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Fedora Ambassadors Meeting Minutes 2006-05-04

Participants

  • lxmaier: AlexMaier
  • MrTom: ThomasCanniot
  • ChitleshGoorah: ChitleshGoorah
  • FrancescoUgolini: FrancescoUgolini
  • ke4qqq: DavidNalley
  • FrancescoUgolini: FrancescoUgolini
  • CyberSpy: LeeJoseph
  • McGiwer: PawelSadowski
  • drpixel: ?
  • mspevack: MaxSpevack
  • gomix: ?
  • rMenezes: RodrigoMenezes
  • SynTed: TheodorosSynodinos

Regrets

  • ThomasChung
  • GeroldKassube
  • FlorianBrand
  • KarlieRobinson

Transcript

Summary

Famsco Update

  • lxmaier reports
  • a meeting took place on monday
  • you can see the transcript here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/2006-05-01
  • you can see next meeting's agenda here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings
  • a few highlights from the meeting:
  • mspevack reports
  • so we've been shipping DVDs all over the world the last month or two and it's *incredibly* expensive and not a very good method of spending our money
  • we are looking into different alternative methods to help our ambassadors out with goods and money
  • mspevack will write up a proposal for how to handle the distribution
  • tchung reports
  • Since last report, we have 6 more new members
  • See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Projects/WeeklyReports/2006-04-24
  • As of 2006-04-30, we have 65 approved members (approved=signed CLA and have a Fedora account)
  • lxmaier: do you want to expand on the spending calamity?
  • mspevack:
  • sure -- bottom line is that we've been slowly getting ourselves sucked into the business of global distribution
  • mailing DVDs, shirts, etc from Raleigh all over the world
  • it's just an inefficient use of money
  • better use of money is to sponsor shows, and build up an infrastructure
  • that allows people worldwide to make use of local production capability to produce DVDs, etc
  • we've got a store set up here in the US that is about to go live, which allows people to order fedora stuff, and the shipping (within the US) is reasonably priced.
  • A project for the next couple of months (we're gonna have Jack Aboutboul work on it) is figuring out how to replicate that kind of a setup internationally
  • if we can get that in place, then the local ambassadors/folks putting on a small to mid-size show don't have to figure out how to get 100 DVDs made
  • they can just order them from somewhere that's reasonably close by and not get killed on shipping
  • so that's the grand vision -- and we need to try to make it happen
  • lxmaier: mspevack: could you please update the budget table in the wiki with the spending, so all of the ambassadors can see what you're talking about
  • MrTom: but ambassadors would have to *pay* for ordering stuffs wouldn't they ?
  • mspevack: there's a few different scenarios:
  • 1: just like it is now
  • people request money for an event, some amount of money is given
  • they spend that money as they see fit, and file a report with expenses, how it was spent, the gain, etc.
  • and they are reimbursed
  • 2: people want to do *even more* than the money that FAMSCO can provide directly
  • so, people take the money that famsco is offering, but they also get even more stuff on their own, and then re-sell it at the event (for a small cost, think of it as a Fedora

Suggested Retail Price) and use those funds to recoup costs

  • you could therefore have an event that is entirely self-sufficient
  • but you don't have to do it that way if you don't want to
  • it just increases the number of options for ambassadors and event organizers in the way they handle things
  • MrTom: about the store you are talking about... will it be a public store? if yes, what would happen if the store run out of DVDs and that an important event will not be able to receive any dvds?
  • mspevack:
  • gregdek knows more, but yes, it will be a public store.
  • They're going to be stocking thousands of DVDs, and if we see the numbers getting low, then we will make sure they make more
  • but you don't want to make too many, or else FC6 comes out and all of a sudden you have a bunch of old discs that no one wants :_)
  • McGiwer: i'm not sure if paying for the stuff is a good idea. i think it would be much better if the stuff at an event was given for free
  • mspevack:
  • Like I said, first of all, anyone who runs an event is always able to give stuff away for free
  • BUT if someone *wants* to charge a small price for some things in order to recoup some costs, then that option will be made available
  • and FAMSCO needs to set some guidelines around that to your other point
  • FAMSCO is *not* saying that it will no longer contribute budget towards events
  • what we are saying is that we're developing a system that hopefully will make it easier for events to happen,
  • and allow them to happen at a lower cost, and with less direct intervention from famsco
  • because that's a much more globally scalable solution
  • ChitleshGoorah: It wouldb nice to have priority list for ambassadors who participates in order to prevent excesss of old cds on our stock
  • McGiwer: i only want to comment the FAMSCO's decision: yeah, it indeed can be better than shipping the schwag all around the world, it will need just more personal commitment from the Ambassadors

Projects Reports

  • FreeMedia
  • lxmaier:
  • tchung is not here to report, but my understanding is that we have a largish backlog
  • however, we had a guy named Ryan join the Sponsored Media effort:
  • Ryan's site has been added to Fedora Sponsored Media Vendors list
  • http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/SponsoredMedia
  • he has a little bit of a different approach, in his case, you can simply pay for him to ship the DVD to the next person on the free media list
  • you do not need to buy a CD for yourself
  • VideoContest
  • lxmaier:
  • Video contest is almost ready to launch
  • we have the judges panel, and we have the artwork done, waiting for approval from Red Hat brand
  • once this is finished, we will rock-and-roll!
  • Kadischi
  • ChitleshGoorah:
  • the Kadischi project as I said before on
  • http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Projects/WeeklyReports/2006-04-17
  • Jeremy has rewrote kadischi to fix bugs
  • and soon we might expect an official livecd from Fedora as from Fedora 6T1
  • nman64:
  • Darko has expressed interest in returning to work on Kadischi this summer, possibly with another SoC project.

FedoraEvents

  • May 3-6, 2006 LinuxTag Wiesbaden, Germany
  • lxmaier: GeroldKa and BruderTux are both at the event at the moment
  • ChitleshGoorah:
  • I'll join the others on saturday
  • I have proposed gerold to give me the fedora banners in the end for my event in Strasbourg next month just to save expenses
  • May 12-14, 2006 ENSOL João Pessoa, Brazil
  • rMenezes:
  • Hugo Cisneiros is in Joao Pessoa right now
  • he has a presentation and a booth
  • I have some e-mails from him that I can sent to the list tomorrow
  • lxmaier: cool, please build a wiki page with a report if you can, rMenezes
  • May 20, 2006 Multimedia Day Cambrai, France
  • MrTom:
  • i will receive my brand new laptop in few days, it will help me a lot presenting the distro!
  • About schwags, gregdek_gone told me he would send me some, I sent him an e-mail but I had no answer
  • lxmaier: mspevack: do you know anything about schwag for MrTom?
  • June 9-10, 2006 CarolinaCon Raleigh, NC USA
  • CyberSpy:
  • Everything is good to go, just need schwag or a link to whear I can purchas schwag
  • I'll be speaking about Fedora and OSS at 2pm on Sat Jun 10... (lost connection)
  • lxmaier: let's proceed and CyberSpy will report on the list and on the wiki
  • ke4qqq: CarolinaCon (just for a general review) is mainly security related, tho heavily leaning towards OSS and *nix in general.
  • June 23-25, 2006 Journée du Libre 4 Strasbourg, France
  • ChitleshGoorah:
  • I'm looking forward for Fedora banners that is been used in LinuxTag
  • and this event lacks sponsors
  • June 23-30, 2006 Fedora, Friends and Fun Virginia Beach, VA USA
  • BobJensen not present
  • July 22-23, 2006 LUGRadio Live! 2006 Wolverhampton, UK
  • JonFautley not present

Next Meeting

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