Elections/Questionnaire

The question collection period is closed
The collection period ended at 23:59:59 UTC on January 27, 2014.

The following elections will take place in January 2014:

• Fedora Project Board (two seats: E1 and E2)
• FESCo (Engineering) (four seats)
• FAmSCo (Ambassadors) (three seats)

All dates and times noted are UTC time.

Please add questions you'd like to see asked to this page.

CLOSED The questionnaire is closed. No further questions will now be added. Please do not modify this page!

Fedora Project Board

Questions

Do you agree with, and are you committed to, the Fedora Foundations? If no, what do you believe should be changed?

• Neville A. Cross: I do agree and I am committed. People do asked me about using Fedora in obsolete hardware. Politely I point out that it is not possible to move forward looking back. Fedora is about innovation, cutting edge technology, it is its purpose. If people is not looking for the community drive, they are not looking for our distro. But there is need for a change in foundations. We need a fifth Foundation, Fun. We need to be able to provide engaging task that people enjoy doing.
• Haïkel Guémar: I am *fiercely* committed to the 4 Foundations, these are the very same values that brought me to Fedora in 2004 (and contribute since 2006).
  No compromise with them, that's what make fedoraproject.org an unique project and awesome.
  
  I'll just say that more than often we tend to forget that one: *Friends*. Remember that behind you mail client or irc client windows, there is another human being, so be excellent to each other.

Do you believe that it is incompatible with the Freedom foundation to allow in any way the installation of non-free software from Fedora products without an explicit and informed action on the part of the user/system administrator to allow the installation of such software?

• Neville A. Cross: I do think explicit information is need for non-free software installation, as it should be explicit notice for collecting user data. Fedora Project is very careful when it comes to licensing. As far as I know there is no way to install non-free software from our repos. A person have to configure additional repos or manually install software to get non-free software. So if a person do so, and do not read the information of whatever is installing from third parties, then it is not Fedora Project fault. I do believe Fedora standards for licensing are consistent and transparent, so people can understand and relay on them.
• Haïkel Guémar: Yes, it also violates our mission statement that is "to lead the advancement of free and open source software and content as a collaborative community."
  We have to educate and inform our audience about the issues brought by proprietary softwares and why we are promoting FOSS alternatives.
  That works for Fedora the distro, but we're also Fedora the platform used many downstream distros.
  
  As a platform, we should collaborate with our downstream communities on making it easy for them to customize Fedora for their needs.
  Even if they ship or make it easy to install proprietary *crap*, sadly freedom goes both ways. (FYI: if it's not obvious here, i'm aiming for jspaleta former spot)

With all the changes happening (or proposed) within Fedora, how important do you think it is to attract new contributors (actually, even otherwise - without the changes)? What would be your plan for the same?

• Neville A. Cross: It is important to keep the flow of people. Voluntary work is subject to people's life evolution. People get married, have kids, got more demanding jobs, grow old or are eaten by velociraptors. We need new contributors no matter what. In any case, we should lay out open our card on the table. We need to inform in a timely and transparent way what is going on, where are we going, why it is important whatever is been done. So people can step down or step up as Fedora evolves, just the same as people evolve.
• Haïkel Guémar: It's do or die ! Fedora.next won't succeed if we don't bring new contributors to barge in. The most critical area is my opinion are release engineering and QA, we'll need more people and more automation.
  My plan is simple: go spread the word ! I'd like fp.o to get involved in outreach programs (college, women, everyone !) or initiatives like Upstream University.
  http://upstream-university.org/
  
  Though we have an ambassador program, remember that EVERY ONE of YOU *IS* Fedora: go to install parties, conferences, schools, and speak up, lead workshops, mentor folks etc.
  NB: Well, as we are all Fedora, let's keep calling each other by our first name or it will be confusing. :o)

As a community, do you think that sharing knowledge is important? If so, how can this be achieved in Fedora's community?

• Neville A. Cross: It is critical to share knowledge. We can start from “hit by a bus” scenario, so we share knowledge to ensure continuity of the project. But more daily needs for sharing knowledge is to create ramps for new contributors. Teaching them basic skills for contributing and the Fedora style of doing things, will help get new contributors. For example, it is not just about design, people can master designing tools. It is also about how the team works, which tools they use to submit work, how it is approved, how the team communicate, from tools to netiquette. This is just an example, the same goes for all other teams. Small events are one way to share knowledge, teach people while they start doing things for Fedora. With the plus of gathering Fedora contributors to keep them motivated.
• Haïkel Guémar: No, we should keep ALL knowledge to ourselves :o)
  Seriously, if you think that way, you're not fit to join Fedora or any FOSS project.
  We're a highly distributed community covering many timezones, knowledge should be preserved and we have many tools for that (wiki, mailing-lists, bugzilla, many many trac instances, ask fedora, irc -use the log, Luke-, etc.)
  Though we already use these tools, we have to take care that it's properly done.
  Another point is to make all that content *reusable*, i mean easy to understand, easy to *search* or it will be useless. I think that HyperKitty, ask fedora are great for that, but we need to get more people engaged to tag/edit properly content (luring them with mooaarrrr badges !)
  
  One more thing, we should make sure that knowledge is also reusable outside the Fedora Community, and even tighter collaboration with other communities on that point.

Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo)

Questions

• To achieve competitive advantage, have defined a strategy? Differentiation? Focus? Both?
• Do you agree with, and are you committed to, the Fedora Foundations? If no, what do you believe should be changed?
• Do you believe that it is incompatible with the Freedom foundation to allow in any way the installation of non-free software from Fedora products without an explicit and informed action on the part of the user/system administrator to allow the installation of such software?

Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee (FAmSCo)

Questions

• Add your question here
• How can we improve the management of budgets in all regions?
• How can we encourage ambassadors from all regions and maintain that strong bond with the community?
• Could you give us your ideas you have to improve the community?
• Are you going to work on any plans that make budget transactions handling more transparent? What could be those plans?

History

Questions from previous elections can be found here:

• Fedora 19 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 18 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 17 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 16 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 15 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 14 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 13 elections questionnaire
• Fedora 12 elections questionnaire