Revision as of 08:39, 8 July 2013

OpenStack Travel Support Program - RFC Draft

The program's aim is to facilitate participation of key contributors to the OpenStack Design Summit covering costs for travel and accommodation. The Travel Support Program is based on the promise of Open Design. Key contributors are contributors whose presence is specifically relevant for the topics to be discussed at the Summit they're applying to. Relevance of somebody's presence is never evaluated in general ways: it's always relative to the content being discussed at the specific Summit. The OpenStack Foundation will set aside a fund to support this program. The total amount of the fund is to be divided among the key contributors.

Criteria and process

All contributors to OpenStack (developers, documentation writers, organisers of user groups around the world, Ask moderators, translators, etc) are invited to submit a request. PTLs and code reviewers also are requested to propose candidates.

• Candidates apply on the online form starting July 10, with the deadline of July 31
• Travel Selection Committee evaluates entries based on criterias stated below
• Travel Agent coordinates with key contributors.

The OpenStack Foundation will coordinate directly with the key contributors to arrange for their travel, according to the level of funds granted.

Who decides

The travel committee is made of OpenStack Foundation staff, plus the OpenStack PTLs for core, integrated and incubated projects and two volunteers from the OpenStack Board of Directors & User Committee.

How the decision is made

Members of the committee vote for each candidate based on their application with votes ranging -2 to +2. PTLs can use +3 for strong candidates for the Design sessions. Negative votes are to be considered for people known to be disruptive to discussions, non collaborative, time wasters. Not known get 0. People that never participated to OpenStack Summits start with a +1 vote. Votes are aggregated and a ranking is built. The ranking will not be public in order to avoid rancour and resentment. The Travel Committe will write a summary for each approved candidate highlighting the reasons for their approval (this will help future applicants in understanding what is considered valuable).

The Travel Committee submits the list with rankings to the OpenStack Foundation for building the final list. The final list will be assembled based on the individual travel costs, as estimated by the applicants. A negotiation phase may be needed between the Travel Committee and the Foundation staff. The main unknown tend to be flight costs as they're hard to finalize. Hotel costs are easy to estimate and cover by the Foundation.

Travel rewards and deadlines for Icehouse/Hong Kong Summit

Hotel Rooms: approx $30K investment

• We have 20 rooms booked at the Regal Hotel, November 2-9 (depending on how long they need to stay)
• Room rate including tax is approx $230/night (maximum 7 nights)
• http://www.regalhotel.com/Regal-Airport-Hotel/Main/hotel-home.aspx
• All of the rooms in our block have double beds, so we can ask grantees to stay with a roommate to accomodate more people.
• Deadline: Must have names and dates submitted by August 28, otherwise we will lose investment in hotel room block. Need to be clear about whether it's a single or double room (with roommate).

Flights: approx $20K investment, this will be the area we need to more closely manage spend

• Should have the ability to cover 12-14 flights (depending on where they're traveling from)
• Flights will be booked via OpenStack Foundation travel coordinator
• Deadline: Need to have travel details submitted by August 15 for reasonable rates

Registration: approx $8K investment

• We can provide up to 20 full-access Summit passes (to help subsidize costs for those who are not ATCs or sponsors receiving a free badge - most likely users or potential contributors)
• Deadline: Need to have names by October 4

Meals

• The Regal hotel offers free buffet breakfast, and lunch and snacks will be provided at the event. They would be on their own for dinner.

Total Foundation Investment: $58K USD