2025-04-02 TAC meeting notes (#1007)

Signed-off-by: Jean-Francois Panisset <[email protected]>

Author: jfpanisset

meetings/2025-04-02/2025-04-02.md

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+parent: Meetings
+title: "2025-04-02"
+---
+
+# Academy Software Foundation Technical Advisory Council (TAC) Meeting - April  2, 2025
+
+Join the meeting at [https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meeting/97880950229?password=81d2940e-c055-43b9-9b5a-6cd7d7090feb](https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meeting/97880950229?password=81d2940e-c055-43b9-9b5a-6cd7d7090feb)
+
+## Voting Representative Attendees
+
+### Premier Member Representatives
+
+- [ ] Chris Hall - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
+- [x] Cory Omand - The Walt Disney Studios
+- [x] Eric Enderton - NVIDIA Corporation
+- [x] Eric Reinecke - Netflix, Inc.
+- [ ] Erik Niemeyer - Intel Corporation
+- [ ] Gordon Bradley - Autodesk
+- [ ] Greg Denton - Microsoft Corporation
+- [x] Jean-Michel Dignard - Epic Games, Inc
+- [ ] Kimball Thurston - Wētā FX Limited
+- [x] Larry Gritz - Sony Pictures Entertainment
+- [ ] Matthew Low - DreamWorks Animation
+- [ ] Michael Min - Adobe Inc.
+- [x] Michael B. Johnson - Apple Inc.
+- [ ] Ross Dickson - Amazon Web Services, Inc.
+- [ ] Scott Dyer - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
+- [ ] Youngkwon Lim - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
+
+### Project Representatives
+
+- [x] Carol Payne - Diversity & Inclusion Working Group / OCIO Representative
+- [x] Cary Phillips - OpenEXR Representative
+- [x] Chris Kulla - Open Shading Language Representative
+- [ ] Diego Tavares Da Silva - OpenCue Representative
+- [x] Jonathan Stone - MaterialX Representative
+- [x] Ken Museth - OpenVDB Representative
+
+### Industry Representatives
+
+- [x] Jean-Francois Panisset - Visual Effects Society
+
+## Non-Voting Attendees
+
+### Non-Voting Project and Working Group Representatives
+
+- [ ] Alexander Forsythe - rawtoaces Representative
+- [ ] Alexander Schwank - Universal Scene Description Working Group Representative
+- [ ] Daniel Greenstein - OpenImageIO Representative
+- [ ] Erik Strauss - Open Review Initiative Representative
+- [x] Gary Oberbrunner - OpenFX Representative
+- [ ] Jean-Christophe Morin - Rez Representative
+- [ ] Nick Porcino - Universal Scene Description Working Group Representative
+- [ ] Rachel Rose - Diversity & Inclusion Working Group Representative
+- [x] Scott Wilson - ASWF Language Interop Project Representative
+- [x] Stephen Mackenzie - Rez Representative
+
+### LF Staff
+
+- [x] David Morin - Academy Software Foundation
+- [x] Emily Olin - Academy Software Foundation
+- [x] John Mertic - The Linux Foundation
+- [x] Michelle Roth - The Linux Foundation
+- [ ] Yarille Ortiz - The Linux Foundation
+
+### Other Attendees
+
+- Rob Rowe - Cinepaint
+- Doug Walker - Autodesk / OCIO
+- Jim Helman - MovieLabs
+- Jim Geduldick - SMPTE RIS
+- Andy Gones - Netflix
+- Alyssa Alexis - SIGGRAPH
+- Lorna Dumba - Framestore
+- JT Nelson - - Pasadena Open Source consortium / SoCal Blender group
+- Spencer Stephens - Spencer Stephens, Zero Trust WG
+- Deke Kincaid - Digital Domain
+
+## Antitrust Policy Notice
+
+Linux Foundation meetings involve participation by industry competitors, and it
+is the intention of the Linux Foundation to conduct all of its activities in
+accordance with applicable antitrust and competition laws. It is therefore
+extremely important that attendees adhere to meeting agendas, and be aware of,
+and not participate in, any activities that are prohibited under applicable US
+state, federal or foreign antitrust and competition laws.
+
+Examples of types of actions that are prohibited at Linux Foundation meetings
+and in connection with Linux Foundation activities are described in the Linux
+Foundation Antitrust Policy available at
+[linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy).
+If you have questions about these matters, please contact your company counsel,
+or if you are a member of the Linux Foundation, feel free to contact Andrew
+Updegrove of the firm of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, which provides legal counsel to
+the Linux Foundation.
+
+## Agenda
+
+- General Updates
+  - Dev Days - May 15, 2025 [#966](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/966)
+  - OpenQMC [#434](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/434)
+  - SLP Volunteer Opportunities [#992](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/992)
+  - Rename project lifecycle stage 'Adopted' to 'Graduated' [#999](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/pull/999)
+  - DigiPro CFP closed 5/16 [#1003](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1003)
+  - Open Source Days 2025 [#1005](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1005)
+- Annual Review: Rez [#492](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/492)
+- Planning Session for TAC [#972](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/972)
+
+## Notes
+
+- General Updates
+  - Dev Days - May 15, 2025 [#966](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/966)
+    - Larry:  be there or be square!
+  - OpenQMC [#434](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/434)
+    - Eric E: no update
+  - SLP Volunteer Opportunities [#992](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/992)
+  - Rename project lifecycle stage 'Adopted' to 'Graduated' [#999](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/pull/999)
+    - All our projects are already "Adopted", other Foundations use "Graduated", we should codify to "Graduated". Proposal would be to change from "Adopted" to "Graduated", nothing else changes.
+    - Read "Adopted" as "Adopted by the Software Foundation".
+    - "Graduated" may sound like "you are done, nothing else to do"?
+    - Is the word word "Accepted" have connotations we couldn't use? Carol: we can dissect these words, can take recommendations, but feedback are confused by "Adopted" and that relates to projects "in incubation" yet used widely in the industry. We're trying to resolve this ambiguity, not opposed to other options, but don't want to keep using "adopted".
+    - John: don't have to decide this today, we can be bring this up at next TAC meeting.
+  - Eric R: Netflix Representation Turnover
+    - Andy Jones from Netflix, will be handing over TAC seat responsibility over next 2 meetings.
+    - Andy: recognize several of you. At Netflix I am product manager for our VFX platform, was in the industry for 20 years before, including Psyop, before that at Pixel Liberation Front. Best known for Cryptomatte project. Background is engineering, drifted into other roles such as VFX supervision.
+    - Eric R: will still be around including for OTIO.
+  - DigiPro CFP closed 5/16 [#1003](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1003)
+    - Closes on May 16, would like to see some of our projects here. Let Emily know if you are presenting.
+    - Larry: OpenPBR publication just came out yesterday. Jonathan: can you clarify what publication? Larry: the paper in Journal of Computer Graphics. Jonathan: not restricted to OpenPBR, a new diffuse model which is energy preserving, the core diffuse model in OpenPBR, hopefully will get picked up by other uber shaders. First official publication, previously pointed to OpenPBR implementation. In MaterialX 1.39. John: maybe we could have blog announcement? Larry: a lof of coordination and inspiration for that development was on the channels and OpenPBR people. Jonathan: you are right, discussions happened on OpenPBR and MaterialX Slack, and was added to MaterialX and OpenPBR at same time, paper formalizes the shading model, including some optimization strategies. Larry: lurking on those Slack channels was witnessing the development of these ideas. John: projects should flag us about such opportunities for promotion. Jonathan: took it for granted, but this is really an ASWF win.
+  - Open Source Days 2025 [#1005](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1005)
+    - Sunday August 10th at SIGGRAPH, at the Marriot Pinnacle. Ahead of the game on prepping schedule. CFP will happen April 9th to May 18th, registration opens April 9th. Day of BoFs on August 11th, virtual town halls before. Link for BoF / Town Hall registration. In the past had last minute speaker additions, would be great to have full VTH / BoF schedule at beginning of June so we have time to promote. Choose your time now, add speakers later, but please do it by May 30th.
+    - [Town Hall / BoF Sign Up Spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HEV9kXR2T_WElEfJAl5R0Q65TlVk_G59twepl9uFVwA/edit?gid=67361683#gid=67361683)
+    - Also thanks for quarterly updates, will add OpenPBR paper.
+
+- Annual Review: Rez [#492](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/492)
+  - Stephen Mackenzie
+  - [Rez Annual Review Slide Deck](./2025_04_rez_annual_review.pdf)
+  - Rez Project Info
+    - Jean-Christophe and I have been co chairing TSC
+  - Project Origins
+    - V1 implementation at Dr.D Studios circa 2011
+    - Author previously at MPC London
+  - Incubation to Adoption Report
+    - Some new items ticked off
+    - Asterisk is that more work could be done, but fine for graduation
+    - Was prematurely thinking it could be adopted this year, but limited by available TSC time
+    - Biggest development was OpenSSF badge project, as well as our process documentation
+    - Need to get TSC to focus on this, finish a handful of OpenSSF requirements
+    - Should be able to come back mid cycle for graduation
+    - Growth Assessment: need to get help from John, not sure what this step contains, and who performs this
+  - Contributor Growth
+    - Doesn't include all ASWF history, came in late 2022, so looking over all time
+    - 2-3 year cadence "see saw"
+    - Easier to grow when you are a smaller project
+    - "gut feeling" that a lot of smaller studios are trying out Rez, wonder how the contribution graph looks now.
+    - Total contributors graph from LFX Insights vs Active Contributors
+    - Have an "Adopters" file, a few recently gone studios. Very incomplete, some people asking early Rez questions in Slack / mailing list, but not easy to get whether they are actually using it. Pipeline TDs may not be in a position to say officially whether they are using it.
+    - Several new names since last year, including some big ones. Will ping individual people on Slack to ask.
+  - Recent Releases
+    - Last review
+      - Python 2 drop, slowly, then hard cut
+    - New
+      - Synchronous payload caching, many smaller items (2024/10)
+      - Small bugfix for backwards compat
+  - Recent Developments
+    - Synchronous payload caching support
+    - New "testing" object for use in rez-test
+    - "default_build_process" setting introduced
+    - Convert Windows registry queries to winreg pypi module
+    - Many shell-specific bugfixes, mostly in Windows (cmd, PowerShell), default is now PowerShell
+    - New adopters file, contributing.md updates, release.md updates
+    - More legacy py-specific code removed
+    - Numerous documentation updates (huge props to Bryce Gattis)
+
+    - #rez-wg-config-launcher - config-oriented sub-group created
+      - Some people see a way to manage configuration details. Rez packages can control OCIO config. Or tie to pipeline progress / stages. Rez wasn't designed to be a configuration tool, was designed to create software environments, not manage what you are asking for. Lots of discussion around how studios configure how their studio environments inter-operate.
+    - OpenSSF badge progress (2023-2024 delta)
+      - 91% -> 94% towards passing
+      - 71% -> 83% towards silver
+      - 52% -> 78% toward gold
+  - COCOMO numbers
+    - Maybe glitch in LFX Insights, likely because we have 18 vendored PyPI packages in our repo
+  - Contribution Dashboard (LFX Insights)
+    - Jean-Christophe has been leading contributions (55.73%)
+    - Company association data is nice to see, but usually every individual contributing to Rez doing it on their own contribution time, not on company time. Some company want to contribute their own development, but hasn't been merged in a long time. Maybe data can be made more accurate by associating whether someone is contributing via a ICLA vs CCLA? Maybe that's a way to clarify the data. Otherwise a little odd, for instance Anaconda does give JC a day here and there, but most of his contributions should be on his own time.
+  - Last Year Top Requests
+    - From Virtual Town Hall
+    - Better Docs
+      - 6 documentation PRs opened, 4 closed
+    - Better Windows shell support
+      - Handful of PRs merge with improved Windows shell handling
+      - Biggest PR on this has fizzled, original contribution company is defunct (correctly interpolates slash order). Hoping to finish it up
+    - Better rez-pip
+      - JCM's rez-pip2 is getting good testing and fixing of edge cases. now up to version 0.3.2
+      - Should someday negotiate migrating this to ASWF
+    - Cloud package repositories
+    - Caching-oriented features and fixes
+      - 3.2.0 introduced synchronous payload caching feature - more to do, but great start
+    - Robust starter rez recipe set
+    - Incomplete / dated knowledge of who and how many use rez
+      - some decent refreshed data on this from new contributors
+      - ...
+  - Project difficulties
+    - Maintainer time - JC is doing too much of the heavy lifting
+      - Some of this is situational, some of it isn't
+      - Still seeking additional TSC member
+        - Had promising lead, but fizzled
+    - Estimate that nearly all contributors are doing so on "individual" time, not company time
+    - Advancing certain key features (that everyone badly wants) requires some deep technical knowledge and motivation
+    - Docs (always, but at least there was a lot of movement here last year)
+    - Tests need improvement and cleanup, the current setup harms dev velocity
+    - Overhaul rez quickstart guide, ideally before a chosen dev day
+    - Way behind on our written meeting notes
+  - Areas project could use help
+    - Still seeking additional TSC member
+    - Some hand holding to help us try out Dev Days
+    - ...
+  - Feedback on working with ASWF
+    - Most issues with contributor time and energy
+    - Nothing is drastically wrong with the way this is working, just wish we had more time
+    - Not sure what this says about the situation
+    - There isn't a better place for Rez to be than the ASWF
+    - But need to push forward more efficiently / consistently
+    - TSC needs to figure out, more than ASWF
+  - TAC Open Discussion
+    - John: thank you, great presentation
+    - Happy to connect with you to finish passing badge. Stephen: yes, can we tick boxes... Also have written security policy, just needs to be merged.
+    - John: trying to work with LFX Insights team
+    - Stephen: if there is anything to be critical of, it seems ASWF hasn't done much to account for FTE requirement / distribute work around. If you were to rank projects by member company support, Rez might be at the bottom of the list. Not necessarily wrong, member companies may not need Rez. It may still be appropriate for small studios, the ones that need Rez the most, but don't have resources to contribute engineer time. Rez and OpenCue may have most in common, it's an actual studio tool. Software vendors don't have a need for Rez. John: I've seen this before in projects that are toolkits for a specific audience.
+    - JF: one short of quorum
+    - Larry: are we keeping track of whether voting members are present? John: we have the ability to do that, we haven't done the analysis in a little while. Maybe do a nudge to people who may need a new TAC rep?
+- Planning Session for TAC [#972](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/972)
+  - [Using pollev](https://pollev.com/johnmertic310)
+    - Issue with "poll is full"
+  - What should be the top TAC priorities for 2025?
+    - Identify opportunities to coordinate efforts between projects: 28%
+    - Better leverage the CI WG: 12%
+    - Prioritized view of open source gaps / opportunities: 12%
+    - Bring in outside presenters to present to the TAC on relevant topics
+  - Should we use LFX voting instead? David: let's fix this and redo the vote
+  - John: OK, this is a trial run, we'll redo it.
+  - Larry: David makes it look easy! Carol: can we send it out to TAC voting folks?
+  - David: pollev is really good for live meetings, we just need to fix the license. There's a value to doing these polls live, with a follow up discussion. Not so good for an offline survey, there are other tools for that. We should do more of these, and they are valuable, since you capture an opinion after a presentation when everything is top of mind. Extremely useful, and you save a lot of time to getting to a consensus. We'll make pollev work
+  - Carol: seems like the best tool to do this live, but not everyone makes it to TAC meeting, so want to get a representative view, if we only get half the members.
+  - David: a good point, it's a discussion with the people who are here, then we can send a survey, especially when we don't have quorum.
+  - John: let's redo this next time. Do the items A-H match what we discussed last time? Did anything get missed / misrepresented?
+- Next meeting: OpenEXR review. Cary: we'll be there. Also will try to reschedule OpenLensIO on April 16th.
+- April 30th: USD WG, we'll make sure they know they are up.