Re: [Ksummit-2008-discuss] KS Topic Proposal: Vendor and User problems with the Kernel

["Grant Grundler" <grundler@google.com>]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 9:21 AM, James Bottomley
<James.Bottomley@hansenpartnership.com> wrote:
> This proposal is a bit different from a concrete topic, but it's based
> on the generally positive feedback from the end user panel last year.
> It's to allocate 2h of Kernel summit to discuss problems raised by
> vendors and end users.  The format I'm proposing is 10 minutes of
> problem introduction by someone from the vendor or user representative
> who is a subject matter expert and 20 minutes of discussion (so,
> hopefully four such problems).
>
> As usual, the difficulty is actually finding people from the vendor and
> user community willing to do such a presentation (and ensuring they
> won't simply want to talk about their problems with X distro enterprise
> kernels).  The way I think we might get some diverse problems is to send
> out a call for participation.

I think this is a good idea and I suggest using referrals since it's not
just about the problem. It's also how it's presented. And it would be
worth a few $K to pay for a good presenter who has something relevant
to say. e.g. enough to cover travel/hotel plus something extra.

Secondly, these problems arise because second tier users aren't
participating in the development. I see this CFP as a "Call For Participation"
and not a "call for papers".

I also suggest trying to get representatives from different communities.
e.g. education, handhelds, desktop (something other than gfx drivers,
maybe revisit the user visible latency issues), HPC, database, etc.
I left out "embedded" since that's now too vague, has been flogged
to death in the past, and I _hope_ now has better participation.

The last issue I see is "Vendor" usually means HW vendor with a few
major SW vendors (e.g. Oracle, SAP). Those guys have sufficient
representation and I think some newer, smaller players (e.g. not google)
would be more interesting to invite. Maybe dreamworks, pixar, or
Ernie Ball Guitar Strings (http://www.ernieball.com/) might be examples.

hth,
grant

> Something like.
>
> "The kernel summit programme committe is inviting proposals for
> participation in the 2008 Kernel Summit in Portland Oregon (URL) from
> members of the End User and Vendor communities wishing to raise
> particular issues or problems they see with the current Linux Kernel.  A
> good problem presentation should stimulate discussion with the kernel
> community, and as such the presenter should be a subject matter expert
> capable of engaging in the debate.  While the presenter may have a
> preferred solution, they should concentrate on the problem and be
> prepared to consider the effects of solutions outside of their preferred
> one.  It goes without saying that problems should have a significant
> component which is susceptible to a solution within the Linux Kernel.
>
> "Proposals of around 500 words and describing the nature of the problem
> and the credentials of the presenter should be forwarded to the Linux
> Kernel Programme Committee at
> <ksummit-2008-pc@lists.linux-foundation.org>"
>
> Obviously we'd have to circulate this beyond the usual mailing lists,
> but we can solicit help from the Linux Foundation to do this.
>
> James
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ksummit-2008-discuss mailing list
> Ksummit-2008-discuss@lists.linux-foundation.org
> https://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ksummit-2008-discuss
>