If you are joining the thousands of OpenStack enthusiasts as we converge on Boston for the OpenStack Summit (May 8-11), don’t be surprised if someone asks you, “Where is the Design Summit?”

This year, nary a Design Summit sign will be found. That’s because the Design Summit is no more. True to the ever-evolving, continuously improving nature of open source projects, the OpenStack community is trying something new. The Design Summit has been reorganized and split into two separate events: the Forum and the Project Teams Gathering (PTG).

The Forum replaces the Design Summit as the new gathering of developers, operators, and end users being held at the biannual Summit (in the second and fourth quarters of the year). Designed for collaborative, cross-community discussions and held in our traditional fishbowl room setting, the Forum is the beginning of the planning phase for the Queens release and beyond. Developers will be all ears as users and operators offer feedback on the last release and propose changes and priorities for upcoming development.

The PTG events, where the actual development work is organized, now take place in quarter one and quarter three of the year—at the beginning of the development phase of each release cycle. At these gatherings, project teams meet in person to discuss priorities for the upcoming cycle, iterate quickly on solutions for complex issues, assign work items amongst team members and make fast progress on critical items. The PTG could be considered a “mega midcycle” gathering for all active project teams. Moving forward, the PTG should replace the need for individual OpenStack projects to organize their own standalone midcycle events between Summits.

If you are interested in more detailed information about the why’s, when’s and how’s of this new approach, visit the PTG FAQ page on OpenStack.org.

Please come to Boston in the springtime!

(Yes, that’s likely the first Dave Loggins reference in a tech blog post.) Here’s why you should come to Boston:

The first PTG (for the Pike release) brought hundreds of upstream developers to Atlanta this past February for what was a successful transition to the new release planning model. However, a common whisper heard in the hallways was, “I really want to be at the Summit, but my [boss/HR/approver] doesn’t understand why I should be there.”

Oh, yes, you should “come to Boston in the springtime.” Developers have a critical role to play at the Summit’s Forum component because it is the start of the release cycle and the formal feedback loop of our community. In order to achieve our objectives, we need to have some significant representation from each project. Of course, it is also a great venue for expressing your opinion (and that of your organization’s) about OpenStack’s future direction. In addition, the Forum offers rich opportunities to engage with other groups with similar challenges, project desires, and solutions, and it is an ideal opportunity to recruit and onboard talented developers to your project.

So even if you attended the PTG in Atlanta, by all means, make every effort to join us in Boston as well.

Read more about the Forum and how to get involved in planning for Queens, the seventeenth release of OpenStack, here.