[Fedora-marketing-list] FWN Column

[Paul W. Frields]

NOTE: Followup set to fedora-marketing-list at redhat.com

Fedora Weekly News, in association with the Fedora Documentation
Project, is soon to start a new regular column devoted to giving answers
to common user problems.  The result would be similar to "Ask Shadowman"
in Red Hat Magazine -- somewhat like a weekly FAQ, with the significant
difference being that it's completely Fedora-centric, and we have the
ability to be a bit more current through dipping into the input stream
in real time.

What do I mean by that last bit?  Well, the questions are to be provided
by the community, and answers provided by knowledgeable experts in the
subject matter of each question.  Questions could be submitted by users
directly.  That's not very different at all -- but here's the twist:
Thomas Chung and I are hoping Ambassadors and other Marketing folks will
cull them from topics coming up currently in the Fedora Forum and on IRC
#fedora.  You can then post new questions on the wiki in a queue page to
be addressed in the next week's column:

  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/WeeklyQuestions

Answers would give step-by-step solutions when possible, with short
explanations for new users.  We will probably handle somewhere between
three and five questions per issue, but if we find the queue is stacking
or lacking, we will change those numbers as necessary.

Why do this?  Primarily to cut down on user frustration and FUD caused
by wrong answers.  When inexperienced users help other inexperienced
users, they sometimes proffer solutions which are less than optimal.
(The most common example that comes to mind is "disable SELinux," but
there are many others.)  While we all appreciate the helpful spirit of
our community members, we also want to help everyone Do The Right Thing
when possible, especially if it means better education and security.
Many of the folks with the most knowledge don't spend a lot of time on
IRC #fedora or the Fedora Forums, so this is a way the community can
benefit from their expertise while requiring very little of their time.

This initiative also gives the FDP a way of judging where more
documentation is needed.  We have few hands and many goals, but by
leveraging the popularity of FWN we may get some clues where best to
allocate those resources.  We've got several Fedora luminaries lined up
to contribute answers to the column, so we expect this will be a great
new way to provide some community outreach.

Thomas and I will be keeping a close eye on the questions and answers
and using them to steer this initiative.  If you are an experienced
Fedoran with good communication skills who would like to participate,
please put your name on the list of answer providers:

  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/WeeklyQuestions/SolversList

More to come...

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
     Fedora Project Board: http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board
 Fedora Documentation Project: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/docs/
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