[yocto-ab] YP Advisory Board: April meeting minutes & new member info
Cobbley, David A
david.a.cobbley at intel.com
Fri Apr 22 13:22:02 PDT 2016
I agree that having members commit resources to advance the work is ideal. I believe the current rules do call for committed engineers and/or contributions. However, issue is appears to be that some members do not actually follow that commitment, or they tend to count resources/contributions for deliverables that mostly favor their own organization.
If we could tackle this issue - holding members accountable for their resource/contribution commitments - that would help our situation immensely.
--David C
-----Original Message-----
From: yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org [mailto:yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org] On Behalf Of Ricci, Davide
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2016 1:02 PM
To: William Mills <wmills at ti.com>; Jeff Osier-Mixon <jefro at jefro.net>; Justin Waters <justin.waters at timesys.com>
Cc: yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
Subject: Re: [yocto-ab] YP Advisory Board: April meeting minutes & new member info
Two options maybe? :
- get enough $ to fund the work
- get enough help (read "committed people / engineers / marketeers ") from the participating organizations to do the work
Linaro has a similar model in place - membership fee + engineers.
Conf call is definitely better.
D
________________________________________
From: yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org [yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org] on behalf of William Mills [wmills at ti.com]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2016 12:49 PM
To: Jeff Osier-Mixon; Justin Waters
Cc: yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
Subject: Re: [yocto-ab] YP Advisory Board: April meeting minutes & new member info
>>> I am doing my best to influence changes within MontaVista.
>>>
>>> - armin
No worries Armin. I know the members in the project are working with good intent. I think we just need to reset management expectations on the true cost of this project. In my own company it is a heck of a lot easier to get $5K to travel to meetings in EU or Asia but try to allocate $5K for an external software project is a major pitch.
On 04/22/2016 02:16 PM, Jeff Osier-Mixon wrote:
> This is an excellent question. The answer right now is no, we don't -
> we have so far left it up to individual organizations to decide the
> level at which they want to participate. This is different from LF's
> process of deciding solely based on organization size because we
> didn't want to prevent anyone from joining if, as has happened, YP is
> being used by a team of 30 people in a company of 10,000. Should we
> base their scale on the group or the company, knowing we won't get
> them as members in the latter case?
Even in the LF model, the org chooses the level. However the dues at [some?] levels are based on company size.
Jeffro: can you get the sliding scale LF uses for Silver membership?
If need be share this info on the yocto-ab-private list.
> So we have left that decision to
> the member themselves. As a result we have several very large
> companies at Silver level, but I believe they are companies we would
> not have at all otherwise. It might make sense at this point, 5 1/2
> years in, to create a table outlining expectations of membership
> level, participation, etc.
>
> I would suggest that if the project directly benefits the bottom line,
> an organization owes it to itself to participate and help guide the
> direction of the project. Thus, any company that relies on YP as an
> upstream or as a resource to support their own products (e.g. if they
> host a BSP layer) should be expected to join at the highest level they
> can reasonably afford, because YP is critical to their business. That
> said, each org has its own definition of what it can afford. In the
> guidelines for YP Participant status, we outlined large vs. small as
> being around 80 employees, on the theory that any company larger than
> that would have the resources to at least join as Silver.
>
If the size criteria gets too sticky, we also talked about adding a Bronze level or AB votes for reduced dues to companies we explicitly want in the project.
With 3 (Platinum, Gold, Silver) or 4 (+Bronze) levels we definitely need to make the membership level more prominent on the website. I understand this has some down sides but at the end of the day this is the biggest "get" from a higher level; recognition that you are a major supporter to YP.
> It is also worth noting that every change we make in our guidelines
> ripples through the pipeline of organizations interested in joining.
>
> It might be most expedient for someone or a small sub-group to come up
> with a strawman proposal for us to alter. Any volunteers?
>
I am happy to work in this group. I would prefer to do it on a conf call. We have tried to the e-mail list route a couple times and I am not convinced we will close this way.
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 10:07 AM, Justin Waters
> <justin.waters at timesys.com> wrote:
>> Do we have clear guidelines as to who we would consider good
>> candidates for each membership level? As in, size of company,
>> dependence on Yocto for their products, etc?
>>
>> Having a document or table like this would give us a couple of
>> things: 1) Something to take to upper management to make the case
>> that a higher level of participation is warranted, and b) that the
>> expectations are consistent and fair to everyone involved.
>>
>> I think we have a good enough sample size of members to pull some
>> numbers together. And it would help clarify who we consider "large"
>> and who we consider "small".
>>
>> -Justin
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 12:35 PM, akuster <akuster at mvista.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 04/19/2016 07:42 AM, William Mills wrote:
>>>> I have no issue giving small companies a price break in some way
>>>> (Bronze or sliding silver).
>>>> However, expecting Gold members to take up all the slack and larger
>>>> SIlver members pay nothing extra is not acceptable to TI.
>>>
>>> As I am with one of those larger Silver members that pay nothing
>>> extra, I understand your frustration and share your frustration.
>>>
>>> I am doing my best to influence changes within MontaVista.
>>>
>>> - armin
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 04/18/2016 01:39 PM, Jeff Osier-Mixon wrote:
>>>>> It is worth mentioning that there are other possibilities as well.
>>>>> Here are some ideas:
>>>>>
>>>>> - Bronze level at a lower price point
>>>>> - Sliding scale for Silver based on company size, say 5k - 20k
>>>>> - Dues increase only for Gold, not for Silver
>>>>> - Dues increase to 60k for Gold, 0 for Silver
>>>>>
>>>>> There are pros and cons for each of these. We need to keep in mind
>>>>> that the goal is to keep the project fully funded, to keep the
>>>>> documentation production at its normal rate, and to keep member
>>>>> value high.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Erway, Tracey M
>>>>> <tracey.m.erway at intel.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Jefro corrected me: "Dues are billed annually in January, so we
>>>>>> can't raise them in 2016. We asked people to donate spare cash, as Renesas did."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org
>>>>>> [mailto:yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org] On Behalf Of Erway,
>>>>>> Tracey M
>>>>>> Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 9:55 AM
>>>>>> To: Jeff Osier-Mixon; yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [yocto-ab] YP Advisory Board: April meeting minutes
>>>>>> & new member info
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The purpose of upping the dues was to cover this year's
>>>>>> shortfall. We need a solution that raises funds in the immediate
>>>>>> timeframe, so future guidelines will not address the issue.
>>>>>> /t
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org
>>>>>> [mailto:yocto-ab-bounces at yoctoproject.org] On Behalf Of Jeff
>>>>>> Osier-Mixon
>>>>>> Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 9:50 AM
>>>>>> To: yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [yocto-ab] YP Advisory Board: April meeting minutes
>>>>>> & new member info
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi again - I'm following up on the potential dues increase in
>>>>>> 2017. I had a conversation with Otavio this morning, and he
>>>>>> suggested that some of the Silver members might have a great deal
>>>>>> of difficulty with a 50% increase in dues, especially as they are
>>>>>> all currently paying for LF corporate membership as well.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I propose that we consider keeping Silver at 10k annually, but
>>>>>> placing stronger guidelines on which organizations can join as Silver.
>>>>>> Alternatively, we could reopen the discussion about Bronze level.
>>>>>> I think it is paramount to the community to have an affordable
>>>>>> participation level that still has access to YP Compatible status.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thoughts welcome
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 6:38 PM, Jeff Osier-Mixon
>>>>>> <jefro at jefro.net>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>> Note to new members - I have tried to add information in these
>>>>>>> minutes to help explain the roles of each of the groups within
>>>>>>> the project, so these minutes are quite long but hopefully
>>>>>>> informative.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yocto Project Advisory Board
>>>>>>> Wed April 6, 2016
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Attendees:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Tracey Erway, Intel
>>>>>>> Cyril Chemparathy, Xilinx
>>>>>>> Justin Waters, Timesys
>>>>>>> Bill Mills, TI
>>>>>>> Chris Hallinan, Mentor Graphics
>>>>>>> Armin Kuster, MontaVista
>>>>>>> Munakata-san, Renesas
>>>>>>> Stu Grossman. Juniper
>>>>>>> Tyler Baker, Linaro
>>>>>>> Philip Balister, OpenEmbedded
>>>>>>> Jeff Osier-Mixon, YP/Intel
>>>>>>> Lieu Ta, Wind River
>>>>>>> Richard Purdie, YP
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If I missed your name on the attendee list, please let me know.
>>>>>>> We did have a quorum and were able to vote in the meeting.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> New Members & Special Thanks
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The project welcomed new members Linaro and Xilinx, as well as
>>>>>>> returning member Timesys. Thanks for being part of the Yocto Project!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Special thanks to Renesas, who donated cash in Q1 to help pay
>>>>>>> for documentation and Developer Day, and to Intel, who also
>>>>>>> donated cash in Q1 to help pay for documentation.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> Budget
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lieu Ta from Wind River is responsible for Finance within the
>>>>>>> project.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The project has an annual budget of approximately US$400k. With
>>>>>>> this budget, we pay for the following categories of expenses,
>>>>>>> with 2015 percentages shown:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Infrastructure (66%): physical and network infrastructure,
>>>>>>> including build systems and servers, and systems administrator.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Operations (15%): basic project operations, including legal as
>>>>>>> well as 15% overhead to LF
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Advocacy (13%): activities often provided by marketing
>>>>>>> organizations, including collateral, public relations, outbound
>>>>>>> communications, and event coverage.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Documentation (5%): we pay a contract technical writer to
>>>>>>> create documentation for the project. (This expense is expected
>>>>>>> to grow significantly in 2016)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Community (1%): this budget covers gaps, including meeting
>>>>>>> expenses, donations to related organizations like OpenEmbedded,
>>>>>>> paid internships such as Outreachy, and occasionally travel for
>>>>>>> specific vital personnel to important gatherings.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lieu presented the results of the 2015 budget. Income and
>>>>>>> expenses were very nearly on par, with a small shortfall due to
>>>>>>> documentation expenses. The 2015 figures are currently posted on the wiki at:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Yocto_Project_Finances
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> We discussed the ongoing 2016 budget, which is expecting some
>>>>>>> notable shortfalls primarily due to the project taking on the
>>>>>>> cost of documentation, expected to cost $120k-150k/year. We also
>>>>>>> discussed the
>>>>>>> 2017 budget. This discussion is presented later in these minutes
>>>>>>> as part of the discussion about membership and business development.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> Advocacy & Events
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Tracey Erway from Intel leads the Advocacy effort for YP, with
>>>>>>> help from the Advocacy team.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Tracey presented a summary of advocacy activities, including
>>>>>>> events, giveaways, Developer Day training sessions, and the
>>>>>>> backgrounder that was finished last year. She also mentioned
>>>>>>> that YP currently has 80% of the commercial embedded linux OS
>>>>>>> market share, which is great news indeed.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In 2015 we attended and sponsored ELC and ELCE, and also added
>>>>>>> SCaLE in early 2016 along with a free-to-attend introductory
>>>>>>> training session, or "mini-DevDay" event, with training provided
>>>>>>> by LF Training.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Developer Day US 2015 in San Jose was actually profitable due to
>>>>>>> the efforts of Mentor Graphics and the donation of their
>>>>>>> facility. Both DevDays were greatly enhanced by the donation and
>>>>>>> subsequent giveaway of a great deal of hardware from Intel, TI,
>>>>>>> and TechNexion, as well as SanDisk. DevDay US 2016 was made
>>>>>>> possible by a large cash donation from Renesas as well as
>>>>>>> hardware donations from Linaro, TI, and Intel.
>>>>>>> All DevDay sessions are driven by the tireless effort of many
>>>>>>> volunteer speakers, classroom helpers, and organizers to reach
>>>>>>> 150-200
>>>>>>> students directly each year, who then take that knowledge back
>>>>>>> to their companies.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Andreea completed work on the YP backgrounder, a brochure with
>>>>>>> two versions that is available in the YP booth at all events.
>>>>>>> PDF versions have been sent to all member organizations so they
>>>>>>> can print it and bring it to events that YP does not sponsor.
>>>>>>> The longer of the two, which contains profiles of each
>>>>>>> organization that contributed now needs to be updated because of
>>>>>>> our new members, but the smaller version still works just fine.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Tracey identified the website as a primary need. It needs to be
>>>>>>> refreshed with an easier to read front page, a regular blog, and
>>>>>>> better information flow for new users. Several people have
>>>>>>> volunteered ideas - at this point what is needed is funding and
>>>>>>> resources to make it happen.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Bill Mills cautioned the organization to not be too marketing
>>>>>>> driven, which we discussed as a group.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jefro congratulated the Advocacy team for getting so much done
>>>>>>> on such a small budget.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> Infrastructure
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Michael Halstead is a systems administrator who started with YP
>>>>>>> in the very early days as a contractor. He is now an employee at
>>>>>>> Linux Foundation working solely on YP. His salary as well as all
>>>>>>> the servers and infrastructure he works on come from this
>>>>>>> budget.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Michael gave a rundown on our infrastructure, particularly the
>>>>>>> build machines and autobuilders he manages along with the
>>>>>>> servers, particularly the git server and all community assets
>>>>>>> such as the mailing lists, wiki, and bugzilla.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> Documentation
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Scott Rifenbark is the project's technical writer. He sometimes
>>>>>>> works in conjunction with other resources donated by member
>>>>>>> organizations, particularly Intel. Scott has been with the
>>>>>>> project since before its launch in 2010. He previously worked as
>>>>>>> an Intel employee, but since fall 2015 he has been contracted to the project through LF.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Since documentation is one of the primary value adds that the
>>>>>>> project provides to its members, this is an important resource to hang onto.
>>>>>>> We have paid for Scott's work to date by donations from member
>>>>>>> organizations, particularly Intel and Renesas. If documentation
>>>>>>> is important to you, please consider donating for this budget
>>>>>>> specifically.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> To pay for documentation, the Advisory Board discussed three
>>>>>>> major funding ideas, which are covered next.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> Business Development and Membership
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The project has had between 17 and 20 members for most of its
>>>>>>> existence, and while the budget has always been one of the
>>>>>>> smallest among the LF Collaborative Projects, we have provided
>>>>>>> quite a lot of value to the members and to the general public
>>>>>>> with what we had. It is noteworthy that the project has been
>>>>>>> self-sustaining for nearly all of the five years it has existed,
>>>>>>> and we want to continue that success going forward.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Given the expenses and income the project expects for 2016,
>>>>>>> particularly the added load of documentation, we discussed at
>>>>>>> length ways to increase the available funds through business
>>>>>>> development and membership dues.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> We settled on five specific actions:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Establish a new membership level: Platinum, with dues of 100k
>>>>>>> (or more). Each Platinum member gets two votes on the Advisory Board.
>>>>>>> This
>>>>>>> is effective immediately, and any member organization can switch
>>>>>>> to Platinum at any time. Each member org is tasked with the
>>>>>>> action to pitch this membership level to their management
>>>>>>> structure to see if it is feasible.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Propose to raise dues starting in 2017. The current proposal
>>>>>>> is to move Gold members to 55k per year, an increase of 10k, and
>>>>>>> Silver members to 15k per year, an increase of 5k. Each member
>>>>>>> org is tasked with the action to let their organizations know
>>>>>>> this increase has been proposed and to report back to the group
>>>>>>> in May.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Become more active and involved as a group in recruiting new
>>>>>>> member organizations. To that end, several members are
>>>>>>> interested in exploring the new member pipeline and also in
>>>>>>> looking to their own network of partners to expand project membership.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - A potential non-voting Bronze level was also discussed, with
>>>>>>> potential dues of 1k to 5k and various member values and
>>>>>>> potential restrictions. However, this would provide minimal
>>>>>>> benefit to the project, so it was decided instead to establish a
>>>>>>> YP Supporter level to recognize anyone who donates any amount to
>>>>>>> the project lower than a Silver membership. Jefro will follow up
>>>>>>> on how this recognition is to be done, including a provisional
>>>>>>> YP Supporter badge similar to YP Participant.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - We also discussed establishing clearer guidelines on member
>>>>>>> value, especially in terms of access to the primary YP git
>>>>>>> server at git.yoctoproject.org. The team has an action to review
>>>>>>> the current tree of layers available on the git server so that
>>>>>>> more valuable layers will be more prominent. It was noted that
>>>>>>> some hosted hardware layers are not represented by the companies
>>>>>>> who produce the hardware, so the team agreed to approach those
>>>>>>> companies for silver membership, and potentially to formalize
>>>>>>> autobuilder access and QA support as member benefits. RP has the
>>>>>>> lead responsibility for these things, with Jefro planning to
>>>>>>> help.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Along those same lines, the BSP layer definition was planned to
>>>>>>> be discussed at the OpenEmbedded meeting later in the week. RP
>>>>>>> agreed to discuss BSPs in more detail at th enext Advisory Board
>>>>>>> meeting in May.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Tracey offered to write up some of the data she has access to in
>>>>>>> terms of market share so that members can use it to promote YP
>>>>>>> inside their own organizations.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Members can always donate funds, as Renesas and Intel have
>>>>>>> recently, and it is good to remember that each organization has
>>>>>>> a responsibility to donate human resources to the project, as
>>>>>>> mentioned in the membership agreement. Most member organizations
>>>>>>> have at least one person working full-time on YP issues.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> One more note about membership. Please be aware that while the
>>>>>>> project currently places no concrete restrictions on membership
>>>>>>> level, there is an expectation that a member org's chosen level
>>>>>>> will correspond to some degree with organization size, but
>>>>>>> mostly with the real value it gets from the project. Members
>>>>>>> rely on YP as an upstream for their own software products, as an
>>>>>>> enabling tool for their hardware BSPs, or as a primary tool for
>>>>>>> creating operating systems for commercial embedded products.
>>>>>>> Given the extremely high market penetration the project has
>>>>>>> established in only five years, project dues are very
>>>>>>> inexpensive compared to the value received. These are vital
>>>>>>> business functions, so it makes sense to support the project as
>>>>>>> fully as your organization can.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _____________________________________________________
>>>>>>> Community
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Community management is a gap-filling role within the
>>>>>>> organization, with a charter to listen to each of the
>>>>>>> communities within the project
>>>>>>> - users, maintainers, technical leaders, maintainers - and to
>>>>>>> monitor and enable their efforts. Jeff "Jefro" Osier-Mixon is
>>>>>>> the community manager, and he also serves as business liaison to
>>>>>>> the technical writer, project liaison to Michael Halstead, and
>>>>>>> contributor to Advocacy and other efforts within the organization.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As we were short on time, Jefro briefly discussed the vibrant
>>>>>>> and very active YP community, which has experienced a
>>>>>>> rock-steady growth since the project's inception, having grown
>>>>>>> out of the already active OpenEmbedded community. The project
>>>>>>> has 35-50 distinct committers each month, and a very active
>>>>>>> codebase. (More technical stats at
>>>>>>> https://www.openhub.net/p/YoctoProject) The website experiences
>>>>>>> on the order of 2.8M pageviews annually. The mailing lists are
>>>>>>> home to about
>>>>>>> 2500 very active developers, and we have active presence on
>>>>>>> several social media sites.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Some statistics are available, and more metrics are being
>>>>>>> developed this year, but we discussed briefly that they are not
>>>>>>> entirely meaningful other than to establish and track trends. As
>>>>>>> project godfather Dave Stewart said once, it isn't the raw
>>>>>>> number of participants that matters, it's that we reach the
>>>>>>> right participants, those who benefit from the project and those
>>>>>>> who can do good for the project in return. With 80% market share
>>>>>>> and many thousands of individual users worldwide, I think we are
>>>>>>> currently successful with that, and it will continue to be our core value.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Please feel free to contact me directly or comment on this
>>>>>>> thread to the Advisory Board, and don't hesitate to reach out to
>>>>>>> me personally if anything is unclear or if you have any questions.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks for participating!
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Jeff Osier-Mixon
>>>>>>> Open Source Community Architect, Intel Corporation
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Jeff Osier-Mixon
>>>>>> Open Source Community Architect, Intel Corporation
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> yocto-ab mailing list
>>>>>> yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
>>>>>> https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/yocto-ab
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> yocto-ab mailing list
>>>>>> yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
>>>>>> https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/yocto-ab
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> yocto-ab mailing list
>>> yocto-ab at yoctoproject.org
>>> https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/yocto-ab
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Justin Waters
>> Director of Engineering
>> Timesys Corporation
>
>
>
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