Objective: Proposed University Involvement Initiative
Overview
Increase Fedora's exposure in university environments, particularly engineering universities.
Expected Impact
Increased user base with a specific focus on future contributors.
Timeframe
For maximum effect, this should kick into gear at the beginning of the (Northern Hemisphere) academic summer, with the intent of having events planned during the 2016-2017 school year.
Aspects
- Coordinate Marketing, Ambassador and Outreach groups to focus on university needs
- Work with universities to provide install-fests during student orientation periods
- Work with universities to regularly run Fedora-focused hackfests
- Work with university IT departments to co-maintain one or more Fedora computer labs (and help them upgrade them during breaks)
- Establish work-study, co-op and for-credit programs at universities
Metrics
- Increased contributions from university programs
- Increased bug reports and feature requests
- Increased mind-share among potential contributors (not easily measured)
Realized Impact: FY16
- Establishment of Letters@fedoraproject.org has enabled us to formally support academic credit to students in India and other countries where these letters can be of use.
- Fedora Has been Accepted to Google Summer of Code 2016!
- Fedora has participated in both rounds of Outreachy this year. Though we were not able to field eligible candidates in the winter, numerous applicants have remained active contributors.
- After Software Freedom Day 2016, we now have a model for offering a "badge-a-thon" at Universities and other events.
- Though hubs has not been under as much active development as we anticipated in 2015, 2016 is ramping up. There are tickets filed related to the EDU Hub now.
Additional Notes
Some prototypes of this have been performed at Brno universities over the last few years, with very positive results. We should coordinate with the contributors involved in those efforts and learn from their successes and failures.
There is also a University Outreach program run by Red Hat's "Open Source and Standards" department which was involved in the RIT partnership from which we eventually acquired Remy DeCausemaker. I assume he will have plenty to add to this discussion as well as contacts in the university world.
Proposed Program: Campus Ambassadors
Outline
After having a conversation with Red Hat's University Relations Team, we have drafted a proposal for a program that looks/feels more like traditional EDU outreach. Below is a description of the particulars. A rough outline of the program would be:
- Develop materials for EDU-specific outreach to be used in our efforts, regardless of a Representatives program
- Hold a Fedora Activity Day (FAD) for EDU material development and Campus Ambassadors training
- Search for and select (3) Campus Ambassadors from each region of Fedora Ambassadors (NA, EMEA, APAC, LATAM)
- Hold a Campus Ambassadors training FAD where we work with the 12 student representatives on how to run on campus workshops/events
- Organize (3) events at schools in each region (12 total)
- Re-evaluate the program after AY2016
Quaid's Funnel of Contributor Engagement
Karsten Wade has described in the past the "funnel" of contributor engagement.
- Tier 1 events are Introductory, and will expose students to both FOSS in general, and increase *awareness* of Fedora's role in the FOSS community. Our first year of the program will target Tier 1 events exclusively.
- Tier 2 events will target Power Users and be organized on-site. This will require commitments from a Campus Ambassador, at least one dedicated staff / faculty member, and 25 students.
- Tier 3 events will target Contributors and be organized on-site through the same manner and scope as we organize Fedora Activity Days. At this point, it is expected that the Campus Ambassadors will be fully integrated into the Fedora community.
Schools and Campus Ambassadors
The program's focus will be on a minimum of three schools per region (APAC, EMEA, LATAM, North America). The schools should have:
- Computer science program, OR
- Active Linux User Group, OR
- Large student audience
Owing to the number of schools, one Campus Ambassador will be identified for each selected school.
Campus Ambassadors kit
- Stickers
- Exclusive swag
- Campus Ambassadors budget (Travel + Food)
Metrics
The EDU team currently tracks:
- Schools we visit
- Number of attendees
The data recovered will help in determining the level of impact each event had. This will be instrumental in planning and managing future events. Data visualizations and reports will be generated based on the raw data collected.
Quaid's triangle
1. Awareness
The awareness program will focus on imparting knowledge by answering the questions
- What is Linux?
- Why Linux?
The answers to these questions will form a formidable base for the complete program. Along with the aforementioned questions, the attendees could also be enlightened about Open Source in general and its principles. Further, this will facilitate the understanding of the answer to the question: Why Fedora? (without being disparaging to other Linux distributions).
2. Power User
Power users could be defined as avid learners aiming to elevate their productivity by using available tools. The workshops held in this program will focus on teaching advanced tools and how Fedora can be easily set up to use these tools.
In a nutshell:
- Git tutorial on GitHub (Pagure?)
- Git + OpenShift tutorial
- GPG
- SSH
- Showing off advanced features in Fedora
- Installing Fedora on the VM
- Ansible
- OpenStack
- ownCloud
3. Contributor
- Personal guidance to lead the contributor towards the contribution pathways owing to his/her preferences or liking towards certain contribution areas.
- Badgeathons
- Hackathons
- FADs
Campus Ambassadors
To help identify regions and locations that Fedora may have an opportunity to influence, it is helpful to have an idea of what Ambassadors across all regions of Fedora actively have a position of influence in either a university, high school, or other education environment. This is regardless of role, whether as a student or a faculty member. Ambassadors with connections to education institutions are encouraged to fill in their information below.
Campus Presence Inventory
Asia and Pacific (APAC)
| FAS Username | Name | Institution | Location | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| woohuiren | Huiren Woo | Ngee Ann Polytechnic | Singapore | Student |
| Hardwyrd | Romar Micabalo | Cagayan de Oro | Philippines | Teacher/coordinator |
| Dhanesh95 | Dhanesh Sabane | ZES's ZCOER | Pune, Maharashtra, India | Student |
| Phoenix1796 | Abhishek Chopra | ABES Engineering College | Ghaziabad, U.P., India | Student |
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
| FAS Username | Name | Institution | Location | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nmilosev | Nemanja Milošević | University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics and Informatics | Novi Sad, RS | MSc Student |
| churchyard | Miro Hrončok | Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Information Technology | Prague, Czech Republic | MSc Student, Teacher |
| ardian | Ardian Haxha | University for Business and Technology | Pristina, Kosovo | BSc Student |
| jonatoni | Jona Azizaj | University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics | Tirana, Albania | Business Informatics Student |
| germano | Germano Massullo | University of Rome Tor Vergata | Rome, Italy | |
| twohot | Onyeibo Oku | Enugu State University of Science and Technology | Enugu, Nigeria | Faculty/Ambassador |
| nobrakal | Alexandre Moine | University Paris-Diderot | Paris, France | Student, Ambassador |
Latin America and South America (LATAM)
| FAS Username | Name | Institution | Location | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| athoscr | Athos Ribeiro | Universidade de São Paulo | São Paulo, Brazil | MSc Student |
| bt0dotninja | Alberto Rodríguez Sánchez | Universidad de Autónoma Metropolitana | Ciudad de México, México | MSc Student |
North America
| FAS Username | Name | Institution | Location | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| jflory7 | Justin W. Flory | Rochester Institute of Technology | Rochester, New York, USA | Student |
| viorel | Viorel Tabara | Athabasca University | Athabasca, Alberta, Canada | Staff |
| corey84 | Corey Sheldon | Various Makerspaces | Northern Va, USA | Community Member |
| swilson | Stephen Wilson | Colleges | Mississippi, USA | Ambassador/ Facilitator |
Objective Lead
History
Initial council approval: April 27, 2015