FAmSCo election 2010 nominations

Nominations are open.
The nomination period closes on November 7th.

FAmSCo 2010 elections

Candidates must be a member of the Ambassadors group in the Fedora Accounts System. This helps ensure that 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.

Ambassadors will be following the Fedora election timeline.

You may self-nominate. If you wish to nominate someone else, please consult with that person ahead of time.

Neville A. Cross (yn1v)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
  • Fedora User since 2006 and joined the Nicaraguan Fedora group in March 2008.
  • Ambassador since August 20th, 2008 and Mentor since April 5th, 2010.
  • Freemedia Team since Decenber 2008 and Administrator since April 2009
  • Marketing Team since January 1st, 2010, working with Fedora Weekly News team making the marketing beat since February 2010.
  • I have tried to get Fedora Ambassadors in all Central America. I have to said that Panama ambassadors came in their own, but I have made contact with people in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica to achieve this, even before been appointed as a mentor.
  • I have organized several events in Nicaragua, and participate in others events in Central America. Among the events that I have helped to organize there is the recognition as one of the best F11 release party.
  • I have participated at FUDCom Latam 2009 in Porto Alegre Brasil and FAD Marketing 2010 in Raleigh. I will be attending to FUDCom 2011 in Tempe.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?

I like to keep working to enhance the growth of Fedora in Central America and LATAM. I think it is useful to have a voice representing our region in FAmSCo. Budget has several time not used fully in LATAM, and in the other hand Ambassadors have been putting their own money to produce events. I think this needs to change.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?

FAmSCo should be a facilitator of the activities that Ambassadors undertake around the world. To bridge Ambassadors to the right people within the project when ideas arise that are involving more than Ambassadors team.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?

Enable Ambassadors in LATAM to fully use their budget in a responsible and constructively way. Others goals that I have in the project does not require to be elected, such a revamp of distribution project that is only living as expenses of Freemedia team.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

I think that the most important change is to change the fact that we have unused budget, we want to reach new collaborators and we need to invest on get them.--Yn1v 03:12, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Marcus Moeller (marcus)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.

I have signed the CLA in 2008. Shortly afterwards I joined the Ambassadors group because I wanted to help promoting Fedora. I have already been participating in several FADs/events and am a package maintainer, too. This year I have organized FUDCon EMEA Zurich together with my college Sandro which was a lot of work (but also a lot of fun :))

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
  • I want to help improving the mentoring process. The role of being a mentor is seen as something special (at least by most of the Ambassadors) and it should be attainable for everyone (with skills). To make it happen we need to line out some clear requirements. Slots based on the Ambassador approval rates wouldn't be that bad. Maybe it even would make sense to limit the role of being a mentor for a specific time (e.g. one year) to let others do the job, too.
  • I am thinking of new ways to distribute installation media (as DVDs are not that modern, any more).
  • I want to help organizing FADs (yes, the good ol' classic ambassador days).

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?

As the name implies it is the meant to give ambassadors a clear direction and aims. Members act as contacts on organizational tasks and should help solving disputes.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?

Besides the goals I mentioned above I think money also matters for a project like Fedora (and I am not only talking about money from Red Hat, here). Funds are necessary to guarantee (some kind of :)) project independence.

In the past we had at least the e.V. to coordinate money exchange from America to Europe. But as the e.V. might not exist much longer we need to find alternative ways.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

The Ambassadors project is already run in an adequate way, but I want to integrate some aspects more into the rest of the project (e.g. all group mentors are listed at: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mentors but Ambassadors are liked to a separate page.)

David Ramsey (dramsey)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.

  

  Penguin

I have been with Fedora starting at version Fedora 9.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?

I want to be a member of FAmSCo in order to help the Ambassadors.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?

I think that FAmSCo's role may provide structure and help facilitate the needs of the Ambassadors.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?

My particular goals related to FAmSCo would be the following:

1. I want to understand and to address the Ambassadors' wants and needs.
2. I want to help the Ambassadors achieve their own goals with appropriate support.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

After having been an Ambassador and hearing their needs and wants, There is always room for improvement in all processes.

I believe that after an effective evaluation of the current way things are done, an appropriate way to interface via FAmSCo in order to address Ambassadors' growth and development is in my mind.

Gerard Braad (gbraad)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
  • I have been using Red Hat since one of the early releases, but from the perspective of a user. I was happy to hear that Fedora was the continuation of a commitment to the desktop. Although I have tried many different distributions in the meantime, I have always remained loyal to this RPM-based distro. Recently I have focussed more on the management and development side of the project by assisting the Chinese Fedora and Open Source community and getting the Fedora MIPS port on track. I am member of the Marketing team as the key to promote Open Source in China is get TOSW more generally accepted.
• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
  • It seems like the best way to assist and help the Chinese and Asian community to get a better foothold in the Fedora project.
• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
  • Providing the Ambassadors a place to go for their questions about resources they need, how to co-operate with the other Fedora and Open Source communities in their region.
• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
  • My particular goals related to FAmSCo would be the following:
    1. Mentoring and support for current Ambassador
    2. Grow presence and awareness of Fedora and Open Source in general in Greater China
    3. Being a bridge between cultures
    4. Being a bridge between Marketing and Ambassadors
    5. Ambassadors in the APAC should have a good representation of your needs and resources
• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?
  • Ambassadors play a role in not just representing the brand, but also in the promotion of 'The Open Source Way'. They are the greeters to our Community and assist in getting contributions to Fedora and our Upstream projects

JoergSimon (kital)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.

My involvement with Fedora started with my first FUDCon in 2005, today i contribute to multiple groups in the Fedora Project and i am the current FAmSCo Chair. My main focus in Fedora right now is: the work on membership Community Development and Mentoring, Fedora as Security Testing Platform and the Fedora Security Spin, Fedora mailing list- and membership-administration and working on strong support for the Fedora Community in underrepresented regions in the world! Promoting Fedora on Events is another major part of my work and so i work as organizer, driver, helper, slogger, promoter on a lot Events since years and i produce, store and ship a lot of the EMEA SWAG and Booth Material.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?

Because i care about the Fedora Ambassador Group. Once elected - FAmSCo means 12 month of ongoing reliable diligence and work - and often going a hard way - this is how i like it!

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
  • FAmSCo acts as a liason to the Board and to the other Groups
  • work on the vision and on "what is the proper role of the Ambassador Group in a global project like the Fedora Project"
  • that Ambassadors get the ressources they need, but also accountability
  • Mentors&Membership-Management - manage the grow with focus on quantity and quality of new Ambassadors Candidates
  • continuous improvement of our policies like the Ambassador Code of Conduct
  • encourage and support regional leaders
  • manage our budget
  • fix/resolve disputes within the group
  • of course, listen and help Ambassadors to get their ideas working
  • ...

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
  • help FAmSCo to fulfill his "proper role" ;)
  • my ongoing goals and/or achieved goals from last Election :
    • have more transparency - we established the monthly FAmSCo Report and opened the FAmSCo List Archives to the public
    • stabilize Membership and Mentoring Process
      • Mentors Survey and the Mentors Meetings
      • we continued to improve the Ambassador Membership Process with clear guidelines for Mentors and for new Candidates
      • a new Mentor Appointment Process
      • a new Ambassador dispute resolution policy
    • grow Fedora´s presence in underrepresented Regions
      • the translation marathon in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 was prepared with Mirlan and Yaakov but canceled because of the violent unrests in the Region
      • for Africa i initiated the contact with FOSSFA - and with onside Event-Leader Isaac made the IDLELO_2010 in Ghana happen and sent Pierros over to support
      • we have now a stable base in Hungary thanks to Zoltan

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

As a Meta-Group with over 700 Contributors from all over the Fedora Project, this Group has the ability to spread not only Fedora the OS itself - we are more than that - we are Evangelist, technical Teacher, Mentor, Marketeer, Logistic, Artworker, Coder, Developer, PeoplePerson, SWAG&Media-Producer, Organizer, Project Manager ... in one Role. We all should strive to improve ourself in this Role! Ambassadors do a great job public facing, we have to get better to fulfil our Role as the glue between all the groups inside Fedora!

--Jsimon 17:31, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Rahul Sundaram (mether)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.

I have been a user of Red Hat Linux when dinosaurs were still running around :-). I have been involved in this project (Remember Red Hat Linux Project 1.0 release plan before Fedora?), a couple of months after it was originally launched and have increased my participation like the tentacles of an octopus or even a banyan tree! over the last seven years. I am involved in various aspects of the Fedora community including documentation, marketing, packaging, helping out users and fellow contributors in getting started and staying involved.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?

I was a founding member of FAMSCo (and first public Fedora Project Board) and the second official Fedora Ambassador in the world. Although I deliberately have stepped back and let others in the community take a active role in the past several years, I have continued to support FAMSCo and since my role at Red Hat is likely to change to being community facing again, I would like to be given an opportunity to be part of this leadership and support APAC and India activities as well as event management and support infrastructure in general.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?

I have always thought of it as a leadership activity in many ways similar to FESCo but with a people perspective instead of just a technical role. FAMSCo's role is to mentor, support and guide Ambassadors and resolve any conflicts that will arise from time to time.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?

I want to ensure that Ambassadors are well aware of the details of Fedora in the past and in a new release, what's exciting and what's new and help provide ancillary support via infrastructure or packaging when necessary. I want to help with marketing efforts. I would also to guide and support Ambassadors, existing and new in APAC and India get started and stay involved.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

I would like all Ambassadors to actively contribute in whatever ways that is possible. You don't have to be a technical person to do that necessarily and we already have a good history of Ambassadors getting involved in documentation, marketing, packaging, L10N etc and I want to encourage strongly a contributory culture to Fedora instead of Ambassadors limiting themselves to being marketing contacts only. I also want to ensure that whoever becomes a Ambassador has a strong hold on all the important details, including milestones, successes and failures in Fedora and atleast be aware of whom to redirect when they get a question they do not know the answer to. I want to do that by help documenting all those details in a guide which is a living document that will grow with more questions and answers. I aspire to organize a FUDCon in India in the next year as well.

Thank you all for reading and your support.

Zoltan Hoppar (zoltanh7211)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.

I have used our beloved OS earlier from Fedora 7, looked for an stable translation platform for GPL programs. Therefore I have signed the CLA in 2009 and joined first to the localisation team, as l10n Hungarian translator. After this to the Ambassadors group because I wanted to help promoting Fedora, and help the expansion to Hungary, gather the heavily fragmented community. Currently, I try to do some marketing, art and swag research, swag creation - to make 'waves in still water'. I have already participated in few FADs/events, to learn, gather experience - and feel the pulse of the community.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?

I would like to give aid and care to all of the ambassadors.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?

Gives suggestions, aids, builds structure, leads, protects, answers, communicating to/about the needs/problems of the Ambassadors, and binds every part inside-out of the community.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
  • I want to expand, strengthen our presence towards eg. Scandinavia, Russia, Poland, to former eastern bloc
  • Improve mentor program, and expand to each groups to have at least one who educates the newcomers inside
  • More regular classrooms to keep, build quality
  • More "ninja" programs - incentives within the community
  • Give support that is achievable from our resources without wasting
  • More marketing - possibly more swags
  • Tools for ambassadors - improve swag and free media handling.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

We have to keep the unity between the Ambassadors.

-- Thank you for reading and your support.

Caius Chance (kaio)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
  • I installed RHL 6.0 in 1998, when I was looking for an OS which is easier to use and more efficient than DOS and its GUI successor. I remained as a part-time user and decided to become Fedora Contributor since Fedora Core 5 in 2006. Between 2006 and 2010 I was a developer in Fedora I18N Team. I joined Fedora Ambassador Team and be committee of Fedora Chinese User Group (FZUG) for a few years. Occasionally, I create artworks on Fedora and participated in activities like FreeMedia and organization of FZUG events.
• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
  • As per my concern on growth of Fedora Chinese community, I had been concentrated on how to grow it rapidly and healthy. Looking at the huge population of Chinese computer users in greater China, SouthEast Asia and metropolitan cities around the world; I want to be a member of FAmSCo for making the strongest positive influence and lead along. I do believe my English/Mandarin/Cantonese/Japanese language skills could be leveraged in this scenario and make a big change.
• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
  • In order to increase users and contributors in non-English speaking regions, there are needs of bridge/middle-person who speaks their languages. A multi-linguist FAmSCo member ensures messages could be exchanged accurately and timely.
  • The culture differences affect the results of every global project like Ambassadors. FAmSco member regulates the behaviors of ambassadors according to the culture of the regions of ambassadors so that they are doing morally and legally.
  • Coordination has to be done among FAmSCo members of APAC sub-regions and global regions.
  • FAmSCo should mentor new ambassadors by explanations to procedures of budgeting and campaigning.
  • Be the first contact of ambassadors for all people and money issues they have encountered.
• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
  • Participate in plannings and fulfillment of plans of FAmSCo.
  • Explain procedures of budget application to ambassadors.
  • Mentor ambassador mentors and ambassadors.
  • Assist ambassadors' organization of events and activities.
  • Have fun! :D
• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?
  • I would present the value of Chinese and Asian community within Fedora, which Open Source makes sense and attracts them!

Igor Soares (igorps)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
  • I started contributing with the Brazilian Portuguese Translation Team back in 2006. A year later I was coordinating the translation team and was invited to join the Ambassadors project where I started to work closely with local contributors from different parts of Brazil. I maintained the Fedora BrOffice.org Spin and helped on internationalization testing. In late 2009 I resigned the coordination of the translation team and now I have been concentrating my efforts on the Ambassadors project.
  • I have been attending to major FOSS events in LATAM such as FISL and Latinoware in the past three years. I have attended to FUDCon Porto Alegre in 2009 and FUDCon Santiago in 2010. Next year I'll be attending to FUDCon Tempe in NA.
• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
  • I want to help organizing our community growth not by only having new ambassadors, but also gathering new developers, packagers, designers and translators. I want to help specially in LATAM where we still have few contributors and need to grow qualitatively.
• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
  • FAmSco should be a committee that understands cultural and language diversities enabling ambassadors from around the world in order to achieve Fedora Project goals and share our core values with fidelity. It is highly important that Fedora ambassadors feel represented by FAmSCo.
• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
  • I would like to assure that decisions are taken in a open and transparent way in LATAM and other regions;
  • I also want to help integrating the Portuguese and Spanish parts of LATAM driving the region together into common goals and objectives.
• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?
  • I would like Ambassadors to be more integrated with other projects. Ambassadors should work closer with translation, packaging and internationalization projects in order to know precisely what those projects need so our ambassadors can dig in the FOSS community and help new contributors to arise and guide them correctly.

Pierros Papadeas (liknus)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
  • I've been involved in Fedora Project for 3 years now, and I am actively contributing to Ambassadors, Localization and partially in Design and Spins projects.
  • In Ambassadors group I am organizing numerous events in Greece promoting Fedora and participated enriching Fedora presence in European, African and Asian foss event. Also I am chairing the EMEA Ambassadors Meeting helping logistics and regional tasks run smoothly for EMEA region.
  • In Localization I am sponsor/mentor making sure that new translators find their way in the project and having more and more languages supported in Fedora. Also I am maintainer of the Design Suite spin of Fedora.
• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
  • 12 months focused work on making sure Ambassadors all around the world have all they need, that's what I want! Also I am particularly interested to help EMEA region become more efficient with established procedures (we have already some e.g. trac! let's have more!) now in particular that the eVs are not going to be here (as it seems)
• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
  • Keeping Ambassador's project in-schedule for the releases
  • Connection between Board and Ambassadors
  • Consistent vision statement
  • Coordination of regional vs global Ambassador tasks
  • Budget handling
  • Monitoring mentoring/sponsoring guidelines and practices
  • ...and all the above in close collaboration and with feedback from all the Ambassadors
• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
  • Keep the Ambassadors' Project in-schedule with the newly formed Ambassadorial tasks in our release schedule
    • Close monitoring/reminds of the tasks
    • Reform thee schedule to fit our needs (where needed)
    • Define the regional and global Ambassadorial tasks for the schedule
  • Keep logistics running smoothly in EMEA
    • Quick budget handling
    • FAmSCo presence in the local meeting to ensure that
    • Improvise and deploy budget handling techniques in collaboration with Community Architecture team of RedHat
  • Expand Fedora to APAC and Middle East/Africa
    • We are already moving towards this direction and I am actively involved in that (Afica & Asia)
• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?
  • Active participation in *all* regional meetings providing solutions and resolving conflicts
  • Unification of all infrastructure services of Ambassadors
  • More wiki bounties (wiki needs some love!)
  • Constructive usage of unused budget. (and request some more!)

Thanks for reading all these :) Please feel free to contact me for any questions and/or ideas!

Ppapadeas 23:18, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Larry Cafiero (lcafiero)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.

I have been a Fedora user since Fedora 7. I have been a Fedora Ambassador since a Fedora 9 release party at the Cabrillo College Linux Users Group meeting in the summer of 2008. Since becoming a Fedora Ambassador, I have been:

• A Regional Ambassador for the U.S. West Coast states (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii), until the "title" was abolished at the Fedora Ambassador Day in May 2010. However I continue to hold the same duties -- getting media and swag to Fedora Ambassadors -- without being called a "Regional Ambassador."
• An Ambassador mentor for North American Ambassador candidates.
• An owner/organizer on behalf of the Fedora Project at various large Linux expos, like the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE), Linux Fest Northwest, OSCON and the Utah Open Source Conference.
• A speaker on behalf of the Fedora Project to various college computer classes and Linux User Groups in California.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?

Not only was I nominated by a current FAmSCo member, I feel I have a duty to serve. In addition, I have the time and desire to serve on FAmSCo.

<humor>Besides, I was told that all FAmSCo members get a pony.</humor>

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?

Ambassadors are the "face" of the Fedora Project to the general public. As such, FAmSCo's role in the process is to make sure the Ambassadors have all they need -- whether it's media and swag or proper training and development -- to be the best representatives they can be to "put their best face forward" on behalf of Fedora.

To a large extent, as an Ambassador I have always felt that FAmSCo has done an excellent job in this regard. I would like to maintain and uphold this high standard and make sure that any necessary changes are in the right direction.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?

As mentioned above, if I have a particular goal, it would be to make sure the high standards that are part of the Fedora Project's standard operations are maintained.

This is not to say that FAmSCo and the Fedora Ambassadors program are perfect, and the minor tweaking that comes from inevitable changes are a fact of organizational life. However, the core values and principles that have guided FAmSCo in the past serve as a great foundation from which to continue to build.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

Before I answer this question, I would like to point out two important items about the Fedora Ambassadors program that deserve special mention.

First, if I were to pick out only one thing (and there are more, believe me) that I am proud of in being a Fedora Ambassador, it is this: I am proud to be a part of the Fedora Ambassadors program because the Fedora Ambassadors program has set the standard by which other distros should promote themselves. Recent proof of this is that OpenSUSE openly took several pages from our proverbial playbook -- if not the entire playbook itself -- in forming its own Ambassador program.

Additionally, I am also proud of the fact that one strong undercurrent in the Fedora Project -- though not implicitly stated -- is that the Fedora Project and its ambassadors have an understanding, dedication and commitment to the Free/Open Source Software paradigm to put FOSS first, which is something that is lacking in other distros. To be specific, the Fedora Project's Ambassador program clearly contrasts with Ubuntu's equivalent -- Local Communities (LoCos) -- which consistently puts Ubuntu first and FOSS a distant second.

Having said this, other than changes that come with unknown and unforecasted situations, I believe the Fedora Ambassadors program is on solid footing, thanks in large part to the dedication and commitment of Fedora Ambassadors worldwide.

One idea that I would like to see brought to reality is one recently proposed by John Rose (inode0) involving having new Fedora Ambassador(s) -- those who show commitment and promise -- attend Linux events where there is funding available to send them. The idea here is to get more and different people to larger events and for the new people to learn what is involved in event organization and coordination.

<humor>That and more bacon for all, of course.</humor>

Thank you for the opportunity to run for FAmSCo.

Full Name (IRC handle)

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?