FEDORA AMBASSADORS. (Was: Slow actions? Time to move on!)

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

Kudos to David Barzilay on his impatience about Fedora Marketing efforts.  
My comments inline below:

* * *

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005, Stuart Ellis wrote:

> I think that processes in themselves don't get things done...
> Ultimately, things happen when a small group of people have a common
> goal, and do whatever turns out to be necessary to make it happen. The
> processes and infrastructure tend to follow after, e.g there is now a
> mailing list for Websites because enough people became committed to the
> idea of sorting out Fedora's Web presence.

This is exactly right.  PMI ideals are great, but they are secondary.  
Leadership comes first.  I haven't had much time to participate; I've been
mostly an observer, with some items on my plate, but mostly my focus has 
been on other things.  That's about to change.
   
> One way would be start with five or six concrete goals that have
> support, and then go from there, e.g. "Have a Fedora presence at every
> major Linux event in 2006".

I have come to believe that the marketing list, as useful a forum as it is
for exchanging ideas, is not a project, has not been a project, and will
not be a project.  If someone wants to step up to lead Fedora Marketing as 
a project, I'm happy to be proven wrong.  But for now, realistically: it's 
a mailing list.

Fedora Ambassadors, on the other hand, has CLEAR AND QUANTIFIABLE GOALS:

  * HAVE A PRESENCE AT EVERY LINUX EVENT WORLDWIDE IN 2006.  That means:
    + Know where the events are and document them on the wiki.
    + Match up at least one Ambassador to every one of those events.
    + Make sure that every one of those Ambassadors has what they need
      to represent Fedora: a good message, DVDs, schwag, signage... and
      ideally, in the future, ca$h to make things happen.

  * REPRESENT FEDORA LOCALLY.  That means:
    + Getting Fedora installed on systems.
    + Going to your local LUG/school/church/whatever and representing 
      Fedora.
    + Spreading the word about Fedora in ANY WAY YOU SEE FIT.
    + Keeping the other ambassadors up-to-date on your doings.

To further those goals, we need:  

  * A chair.  For now, Alex Maier is it, because she has put together the
    past two FUDCons, essentially by herself.  If there are disagreements,
    join the Ambassadors project, and let's discuss it.

  * A steering committee.  This should be the group of people who (a) 
    (a) can meet every week or two, (b) can take action items and
    *complete* them, and (c) can attend events and act as the exemplars 
    of the Ambassador program generally.  Therefore: let me announce the 
    official formation of the Fedora Ambassadors Project Management 
    Committee.  If you want to be part of this committee, please let 
    Alex know.

  * Work items on a standing agenda.  What do we need to do *every week*?
    Extras and Docs both have this, and have been very successful in 
    driving these agendas.

  * A weekly meeting.  Where we hold one another accountable, *every
    week*.  Extras and Docs both have this, and they've been effective.
    Time zone is an issue, particularly for a worldwide ambassador 
    program.  For now, we've got a meeting time, but I think that we 
    may want to alternate meeting times to suit different geos.

===

So.  If this approach makes sense to you, then join the Ambassadors
program RIGHT NOW:

1. SUBSCRIBE!
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-ambassadors-list

2. PUT YOUR NAME ON THE WIKI!
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/CountryList

3. BE AT OUR FIRST IRC MEETING!
  WHERE: irc.freenode.net, channel #fedora-mktg.
  WHEN: Thursday 17 November.  16:00 UTC, 11:00 Eastern US time.
    (Your timezone: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html)

--g

_____________________  ____________________________________________
  Greg DeKoenigsberg ] [ the future masters of technology will have
 Community Relations ] [ to be lighthearted and intelligent.  the
             Red Hat ] [ machine easily masters the grim and the 
                     ] [ dumb.  --mcluhan