[yocto-ab] YP Advisory Board: Minutes 11 Feb 2014

[Osier-mixon, Jeffrey]

I am aware the the minutes for the last meeting were quite long, and
that it is likely few people had an opportunity to read them through.
However, there are a few high priority issues still pressing.

Advocacy team - I plan to call a meeting in the next 2 weeks. Please
make sure to send a representative from your organization and ask them
to join the yocto-advocacy list if they aren't there already.

RTC Supplement - this needs to stay in motion if we are to get it done
before midsummer. As we discussed in the meeting, I would like to call
for a vote on this before the next Advocacy team meeting, so expect it
at the beginning of next week. Details are in the minutes below.

Budget - I'm still working on a preliminary advocacy budget, planned
to fit into the approved 94k figure, which I will present at the next
advocacy meeting. Other budget items for 2014 should be fixed at this
point. Any questions can come to Lieu or me.

thanks


On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 3:27 PM, Osier-mixon, Jeffrey
<jeffrey.osier-mixon at intel.com> wrote:
> The Yocto Project Advisory Board met on 11 February 2014, the first
> meeting this year. We had representatives from several memberships,
> but we didn't quite make a quorum so there were no actual votes.
>
> These minutes are quite long, as we had a very productive meeting. You
> can find individual agenda items by searching for _> or look for
> action items by searching for => below.
>
> Attending (* indicates voting member):
>
> Steve Sakoman, Sakoman Inc *
> Lieu Ta, Wind River Systems *
> Phil Brownfield, Freescale *
> Michael Brown, Dell *
> Philip Balister, OpenEmbedded Project *
> Bill Mills, Texas Instruments *
> Dave Stewart, Intel *
> Richard Purdie, Linux Foundation
> Rudi Streif, Linux Foundation
> Jeffrey Osier-Mixon (Intel), Yocto Project
>
> The agenda included:
>
> - YP Participant votes
> - automated testing summary
> - bug scrub
> - internships
> - annual budget
> - adding Tracey as a nonvoting permanent member
> - advocacy team
> - summary of action items
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> YP Participant votes
>
> We discussed two recent applicants, Dynamic Devices and Zenotec.
>
> Dynamic Devices was a shoe-in, and voting was nearly finished before
> the meeting.
>
> Zenotec was a great example of a type of applicant we get often - an
> organization who is just starting to use YP and wants to increase
> their visibility. The AB usually does not vote this type of applicant
> in, so I encourage them to join the community and participate visibly
> in order to attain Participant status.
>
> Philip Balister mentioned that he still encounters orgs using OE
> Classic to create shipping devices, but most of these are moving to OE
> Core (and thus YP).
>
> We also discussed the difficulty in estimating the size of the YP
> community in terms of users, as a great many YP users are "off the
> radar" for several reasons. Steve Sakoman says that he has around 10
> heavy users who are not visible in the community, of which 2/3 are
> large companies or government organizations and 1/3 are small
> companies. In the larger YP community I believe this ratio is
> approximately reversed in terms of number, but this ratio is probably
> very close in terms of actual shipping products.
>
> As we rarely get a quorum at AB meetings, voting will continue to
> happen by email until a more automated web-based voting system is put
> in place, hopefully later this year but the priority on this is low
> since the current system works.
>
> No direct actions were assigned.
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> Automated testing summary
>
> Bill Mills provided a summary of the automated testing framework
> effort that is ongoing (mailing list at
> https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/automated-testing). This group
> meets periodically and is currently discussing physical testing
> frameworks for what are now QEMU based targets. Especially under
> discussion is the use of Lava, which has been adopted by Linaro.
>
> Contact Bill and/or sign up for the mailing list to participate.
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> Bug scrub
>
> Richard Purdie provided a summary of the OE community effort to hold a
> "bug scrub" weekend. The weekend was not heavily attended, but did
> show that a period of focused effort on bugzilla, closing out extant
> issues, can be immensely helpful to both the OE and YP communities.
> The OE Technical Steering Committee is strongly in favor of holding
> these bug scrub events and is looking for help with this activity
>
> Philip Balister encouraged all member orgs to appoint representatives
> to show up at these events, or to at least indicate their
> availability, as even one day of solid work can yield great results.
> Bill Mills discussed the potential cadence of such events (monthly? 4
> days long to catch everyone's availability?) - if the events happen
> too often they can lose critical mass. Philip suggested that more
> advance notice of the event on all relevant mailing lists would help
> attendance. Also discussed was whether to host a bug scrub via
> yoctoproject.org or in a vm on yp infrastructure.
>
> The next event is being scheduled for the weekend of Feb 22.
>
> =>Jefro to plan bug scrub as one activity at the upcoming ELC hackathon
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> Internships
>
> Google Summer of Code is seeking member organizations to host
> mentorships. However, most YP organizations are already overloaded and
> do not have the bandwidth to act as mentors, so we will be skipping
> GSoC again this year. However, we will very likely work with the GNOME
> Foundation's Outreach Program for Women again, as we had great success
> with last year's internship program. The community budget has been
> increased to accommodate this internship.
>
> This topic also sparked a discussion about coming up with a task list
> for interns or other energetic new users to tackle, as it is
> intimidating for new (and experienced) users to simply hunt through
> bugzilla looking for appropriate tasks. Philip Balister suggested we
> focus on coming up with an idea list based on the current bugzilla
> content. Jefro also suggested that when bite-sized tasks are
> identified, we could post them on an aggregator site like
> http://openhatch.org, with the caveat that very often these tasks
> require some guidance from senior developers.
>
> No direct actions were assigned.
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> Annual budget
>
> Lieu Ta presented an updated assessment of the Yocto Project financial
> situation. The wiki page on finances has been updated at
> https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Yocto_Project_Finances although
> there are still some expenses from 2013 that have not yet been
> applied, so 2013 is not yet closed.
>
> The good news is that the Advocacy Team has achieved their asking
> amount of approximately US$94,000. This will enable the team to
> provide advocacy efforts including conference sponsorship, booth
> transfer from place to place, materials, and a Developer Day event at
> ELCE in the fall. These items are discussed below, and a more detailed
> Advocacy budget is forthcoming.
>
> =>Advocacy team to fine-tune 2014 Advocacy budget in next meeting
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> Tracey Erway
>
> Jefro proposed to invite Tracey Erway to the Advisory Board as a
> permanent non-voting member. Tracey is a founder of the Yocto Project
> who has been instrumental to the project in terms of advocacy,
> messaging, and managing the project's relationships. YP would not be
> YP without her influence. Tracey is now working on other projects, but
> we very much need to retain her wisdom and advice.
>
> =>Jefro to describe non-voting position for Tracey and call for an AB
> vote this week
>
> ________________________________________________________>
> Advocacy team
>
> NOTE: Advocacy issues were paramount at this month's meeting, so this
> section is longer than the rest. Look for _______ to search among
> topics, which include:
>
> - Advocacy team charter
> - Events
> - Demos
> - Website
> - Messaging
> - RTC Supplement
>
> The YP Advocacy Team has been headed by Tracey Erway since its
> inception in early 2011. It is responsible for the Yocto Project's
> image and message to the outside world. Its activities include:
>
> - organizing and executing events such as conferences and Developer Days
> - consistent messaging on materials, the website, articles, etc.
> - curating the YP website
> - directing the YP Compliance Program
> - finding innovative ways to advocate for and promote YP
>
> The first Advocacy Team meeting was held last week, but only gathered
> members from three organizations out of the 16 members in the project.
> In order for the team to accurately represent the needs of all of the
> members, we need participation from every organization, and that
> includes meetings and mailing list as well as physical participation
> at events. Tracey and I have agreed to contact each member
> organization individually this month to determine how each will
> participate in the advocacy effort.
>
> In short - if you are reading this, your organization needs to
> participate in order to have a voice in how the messages are crafted,
> how the events are staffed, and how the project is promoted.
>
> =>All member orgs to provide resources to Advocacy Team by next meeting
> _______
> Events
>
> Jefro discussed the events coming up in 2014 where YP is planning a
> presence of some kind. For those listed as "member booths",
> participation depends on member organizations providing some YP
> presence in their booths at these events. "Presentations" means that I
> am aware of presentations that either have been submitted to a CFP or
> are scheduled to appear.
>
> Q1 2014:
>
> - FOSDEM (present in the OpenEmbedded booth)
> - Embedded World (presentation)
> - Mobile World Congress (presentation)
>
> Q2 2014:
>
> - Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit (meetings only)
> - EE Live, was DesignWest (member booths, presentations)
> - Embedded Linux Conference North America
>   (sponsorship, YP booth, presentations, OE/YP hackathon)
> - LinuxCon Japan (member booths, presentations)
>
> Q3 2014:
>
> - OSCON (member booths)
> - LinuxCon North America (member booths)
>
> Q4 2014:
>
> - ARM TechCon (member booths, possible sponsorship, presentations)
> - Embedded Linux Conference Europe
>   (sponsorship, YP booth, presentations, Developer Day)
>
> In addition, some of our member organizations host their own
> conferences. We discussed the possibility of participating in
> Freescale Tech Forums next year, particularly in China or India where
> the attendance is large. Intel often provides "chalk talk"
> presentations at Intel Developer Forum events as well. It is strongly
> encouraged for all member orgs with corporate conferences to make sure
> YP is represented there. We also briefly discussed participating in
> Linaro Connect events if possible.
>
> =>Advocacy Team to work out participation details for all events at next meeting
> _______
> Demos
>
> Product demos are highly useful in starting conversations at
> conferences. As Philip Balister pointed out, sometimes it is hard for
> a discussion to transition from a fancy gadget to the build system
> that created that gadget, though that is easier at developer events
> like ELC and ELCE than, for example, than at EE Live. It is important
> to always remember to describe the main benefits of the project rather
> than just enabling a look at a cool demo.
>
> Philip reports that FOSDEM is a great place for demos, and has
> featured many demos this year and in previous years.
>
> It is expected that all member organizations have some sort of product
> demo that could feature the Yocto Project as a talking point. However,
> the Advocacy Team is aware of very few of these. If you have a demo
> that you take to conferences, please let us know.
>
> =>All orgs to create demos and alert Advocacy Team, ongoing
> _______
> Website
>
> The YP website was overhauled completely last fall in time for ELCE
> 2013 and our fall release. Not all of its features were complete,
> however, and some of its content still requires much work by hand to
> maintain. Jefro is the de facto director of the website, and he
> recommends that the workload be more distributed. This could mean
> participation from member organizations, the hiring of an intern, or
> possibly effort from a community volunteer if one appears.
>
> The actual overhaul to the site itself will likely require funds in
> order to hire Drupal contractors, and some funds have been allocated
> in the budget to accomplish this. Actual requirements and an action
> plan still need to be provided.
>
> =>Jefro to organize website overhaul and ongoing updates, present a
> plan by next AB meeting
> _______
> Messaging
>
> One of the most important jobs for the Advocacy Team is to provide
> direction for consistent messaging through all the methods that the
> project interfaces with the outside world. This includes everything
> from the project's taglines and other website features all the way to
> technical messages used in articles, the colors and images used in the
> booth and in videos on the website, our interface with the Linux
> Foundation's advocacy team, and in the messaging for marketing efforts
> from individual member organizations. In addition, this also includes
> the use of YP logos and badges through the YP Compliance Program,
> which is currently administered by the community manager.
>
> The project has had very consistent messaging since its inception,
> largely due to the efforts of Tracey Erway. Tracey is not directly
> working on advocacy issues this year, so the team needs to step up its
> efforts and streamline its processes to make sure these messages are
> consistent.
>
> Dave Stewart briefly discussed the YP tagline "It's not an embedded
> Linux distribution - it creates a custom one for you". This has been
> our tagline for three years and it was very useful during that time to
> answer the question "what is the Yocto Project". It has been suggested
> that we may need a new tagline as the project matures, although no
> action items were immediately created as a result of this discussion.
>
> The current buzz in the industry is focused on expanding vertical
> markets: medical devices, aerospace, wearable technology, and the
> "internet of things" (IoT). In Advocacy efforts it makes sense to
> focus on these areas where the project has very high traction and can
> solve problems for many people. Steve Sakoman described that his
> projects a few years ago were more focused on aerospace and industrial
> devices, while over the last few months they have been much more
> geared toward IoT, wearables, and medical devices. Dave Stewart
> suggested that we should "tap into the buzz" about these devices where
> YP is so strong.
>
> It is worth mentioning that security for embedded devices is a very
> hot topic and is present in nearly every article or blog post about
> IoT or medical devices, not to mention automotive. Dave Stewart will
> present a talk at Embedded World and Mobile World Congress which
> addresses security in embedded devices and how the Yocto Project can
> help organizations with this effort.
>
> As we move forward with the website overhaul, the Advocacy Team can
> update the messaging on the site to address these trends. The team
> welcomes and strongly encourages participation from every member
> organization on messaging.
>
> =>Advocacy Team to work out project messaging starting at next meeting
> _______
> RTC supplement
>
> RTC Magazine is a professional publication that goes out to 18,000
> subscribers on paper every month. Nearly every issue also contains a
> supplement of 24-40 pages focused on a particular aspect of embedded
> computing, and generally provided and paid for by an organization. For
> example, the most recent supplement featured AMD's lineup of SoCs with
> details, articles, and ads from AMD.
>
> Over the past several months, the Advocacy Team has been communicating
> with RTC Group to work out an opportunity for the Yocto Project to
> create a supplement for RTC magazine. The benefits include a mailing
> to 18k people plus distribution at all of RTC's RTECC conferences
> worldwide. Reprints are available as well, so individual organizations
> can order more of these to use at conferences, giving YP a presence at
> events where we would not otherwise be able to participate. In
> addition, the supplement would be available as a PDF which we could
> distribute through the YP site and through member organization's
> websites. We could update and reissue this document on an annual
> basis, and worldwide translation is available if we decide that is
> desired.
>
> Content would be provided by the YP organizations themselves, and this
> is an area where the project can show its flexibility and its ability
> to cooperate among many organizations. There are several options for
> both creating content and for paying for the supplement. It is of
> ultimate importance that all member organizations must get some page
> space and positive showing in the supplement, so one idea is to
> feature case studies and success stories from each org for the first
> half of the document, followed by in-depth articles provided by orgs
> through the Advocacy Team. We may also make ad space available to help
> pay for the project.
>
> The total for 28 pages is quoted at $36,000, which is in line with
> similar projects with printed media. Most are not quite this flexible
> - for example, EE Times prefers to write their own articles. RTC is
> available to answer any questions we might have, and Jefro can set up
> a call with them if needed.
>
> This is a great opportunity for the project to both showcase the
> project's strongest attributes - as Richard Purdie says, the
> unification and cooperation among silicon manufacturers, OS vendors,
> OEM/ODM organizations, and other open source projects - and also
> provide a conduit for individual organizations to strut their stuff.
> We will need all hands on deck in order for it to succeed.
>
> Bill Mills suggested that RTC Magazine doesn't generally reach TI's
> customer base, which is a concern. Also of concern is the cost of the
> project, which could be somewhat offset by accepting ads from member
> orgs.
>
> =>Jefro to send out summary of RTC opportunity
> =>All member orgs to review RTC opportunity and ask questions in
> preparation for a go/no-go vote
>
> ________________________________________________________
> The meeting adjourned after two hours.
>
> Summary of action items:
>
> =>Jefro to plan bug scrub as one activity at the upcoming ELC hackathon
> =>Advocacy team to fine-tune 2014 Advocacy budget in next meeting
> =>Jefro to describe non-voting position for Tracey and call for an AB
> vote this week
> =>All member orgs to provide resources to Advocacy Team by next meeting
> =>Advocacy Team to work out participation details for all events at next meeting
> =>All orgs to create demos and alert Advocacy Team, ongoing
> =>Jefro to organize website overhaul and ongoing updates, present a
> plan by next AB meeting
> =>Advocacy Team to work out project messaging starting at next meeting
> =>Jefro to send out summary of RTC opportunity
> =>All member orgs to review RTC opportunity and ask questions in
> preparation for a go/no-go vote
>
> --
> Jeff Osier-Mixon @Intel
> Yocto Project Community Manager http://yoctoproject.org



-- 
Jeff Osier-Mixon @Intel
Yocto Project Community Manager http://yoctoproject.org