Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Election/2008Nominations

Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee Election 2008: Nominations

Candidates may be any member of the Ambassadors group in the Fedora Accounts System. This helps ensure FAmSCo members have some experience with the processes of Fedora Ambassadors but still allows relatively new contributors to sit on FAmSCo and bring fresh ideas to the table.

Nominations are open from 28 October through 3 December, 2008. The elections will take place 7 December through 20 December, 2008.

You may self-nominate. If you wish to nominate someone else, please consult with that person ahead of time. Wiki nomination pages carry additional details about the nominee which the nominee is expected to write.

Sandro Mathys (red_alert)

• Candidate statement
  • Currently Ambassador in Switzerland, working together with lots of EMEA Ambassadors particularly those from Germany.

• Contributor profile
  • Linux user since 1999 (Red Hat Linux)
  • Fedora user since 2003
  • Fedora ambassador since 2007
  • Actively participated in many events since then.
  • For the marketing project, I wrote the press release for LinuxTag 2008/FUDCon Berlin 2008/F9. To have this distributed, Joerg Simon and I were in touch with Red Hat EMEA's marketing division.
  • I organized the FAD EMEA 2008 in Basel.

• Future plans
  • Be a reference point to all ambassadors, particularly those from EMEA.
  • Help the striving NA ambassadors to maintain and extend their recent successes.
  • Help the highly motivated EMEA ambassadors to maintain and extend their long-time successes.
  • Support all ambassadors in their activities and ideas.
  • Make FUDCon EMEA even more successful.
  • Continue to promote Fedora by participating and organizing events (all over Europe).
  • Increase the number of contributors all over the world, particularly EMEA (hopefully also outside Europe).
  • Start to build up ambassador teams in parts of the world, where no such exist yet.
  • Create a public Fedora merchandising store for Europe (already started).
  • Help the NA ambassadors to create a public Fedora merchandising store for NA.
  • Increase communication/cooperation with Red Hat in EMEA.
  • Motivate all ambassadors to share their knowledge/experience in terms of how to organize/run a event/booth.
  • Continue the recent FAmSCo projects.
  • Create a (FrOSCon or FOSDEM like) event in Basel, Switzerland

Rodrigo Padula (RodrigoPadula)

• Candidate statement
  • Currently member of FAmSCo , running for re-election.

• Contributor profile
  • Gnu/Linux user since 1996.
  • Fedora contributor since 2005.

• I participate in the following projects:
  • Fedora Ambassadors
  • Fedora Marketing
  • Fedora Translation
  • Documentation
  • Fedora Free Media
  • FAMSCO - Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee
  • I started Proyecto Fedora Latinamerica (Now with 8 countries, 3 coming soon) - [1]

• Events in 2008

Latinoware 2008 - 2st Fedora Latin America Ambassadors and Users Conference 
Itaipú Technology Park - Foz do Iguaçu - PR 
Theme: Projeto Fedora América Latina - Projet Fedora Brasil 
Theme: XO / Sugar - Laptops Educacionais  

Technology Week of the UNESA 2008 
Estácio de Sá University - Cabo Frio - RJ 
Theme: Sugar  A constructivist educational environment  

ATUALTEC 2008 
Convention Center - Boa Vista - RR 
Theme: Fedora GNU/Linux 
Theme: XO / Sugar  Educational Laptops  

Freedom Day - Vianna Jr. College 
Vianna Jr. College - Juiz de Fora - MG 
Theme: XO / Sugar  Educational Laptops 
  
CESOL 2008  Ceará Free Software Conference 
Ceará Federal University - Fortaleza - CE 
Theme: Fedora  Spread it!  
Theme: XO / Sugar - Laptops Educacionais  

ENSOL II  Paraíba Free Software Meeting 
Cultural Center - João Pessoa - PB 
Theme: Fedora Gnu/Linux 
Theme: Fedora  Free Desktop Potentials 

FISL 9.0  International Free Software Forum 
PUCGS - Porto Alegre - RS 
Theme: XO - It's green, cute and runs Fedora! 
Theme: 3rd Fedora Project Brasil Community Meeting 

• Organized events
  • 2nd Fedora Latin American Ambassadors and Users Conference , Fóz do Iguaçu - PR , Brazil
  • 1st Fedora Latin American Ambassadors and Users Conference , Fóz do Iguaçu - PR , Brazil
• Future plans
  • Increase the LATAM community.
  • Work to increase the Packaging group and the Fedora time support (Fedora LTS ;-) )
  • Contribute with the organization of local Fedora Projects (Mainly in Latin America and another in development Countries).
  • Strengthen the participation of Latin American contributors in Fedora Project.
  • Spread Fedora in events, with media distribution, lectures and booths.
  • Be the voice of the community and ambassadors in the FAMSCO and Fedora Project.
  • Support the local projects with all that they needs.
  • Create and organize the III Latin American Conference and the I FUDCON Latin American

Joerg Simon (kital)

Nominated by ChitleshGoorah (1)

• Candidate statement

One of my main goals as a FAmSCo member is to help all Fedora Ambassadors achieve their best contributions and build up Fedora's presence in many underrepresented Regions.

• Contributor profile

After a history as Linux user/enthusiast/contributor since 1995, i started in 2006 to support the Fedora Community actively as a Fedora Ambassador. I dedicated and will still dedicate a large part of my time to the Ambassador Membership Service (AMA), where i guide new Contributors as a sponsor and mentor into the Fedora Project. And my other "everyday" Job is to maintain the ambassador-mailing-list as Administrator.
To increase the Quality of the Ambassador Membership Process, i have developed and helped FAmSCo to establish the new approval process.
On my way as Ambassador, i initiated a few things which today are essential parts within Fedora Ambassadors, like the AmbassadorPolo or the well known generic Posterdesigns from MairinDuffy.
Promoting Fedora on Events is another major part of a Ambassador and so i work as organizer, driver, helper, slogger, promoter on a lot Events every year.
There are a few more things what i do, like trying new MarketingMaterials producing SWAG for us - or work as PressOfficer for the Fedora EMEA e.V.or help as one of the few Fedora in Library Activists.

• Future plans
  • Enhance Fedora´s presence in underrepresented Regions - this means in a short timeframe: support the ReleaseEvent in Kyrgyzstan as a trailblazer (T-Shirts, Money...) - organize Fedora´s Presence on a Event in Hungary in Spring 2009. On a longterm, turn more and more of the white spaces on the worldmap into blue.
  • Improve the MembershipProcess to make it easier and faster to contribute and work together with higher quality
  • Establish real mentoring within regional requirements
  • Establish measurability for our Work
  • Establish liasons to other subprojects
  • Invent new ways to encourage people to contribute to the Fedora Project

Max Spevack (spevack)

• Candidate statement

My primary duty within FAmSCo is to manage the budget, and to make sure that each region of the world is getting the financial support that it needs in its community building work. I also try to provide general leadership help and advice to FAmSCo.

• Contributor profile

I manage the Community Architecture team, which works closely with Fedora. Additionally, I am accountable for the Red Hat and Fedora communities in EMEA, though that job is made easier thanks to our wonderful community leaders throughout the region. I am a previous Fedora Project Leader.

• Future plans

Continue to translate our presence at events into new contributors, and encourage more Fedora Ambassadors and developers to speak at events. Someone related to Fedora should be giving a talk at every event that we attend. I will also continue to be the main budget point of contact for Ambassadors and Fedora Marketing.

Larry Cafiero (lcafiero)

Nominated by Karsten Wade (quaid) (1)

• Candidate statement

I am currently a Fedora Ambassador from Scotts Valley (Santa Cruz County), California, U.S.A. As an ambassador, I strive to spread the word about Fedora in as many different venues, and at as many digital and non-digital events, as possible. As a FAmSCo member, my primary goal would be to assist other ambassadors in promoting Fedora by giving them the tools necessary to perform the tasks at hand.

• Contributor profile

My biographical information can be seen in my profile here. I have been a Linux user since 2006, and a Fedora user since Fedora 7. I became a Fedora ambassador in the summer of 2008, after organizing a Fedora 9 event that May at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California.

I am one of the founders and organizers of Lindependence, a Linux promotional project which introduces a variety of distributions, including Fedora, to new users at meetings across the country.

In addition to my profession as a newspaper editor, I also run Felton Linuxworks and HeliOS Solutions West in Felton, California; the former a retailer selling refurbished computers and other hardware, and the latter a Linux conversion and networking services for home users and those in the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) setting.

My involvement on behalf of Fedora includes, but is not limited to:

• • Fedora ambassador;
  • Participation in the Fedora Marketing Project;
  • Participation in the Fedora Mini SIG on behalf of Oregon State University's Computer Science Platform for Learning, or "Fuzzy Walrus" [2];”
  • Speaker, promoting Fedora to LUGs and college classes in both California and Oregon;
  • Administrator of the Facebook group "Fedora – Linux;"
  • Blogger: "Larry the Fedora Guy"[3] and "Larry the Free Software Guy."[4]

• Future plans

My future plans include continuing to contribute to the projects mentioned above, as well as others that I may take on in the future. One issue I hope to expand on as a FAmSCo member is to encourage more evangelism around Fedora in particular, and Free/Open Source Software in general; this evangelism starts with seeking more speaking opportunities for myself and others, as well as developing more ambassadors as spokespeople in their immediate locations on behalf of Fedora at digital and non-digital events.

Thank you for the opportunity to present my credentials for your consideration.

Hector Gonzalez (hagr182)

• Candidate statement

Fedora is a very complete and stable linux distribution, I will do everything in my power to give people the gift of Fedora, I will also do everything I can to get more contributors to the project.

• Contributor profile

My name is Hector Gonzalez, I´m a 19 year old Mexican IT student, I´ve been contributing to the Fedora community since last march, as an ambassador and in the future also in marketing; as an ambassador I´ve been dedicating my time to distributing Fedora to the students and general public. In terms of support I can give assistance to multiple regions as I speak english, spanish, german and a little french.

• Future plans
  • Strenghten the LATAM community.
  • Strenghten cooperation between different regions.
  • Strenghten Fedora´s image compared to other distros.
  • Promote event creation in the LATAM community.
  • Get more Fedora contributors and users.
  • Create new ways of presenting fedora to the world.

Susmit Shannigrahi (susmit)

Nominated by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 1

• Candidate statement
  • I am an Ambassador from APAC, more specifically from India.
  • My main goal is going to be collate and better organise Ambassador activities in APAC.
  • My primary concern is going to be fixing the resource/people/activity issues.

• Contributor profile
  • Ambassador job
  • Fedora Ambassador for India.
  • APAC Ambassadors meeting lead.
  • Mentored and mentoring a number of people into ambassadors job.
  • Guiding/supporting a few LUGs in India.
  • Contributor to freemedia program.
  • Started the LocalContacts program.
  • Point of contact for swag production in India.
  • Speaks/spoken in number of events (This year only, I don't remember previous events.:))
    • TechTrix'08 at Kolkata
    • Axis'08 at VNIT Nugpur
    • Workshop at WBSUB, Kolkata
    • Going to speak at foss.in.
  • Infrastructure Job
    • Contributor to Fedora Infrastructure.
    • Mirror manager for a public mirror.(used to)
    • Working on fixing the Fedora availability and freemedia tracking issue.
  • Artwork Job
    • Tweaked a few artworks for FUDcon@foss.in, based on Máirín and Nicu's designs.

• Future plans
  • Maintaining the good work being done.
  • Better coordinate APAC events
  • More importantly, creating a framework to follow up events.
    • Create a user and contributor base.
    • If no LUG create one on spot.
    • Support them, convince to have a local repo, send them new release DVDs, get a few ambassadors and contributors from them.
  • Starting Fedora mentor program.. Its one of my dream projects. :)
  • Working to better availability of Fedora at APAC.
  • Seeing to the needs of Ambassadors/Contacts, motivate them by giving work of choice.
  • Better work distribution by intensely tracking Ambassadors.
  • Personally, I am working on and finish these soon,
    • A event box, with a portable mirror in it.
    • APAC ambassadors Polo shirt and Generic Fedora polo shirts.

Francesco Ugolini (fugolini)

• Candidate statement

Currently I'm FAmSCo chair. My principal activities and goals are coordinating this one and improving Ambassadors experience (from event coordination to ambassadors support). I think people came first and be a FAmSCo member means, first of all, working for ambassadors, starting from their necessities and helping them in their "ambassadorial" life.

• Contributor profile
  • Ambassador since 2006. FAmSCo member from 2006 to nowadays, chair since 2008.
  • Marketing Project member.
  • Initiative I've sponsored/coordinated:
    • Fedora Ambassadors Wall
    • F9/F10 Release Parties
  • I've joined some EMEA and Italy events, see here for a list.
  • I've done my best to keep the community running :)

• Future plans
  • Working on a training/mentoring program for new Ambassadors.
  • Organize how-to activities for all Ambassadors.
  • Working with Ambassadors Membership Administrators to watch and, if needed, improve membership processes.
  • Continue with the localization process:

1. Keep FAmSCo up to date on Local groups activities/problems/improvements;
2. Take care of Ambassadors feedbacks about resources distribution;
3. Help Ambassadors with events organization, firstly working on a strong Budget plan.

• • Working with the other sub-projects (Docs, Arts etc.) and the Fedora Board to build the most collaborative community.
  • Supporting Ambassadors ideas and initiatives.
  • Make FAmSCo working on the right way: your one!

David Nalley (ke4qqq)

• Candidate statement

I am currently a Fedora Ambassador from South Carolina, USA, and one of the NA Regional Ambassador Coordinators.

• Contributor profile
  • Ambassador since early 2006
  • Marketing project member
  • Docs Project Member
    • Writer on the install-guide
    • Beat writer on the release-notes
    • Occasional wiki gardener
  • FWN Beat writer
  • Fedora OLPC SIG member
  • Bug Triage

• Future plans

I've often expressed my observation that the environment for Ambassadors and FAmSCo has been changing, and I'd argue has dramatically changed within the past 12 months. I believe that to a degree the role of Ambassadors has changed. Even more so has been the change that I think is necessary for FAmSCo. In 2006 when I first became an Ambassador there were few around the world. Currently there are more than 10 times the number of Ambassadors. Over that time we have seen the purpose and mechanism of Ambassadors change pretty significantly. The largest of these issues has been the growth of regional leadership. To that end I see the purpose of FAmSCo evolving. This is not to say that the current FAmSCo hasn't been evolving, they've taken great strides in so doing, but that evolution will need to continue as the environment continues changing. To that end I see the priorities of FAmSCo as:

• • Continuing to foster and promote regional ownership
  • Defining strategy, purpose, and priorities of Ambassadors project as a whole
  • Working to establish a mentoring framework that is regionally acceptable, yet globally applicable for new Ambassadors
  • Provide a framework that allows us to quantify the return on investment upstream to Red Hat so as to retain and increase funding
  • Continued global allocation of funding with an eye towards the strategy of the Ambassadors and Fedora Project as a whole
  • Provide Ambassadors with the tools and resources needed to be more efficient

Thomas Canniot (MrTom)

• Contributor profile:
  • Fedora user since 2003
  • Fedora ambassador since 2005
  • Member of FAmSCo , running for re-election
  • President of French local non-profit organization since January 2007
  • Actively promotes Fedora in France (organisation, events, website , goodies...)

After being a Fedora user for several years until Fedora Core 5 came out, I decided to involve myself into the Project and do my best to improve it. I started by translation, as the French team seemed to have given up the job. At the same time, the webmaster of the French community website of Fedora gave up this task as well and asked me to take this task over. I decided to build a small team of motivated people, and we re-launched Fedora-fr from scratch, with a strong community statement and a call to active participation. The Fedora-fr.org contains the most complete Fedora documentation over the world, with more than 1200 pages of documentation. Starting to buzz about the project in France, we decided to create a non-profit organization in order to give us the key to promote fedora without thinking about the money problem. The organization is soon to be 2 years old already, and encourages lots of people to become Ambassadors and contributors on several domains on the Fedora Project. The organization is now running pretty well, capable to order live cds, stickers and lots of schwag (pens, pins...) and has its own Fedora Online Store. In its second coming term, the organization steering committee will have to take up the challenge to strenghten links and relationship with the worldwide French community and see how the French org can sustain to their local needs of organization and promoting Fedora.

• Future plans:
  • Strengthen Fedora´s presence in French worldwide Regions - and especially in Africa.
  • Continue to share the French experience to FAMSco to help improve the global organization of the Ambassadors SIG.
  • Improve the cooperation between Red Hat and Fedora ambassadors at events.
  • Open as much as possible the Ambassador SIG so as it can be a start point to join the Fedora Project as an active contributor

prename surname of next candidate (copy+paste this template) (ircnick)

• Candidate statement

• Contributor profile

• Future plans