[Embedded-pv-devel] Building Community momentum in the automotive subproject

[Lars Kurth <lars.kurth.xen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Artem,

I am just summarising some key points from our conversation. Here are some of my thoughts

= Low Hanging Fruit =

== Mailing List ==

One of the issues we have is that the mailing list is still very quiet. Part of the reason is that much of the development work is currently happening in Linux upstream and Xen upstream. The mailing lists are the heart of the community, and unless we get the traffic up, it will be challenging to get others involved. The first thing that is needed, is to start using the list.

A number of easy way to address this, until we get the actual automotive repositories sorted and the code into them, would be to

* CC embedded-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to conversations that relate to Linux upstream, Xen upstream and others where you lay the groundwork for the project

* Given that some conversations have already been started elsewhere, maybe you can send a mail to embedded-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with pointers to relevant discussions where you may want wider community input, such as

** Add sound to front-end driver - http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/362595

** arm: introduce basic Renesas R-Car Gen2 platform support - http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/362335

** Etc.

* Members of your team could lead some discussions on the mailing list. If you look at http://xenproject.org/developers/teams/windows-pv-drivers.html (and http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/win-pv-devel/2015-01/) - this is what we are currently doing for the Windows PV Drivers subproject. In November, all messages were from Citrix on the list, but in December and January there were first posts from others.  

The other suggestion I would want to make is that we post minutes of our meetings on the list and/or that Artem posts monthly project updates to the list.

Further, if you create white-papers such as http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Automotive_Whitepapers, please send an e-mail to embedded-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, but CC xen-devel. 

The other thing which is quite important is being timely in responding to questions from embedded-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

== Project Page is out-of-date ==

The other issue we have is that http://xenproject.org/developers/teams/embedded-and-automotive.html is out of date. There are a number of options:

* I can give Artem write access to the website - but finding your way around Joomla is quite tedious

* Alternatively, just post what you want changed to embedded-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and then I can go and fix it

For news pieces on http://xenproject.org/developers/teams/embedded-and-automotive.html I could generate a widget that consumes an RSS feed. This would look similar to "MIRAGE OS NEWS" on the right hand side of http://xenproject.org/developers/teams/mirage-os.html. To do this, we would need some means of generating the RSS feed. This could either be a blog, or an RSS feed builder (something like WebRSS or similar).

If it was a blog, I can also include it into http://xenproject.org/planet-xen.html 

= Automotive Targeted Event =

We also discussed whether we can host an automotive event in Europe. We would be talking of a 1 day event, somewhere in Europe, for 50 people, before the summer holidays targeted at tier 1 OEMs, car manufacturers. 

As we discussed this is only doable, if we can find a vendor who would volunteer to host such an event. Otherwise the costs would be too prohibitive. As we both agreed, we will approach a number of vendors and then report back to the list.

= Code Repositories = 

One of the things which is extremely important, is that we start getting the code which was listed in http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Embedded_and_Automotive_PV_Drivers/Project_Proposal#Subproject_Proposal out into the open. If this is not feasible, or not applicable any more because the drivers are going elsewhere, we ought to change the approach and reset expectations. This doesn't have to be a big bang: we just need to get the repos created and see some activity. Not having the code, is the biggest chicken and egg-problem in bootstrapping a community.

Best Regards

Lars

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