[Tech-board-discuss] TAB nomination: Steven Rostedt

I am nominating myself to be considered for another term on the Linux
Foundation Technical Advisory Board.

I've been involved with the Linux kernel community for over two decades. My
contributions has been spread widely throughout the kernel, but most know
me for my tracing and real-time work. That work also requires knowledge of
the entire kernel as a whole, which gives me the opportunity to interact
with a wide range of subsystems within the Linux kernel. This interaction
helps me understand the diverse personalities that the Linux kernel
developers have.

I originally joined the TAB to use it to be able to help bridge the gap
between different Linux ecosystems. At the time there was a bit of friction
between the Linux kernel community and the systemd community. I believe
that the two communities now have a mutual respect, and I hope I helped
play a small role in that by reaching out and working to get the
systemd folks to participate at Linux Plumbers (for which they have!).

Today, I feel there's a new issue to address, and that is the growing
pressure that maintainers feel that is moving several to burnout. This
pressure, I believe is the cause for a lot of lashing out between
maintainers and submitters (and between maintainers themselves too). I'm
currently working on a "Communication Style" document that has two parts.
One for submitters to help understand the viewpoint of maintainers, as well
as maintainers, to help understand the viewpoint of submitters. When I was
employed at VMware, my job was to mentor engineers on how to communicate
with the Linux kernel community. This opened my eyes in seeing what it was
like to be a first time contributor (as I've been a maintainer for several
years). I believe that understanding where the other person is coming from
will help tone down the language used on the mailing lists. Having a
document that submitters can read to know that if there is no reply to
their submission doesn't mean that the maintainer is ignoring you but is
probably very busy and your email simply fell through the cracks, would be
helpful to them.

Anyway, I would like to have another term as a TAB member and continue this
work.

Thanks!

-- Steve