The Ceph User Committee is born

If you have been keeping an eye on the Ceph mailing lists you probably noticed the recent launch of the Ceph User Committee that was discussed at the Firefly user summit. This is an exciting development in the Ceph community as it gives us many more hands to make sure that Ceph users around the world have the ability to collaborate and further the technology in any way that they are able.

For the official announcement with founding members and current roles, read on!

The founding members of the Ceph User Committee (see below) are pleased to announce its creation as of December 10th, 2013. We are actively engaged in organizing meetups, collecting use cases, and more. Any Ceph user is welcome to join, simply by sending an email to our mailing list (ceph-users@ceph.io). Ceph promises to be a major force in the future of storage and the intention is that the Ceph Community will be an integral part of that.

The Ceph User Committee is founded by people and organizations from all backgrounds to discover innovative ways to leverage Ceph to its full potential. Its home is Ceph.io and the founding members agreed on the following mission statement

• Organize meetups, events, booth, talks…: Meeting in person is a useful way to exchange experience and tips and to discover new ways to use Ceph. The User Committee helps with the logistics. It is also responsible for maintaining a calendar of upcoming events.
• Collect use cases and user stories: A diverse collection of existing use cases is a precious source of inspiration for the community. The User Committee approaches users and conducts interviews. A well articulated user story that describes how Ceph could be used in the future is an effective way for developers to figure out what should be included in the roadmap. The User Committee will organize user stories published in a wiki and sort them according to their popularity.
• Focus on the Free and Open Source ecosystem: Ceph is included in proprietary solutions used by a growing number of companies to run successful commercial activities. Their ecosystem is not in the scope of the User Committee. The User Committee’s focus is on the Open standards, formats, and the Free and Open Source software that can be assembled with Ceph and allow users to freely use, modify, distribute and study the code.

The Ceph User Committee is a nonprofit initiative and favors diversity of all types. The founding members include industry leaders, academics, research organizations, SME, NGOs, and individuals from around the world. It will concern itself with all matters that may hinder the widespread adoption of Ceph by the general public, including technical, operational, and legal concerns.

Any individual is welcome to join the Ceph User Committee : the only requirement is to agree on the mission statement. Volunteer participation is encouraged and a number of the founding members agreed to contribute by organizing meetups, editing ceph.com, etc. If the organization employing a member of the Ceph User Committee also agrees to the mission statement, it will be listed next to the member name in the directory. It does not cost anything to become a member (just ask to become a member by sending an email to the list at ceph-users@ceph.io).

The bureaucracy is kept to a minimum so that the Ceph User Committee can grow organically from the good will and the needs of its members. In six months from now an election will be organized to distribute roles and responsibilities. And, it will also probably be an appropriate time to establish more formal rules and a more stable mission statement.

Loic Dachary [ loic@dachary.org ]  
Acting head of the committee, in charge of organizing the election of the board in may 2014.

Li Wang (Kylin) [ liwang@ubuntukylin.com ]  
Meetup Changsha, China

Jiangang Duan (Intel) [ jiangang.duan@intel.com ]  
Meetup Shangai, China

Patrick McGarry (Inktank) [ patrick@inktank.com ]  
Kindly agreed to assist with all details that will help the User Committee grow and prosper.

Ross Turk (Inktank) [ ross@inktank.com ]  
Can help with HTML/CSS, WordPress needs, general infrastructure, swag, coordination

Marie-Claude Lanchantin (Cloudwatt) [ marie-claude.lanchantin@cloudwatt.com ]  
Logistics, from Meetup organization to shipping goodies for events and conferences.

Nathan Regola (Comcast) [ Nathan_Regola@cable.comcast.com ]  
Aaron Ten Clay [ aarontc@aarontc.com ]  
http://ceph.com/ editors

Peter Matulis [ peter.matulis@canonical.com ]  
IRC operator

Warren Wang (Comcast) [ warren_wang@cable.comcast.com ]  
Meetup Washington DC, USA

Joao Luis [ jecluis@gmail.com ]  
Meetup Lisbon, Portugal

Sebastien Han (eNovance) [ sebastien.han@enovance.com ]  
ceph-brag

Ricardo Rocha (Catalyst) [ ricardo@catalyst.net.nz ]  
David Clarke (Catalyst) [ davidc@catalyst.net.nz ]  
Meetup Wellington / Auckland, New Zealand

Eric Mourgaya-Virapatrin (Crédit Mutuel Arkea) [ eric.mourgaya-virapatrin@arkea.com ]  
Global events coordination
Meetup France

Paul Gadi (Acaleph) [ paul@acale.ph ]  
Meetup Philipines

Kurt Bauer (ACOnet/VIX) [ kurt.bauer@univie.ac.at ]  
Use Cases
Meetup Vienna, Austria

Robert Sander (Heinlein Support GmbH) [ r.sander@heinlein-support.de ]  
Stephan Seitz (Heinlein Support GmbH) [ s.seitz@heinlein-support.de ]  
Meetups Berlin, Germany

Jens-Christian Fischer (SWITCH) [ jens-christian.fischer@switch.ch ]  
Simon Leinen (SWITCH) [ simon.leinen@switch.ch ]  
Meetups Switzerland

Mike Dawson (Cloudapt) [ mike.dawson@cloudapt.com ]  
Christopher Liljenstolpe [ ceph@cdl.asgaard.org ]  
Matt Lehner (Pair Networks) [ mlehner@pair.com ]  
Eric Eastman (Keeper Technology, LLC) [ eric.eastman@keepertech.com ]  
Andrew Woodward (Mirantis) [ awoodward@mirantis.com ]  
Arne Wiebalck (CERN) [ Arne.Wiebalck@cern.ch ]  
Dan Van Der Ster (CERN) [ daniel.vanderster@cern.ch ]  
Alain Dechorgnat [ alain.dechorgnat@orange.com ]  
Josiane Renevot [ josiane.renevot@orange.com ]  
Philippe Raipin [ philippe.raipin@orange.com ]  
Ghislain Chevalier [ ghislain.chevalier@orange.com ]  
Joseph R Gruher (Intel) [ joseph.r.gruher@intel.com ]  
Yann Dupont (Universite de Nantes) [ Yann.Dupont@univ-nantes.fr ]  
Sean Noonan [ sean.noonan@twosigma.com ]  
Haomai Wang [ haomaiwang@gmail.com ]  
Christophe Courtaut (Cloudwatt) [ christophe.courtaut@cloudwatt.com ]

As always, if you have any questions feel free to drop them in the comments below or send them to the user committee.

scuttlemonkey out