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As the number of production OpenStack deployments increase and more ecosystem partners add support for OpenStack clouds, it becomes increasingly important that the communities building services around OpenStack guide and influence the product evolution.

When the OpenStack Foundation was launched in 2012, there were two initial structures created. The management board provides strategic and financial oversight of Foundation resources and staff. The technical committee defines and stewards the technical direction of OpenStack software development. We are now establishing the user committee whose role is to represent the needs of the diverse range of OpenStack users.

The user committee mission is to

• Consolidate user requirements and present these to the management board and technical committee
• Provide guidance for the development teams where user feedback is requested
• Track OpenStack deployments and usage, helping to share user stories and experiences
• Work with the user groups worldwide to keep the OpenStack community vibrant and informed

The structure of the user committee is currently being defined. Tim Bell, Ryan Lane and J-C Martin have been nominated by the management board and technical committee to work with the community and determine the by-laws and scope. This process is ongoing through the foundation mailing list and points to review document. Amongst the areas of discussion are the definition and representation model of the wide spectrum of users in different industry segments ranging from end-users submitting work to an OpenStack cloud through ecosystem partners using the APIs to provide additional services to those deploying and operating clouds in production. It is also planned to expand the committee further to cover both industry segments and user group representation along with running a user survey with the goal to present the results at the next summit.

For those of you who would like to help, please look at the points to review document and post your thoughts to the OpenStack foundation mailing list.