“The last formal session for the kernel summit was to look at
the logistics for the next summit. There was quite a bit of
discussion about the incestuous nature of the program committee,
the elite attitude that the summit appeared to create, and some
question of the pedigree of some of the vendors and committee
people on the kernel summit discussion list. It makes for amusing
reading at times, but some of the concerns needed to be raised and
discussed in person. To help improve the neutrality of the
discussion, Ted Ts’o introduced the topic but then asked Dave
Miller to moderate. Dave happens to be among the most highly
respected people of the core, was not on the committee the past
couple of years but has served on the committee and understands the
challenges that such a committee has. As such, he was able to
moderate with an eye towards representing the community point of
view. I captured a number of the questions/comments raised during
that session. Not all questions raised had answers, but many did,
and the net summary is that the view is that the program committee
is actually doing a good job at pleasing most people most of the
time (the highest achievable goal, in many people’s eyes…”