I really liked the honesty around politics, companies (both big and startup), and the ways extending the community can be gamed. It’s great to see reflection on keeping things on track.
I had a few ideas to throw at the wall to see if they or a derivative stick.
1. For new projects, working groups, categories, and analysis of an area we could have a template containing the areas the TOC wants details on and an example of one being filled out. This will lead people who are doing the work in the direction the TOC wants.
For example, with a new working group there appears to be a desire for concrete measurable goals that can be tested for done. A template with an example could illustrate and communicate that.
2. The “cloud native” landscape is exploding. Big companies, startups, and everyone in between in getting going on it. This space is prone to churn. What the CNCF brings in and oversees could be considered separate from an effort to document the entire landscape as it changes. It may be worth completely separating these efforts entirely and not trying to overlap them.
For example, documenting a landscape could be a matter of coming up with criteria for inclusion and then keeping the landscape up to date for things that meet that. Then having a process to catch projects, products, and services that are no longer maintained and pruning them. Defining the category and pruning criteria is the hard part.
Then, separate from the documentation effort, come up with a list of value propositions for both having a project in the CNCF and keeping it under control by some other entity. These can even serve as a checklist to see if a proposed project has it’s goals in the right place when they want to join. Do the CNCFs value props for a project help them in addition to being a cloud native project.
These are just ideas to start a conversation.
