Communications Team - 1.29 Release Status

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Logo image size is recommended as maximum 2160px

As well as downscaling and lossless recompression (both recommended), tools like https://tinypng.com/ may be able to shrink the file further.

How many blogs to publish by day?

https://github.com/kubernetes/sig-release/blob/master/release-team/role-handbooks/communications/README.md#feature-blogs

The current handbook states:
The first feature blog typically goes out on release day alongside or shortly after the release blog, and then are published one-at-a-time, typically at a rate of two to three posts weekly

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Priyanka top major themes: https://hackmd.io/@TJDQWIMdSjynqWWmnlbCTg/ryG4hiHHp#Kubernetes-129–-Enhancements

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In all the communication to @kubernetes/sig-docs-blog-owners

@kubernetes/sig-docs-blog-owners: Publication Order Nro:2

@kubernetes/sig-docs-blog-owners: Blog scheduled: Dec 14th, Publication Order Nro:2

Tips about write the blog

(What I think) end users really care about:

is it on by default?
if not, can I opt in just through the API or something?
is this deprecated and I have to take some action just to keep things working?

Everything that's not on by default is a lower priority, even if we'd love to get more real world testing.

Same question as above: should we use "stable" or "generally available"?

template message

Hi
@Kirtana Ashok
, how are you? Here from the Communications team for the 1.29 Release :slightly_smiling_face: , I know you have opted out of a feature blog, but could you help us with the description of the main features for KEP 4216, so we can include it in the 1.29 Release blog? We need a paragraph of text. This is the WIP/Draft PR for the Release blog.

Hi @Kirtana Ashok, how are you? Here from the Communications team for the 1.29 Release :slightly_smiling_face: , We are writing the release blog, could you help us to build a paragraph highlighting the major changes in sig-node related to the notes discussion 1.29.

Hi @mrunal, how are you?, Carol here from the Communications team for the 1.29 Release :slightly_smiling_face: . We are writing the release blog, could you help us to build a paragraph highlighting the major changes in sig-auth related to the notes discussion 1.29. cc: @Sergey Kanzhelev @liggitt @pacoxu

webinars

• Schedule the 1.29 release Live Webinar: the live webinar on 12/15 at 9amPT (TBC)

• Schedule interview for the release lead: for Dec 4-6 days. (TBC)
  Choose the 2-3 top themes and the draft blog.

improve handbook comms about deadlines

https://kubernetes.slack.com/archives/C2C40FMNF/p1700469002704099?thread_ts=1700067569.509609&cid=C2C40FMNF

Status Schedule

Please, remember to give the status in the sig-docs every two weeks.

• Status in the Wednesday Weekly Release Meeting
• Status in the Tuesday Bi-Weekly SIG-DOCs Meeting

Comms handbook

1.29 Board here
1.29 Release Meeting Notes here
1.29 Calendar here

Blog Publication board here

Major themes 1.29 Discussion here

Rey Lejano checklist to Docs: https://github.com/kubernetes/sig-release/pull/2350/files

1.29 retrospective: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ka-Mc33aakUB7EsvWvKBGc6uK2im9GH5ozRc5ppwMZI/edit#heading=h.ukbaidczvy3r

we expected the blogs ready to review, 1 week before the release

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Schedule the release Live Webinar with CNCF

You want the webinar to run sometime within the two weeks immediately after the release. On that email, cc the release-comms alias, the release lead, and the enhancements lead.

the release-comms alias: [e-mail]
the release lead: Priyanka Saggu
the enhancements lead:
Nina Polshakova

3-4 weeks after the release is fine too, I aimed for right after our blogs were finished publishing which ended up being just over two weeks past the release.

title: Scheduling the Kubernetes 1.29 Release Live Webinar

Hi there! I'm the communication lead for Kubernetes v1.29, Carol Valencia, and I'm reaching out to schedule a live webinar for our release and enhancements leads. Could you help us to schedule in the Calendly: https://calendly.com/cncfonlineprograms/livewebinar

This version is currently scheduled to land Tuesday 5th December 2023, see the details here: https://www.kubernetes.dev/resources/release/ 

Do you have availability sometime for 3-4 weeks after the release, maybe between 19-29 in December?

Thanks,
Comms Team 1.29

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Schedule pre-briefings and interviews with [e-mail]

Schedule press and analyst pre-briefings and interviews for the release lead with CNCF by emailing [e-mail]

CC'd release-comms and the release lead.
Title: Schedule interview for the release lead


Hi there,

I'm the comms lead for Kubernetes v1.29 (currently scheduled to release Tuesday 5th December 2023), and I'm reaching out to get our release day and pre-release press handled. 

We're finalizing the post-release feature blogs now. What do you need from us?

Thanks,
Communication Team 1.29

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Release Week	Milestones	Activities	Status	Team Member
1	Start of release cycle Sep 06, 2023	Start attending the Release Team weekly meeting Join #sig-release and #release-comms Check if there are any holidays or events (e.g. KubeCon) that will occur during this release which may impact communication with the CNCF and SIG Chairs, plan accordingly Select shadows for the team Ensure shadows are all in the Kubernetes org on GitHub Ensure you and your shadows are entered into the release contact sheet Ensure you and your shadows are on the release team meeting invites Establish initial meeting with the Comms team to introduce everyone and review tasks and the release timeline Plan a regular-cadence Comms team sync up (mostly needed toward the end of the cycle)	Green	Carol Valencia
2	Sep 13, 2023	Update the release-comms Group. Membership for this group is defined in kubernetes/k8s.io. Ensure the list only includes: The current release cycle's Release Team Lead & Lead Shadows The current release cycle's Communications Lead & Comms Shadows SIG Release Chairs Start communications with the SIG leads to align on the communications timeline and support for writing feature posts Setup a communications plan aligned with the Release Calendar Agree on participation together with Enhancements team lead at the next SIG Leads monthly meeting to align on expectations and communication possibilities	Green	Carol Valencia
3	Production Readiness Freeze Sep 19, 2023 (sig-docs)- Sep 20, 2023	Get access to the Enhancements and Feature blog opt-in tracking sheets and start following along	Green	Hosam Kamel
4	Enhancements Freeze (Status Sep 27)	Work with the enhancements lead to understand big-ticket items to be included in the release Start monitoring the Feature blog opt-in in the Assignees tab and track status throughout the cycle (for example of the 1.29 board)	Green	Carol Valencia
5		Work with Enhancements and Release Note leads to determine which deliverables are most noteworthy post-Enhancements Freeze. In the coming weeks, follow the progress of these enhancements, as they will roll into the Major Themes and be called out and described in the release blog. Check the insights, here sample of 1.29 Work with the Release Team and decide if the release warrants a mid-cycle 'Deprecations and Removals' blog If needed, solicit author(s) for a 'Deprecations and Removals' blog and get a placeholder PR in k/website for tracking	Green	Kristin Martin
6		-	Yellow	Abigail McCarthy
7		-	Green	Carol
8		Post reminders for the feature blog opt-in on the SIG slack channels (for example) Assign feature blog topics as they come in to team shadows for support and tracking efforts Join the #sig-docs-blog channel on Slack and attend the bi-weekly meetings. Share the current status of the Feature blog opt-in's and work with the team to establish review expectations and publication strategy.	Yellow	Kristin
9		-	XXX	Abbie
10		Send out final reminders for feature blog opt-in on the SIG slack channels Facilitate or start writing the optional Deprecations and Removals blog	XXX	XXX
11	Feature blog freeze	Start attending burndown meetings Participate in the release retro part 1 Feature blog freeze is this week Assign remaining feature blog topics Establish feature blog post-release publication schedule, typically 2-3 posts per week. Post the feature blog publication schedule in #sig-docs-blog (example post) Establish a regular cadence status check-in with the #sig-docs-blog team and maintain the publication schedule post in Slack to keep everyone synced Request placeholder PRs in k/website from all feature blog authors	Yellow	Kristin Martin
12	Code Freeze	Begin the release blog draft, if not yet started Optional 'Deprecations and Removals' blog ready for review Schedule the release Live Webinar with CNCF by emailing [e-mail]. You may be referred to Calendly. The webinar is typically scheduled for 3-4 weeks after the release Schedule press and analyst pre-briefings and interviews for the release lead with CNCF by emailing [e-mail] Schedule release blog and press embargo with CNCF	XXX	Abigail McCarthy
13		Finalize and publish the 'Deprecations and Removals' blog once code freeze is in place. Update release blog draft, post-Code Freeze Check status with Release Notes lead on content for Major Themes and Known Issues sections of the release blog (short summaries to be included in the release blog) Check status on all feature blog PRs. Keep #sig-docs-blog up-to-date for editorial review, and establish tech reviewers are available	XXX	XXX
14	Feature Blogs ready to review	Feature blog reviews start Continue to partner with #sig-docs-blog for editorial review, work to ensure tech reviews are moving forward from SIGs Connect with Release Lead to ensure theme and release logo will be ready for release blog (not required for draft revisions) Ensure that short one-to-two paragraph summaries of each Major Theme are available for the release blog from Release Notes lead or SIG Chairs Finalize Release blog final draft and start reviews Send release blog draft to CNCF	XXX	Kristin Martin
15	Release Week	Finalize Release Blog, ensure it's ready for Docs Lead to publish on release day Ensure first few feature blogs are ready to publish and that review and merge plans are in place for any still outstanding.	XXX	Abigail McCarthy
16	Release retrospective	Continue to facilitate publication of remaining feature blogs Participate in release retro parts 2 and 3 (as needed) Organize the slides for the CNCF release webinar, and send to the CNCF for review at least one week ahead of the scheduled date. Update this document!	XXX	XXX

Sigs by Communications Team

Carol	Abigail	James	Kristin	Hosam
sig-network	sig-node	sig-apps	sig-storage	sig-api-machinery
sig-windows	sig-k8s-infra	sig-multicluster	sig-instrumentation	sig scalability
sig-security	sig cluster lifecycle	sig auth	sig scheduling	sig autoscaling
sig cloud provider

Sample Communications for features blog

Message in the Slack

Go to the channel, in this case sig-cloud-provider, introduce yourself and ask about the feature blogs or deprecations, removals.

Hi @sig-XX, @kep-owner 👋, v1.29 Communication Release Team. I would like to check any plan about publication blogs related new features, removals, and deprecations for this release.

You need to open a PR placeholder in the [website repository](https://github.com/kubernetes/website).
The deadline will be on Tuesday 14th November 2023 (after the Docs deadline PR ready for review)
[Here the 1.29 Calendar](https://www.kubernetes.dev/resources/release/)

Docs deadline — PRs ready for review Docs Lead Tuesday 14th November 2023

Sample messages: KEP-2395, KEP-4004

Message in the KEP

Work in progress KEP PR messsage. DO NOT USE

Hi [issue assignee(s)] 👋, I'm a v1.29 Communication Release Team [shadow/lead] just checking in. Are you planning on writing a blog for this change?

If you are, you will need to open a PR against the main branch in the kubernetes/website repo. This PR can be just a placeholder for now and you can fill in the content later. The deadline for blog placeholder PRs will be on Thursday 19th October 2023. (Note: A placeholder PR for a blog is separate from a placeholder PR for docs updates you may need to make for this change)

For more information on writing a blog, please see the blog contribution page. Let me know if you have any questions, thanks!

To Do checklist with Sig-doc Bi weekly meeting

Reminder: When in doubt about the status, its ok to report the status as yellow/red. This will alert the other release teams and stakeholders that something needs their attention, and they can help you determine the best status level and create a path forward as needed.

Review the Comms Release Milestones for a list of recommended activities for this week in the release cycle.

Communication status for Docs and Release Team

• How many feature blogs are there for the release?

• How many feature blogs are ready to review?

• How many blogs are awaiting reviews from the Technical SIG Lead?

• How many blogs are awaiting editorial reviews?

• Any problems getting a SIG to respond to messages from the comms team?

• Any problems or concerns about outstanding blogs?

• Do you have any questions or need help with anything?

• The PRs feature blogs and blog release Branch is against the main branch - [By confirm] -Integration Branch with the dev-1.29 ?

• un hold 20 PR

• unsheduled: –->

• blogs will be published

Guide to build a new blog

• Information about how create a new blog in Kubernetes.
• See this sample feature blog: Add blog for non-graceful node shutdown

Common questions and actions

• If I need to track a KEP that is not in the board?
  Talk with the Enhancement Lead and the Release Lead to see the next steps. Maybe it could be added by the normal process (label:"lead-opted-in") or you can add manually to the board.

• What is the process to opt in?
  Does the author need to submit a placeholder doc PR to the website repo? What is the deadline?

https://github.com/kubernetes/sig-release/tree/master/release-team/role-handbooks/enhancements#responsibilities

Major Themes Tracking

Collate the major themes of the release, including but not limited to:

• new enhancements
• long-awaited enhancements
• enhancements moving into GA
• enhancement deprecations
• notable changes to existing behaviors

More details here

Deprecations Tracking

search deprecation and removal and see what KEPs have the deprecation section of the readme filled out:
https://github.com/aramase/enhancements/blob/cc018e12db30ceb194f7fdc5e5061c23d081a0c7/keps/sig-auth/3331-structured-authentication-configuration/README.md#deprecation

Deprecations: https://github.com/orgs/kubernetes/projects/161/views/1?filterQuery=type%3ADeprecation

Major changes: https://github.com/orgs/kubernetes/projects/161/views/1?filterQuery=type%3A"Major+Change"

Handbook backup notes

This is the older "Feature blog tracking sheet" for new entries and use the Assigment tab sheet to assign and track status throughout the cycle (for example.