and Brocade (http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033359.html). 6WIND requested postponing the move for a few months (http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033299.html).

- The Fast Data (FD.io) project was established under the Linux Foundation (https://fd.io/news/announcement/2016/02/linux-foundation-forms-open-source-effort-advance-io-services).

June 2016:
- The Open vSwitch project proposed moving to the Linux Foundation (http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/discuss/2016-June/021761.html).

August 2016:
- The Open vSwitch project moved to the Linux Foundation (https://www.linuxfoundation.org/announcements/open-vswitch-joins-linux-foundation-open-networking-ecosystem).

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 20+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2016-10-22 19:27 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 20+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2016-10-10  8:33 [dpdk-dev] Project Governance and Linux Foundation O'Driscoll, Tim
2016-10-17 10:23 ` Hobywan Kenoby
2016-10-17 11:52   ` O'Driscoll, Tim
2016-10-17 12:40     ` [dpdk-dev] [dpdk-users] " Thomas Monjalon
2016-10-17 14:40       ` O'Driscoll, Tim
2016-10-18 13:22         ` Thomas Monjalon
2016-10-17 21:23     ` [dpdk-dev] " Dave Neary
2016-10-18 11:34       ` Jerin Jacob
2016-10-18 13:27         ` Thomas Monjalon
2016-10-18 16:26           ` Jerin Jacob
2016-10-19  8:04             ` O'Driscoll, Tim
2016-10-19  8:40               ` Dave Neary
2016-10-19  9:56                 ` Thomas Monjalon
2016-10-19  9:09               ` Jerin Jacob
     [not found] ` <20161018121629630001294@chinamobile.com>
2016-10-18 10:29   ` [dpdk-dev] [dpdk-users] How to printout PMD logs to console yingzhi
2016-10-18 10:58     ` Kavanagh, Mark B
2016-10-18 12:51   ` [dpdk-dev] [dpdk-users] Project Governance and Linux Foundation Thomas Monjalon
2016-10-21 14:00 ` [dpdk-dev] " Dave Neary
2016-10-21 17:20   ` Wiles, Keith
2016-10-22 19:27   ` Thomas Monjalon

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