16:00:32 #startmeeting FAmSCO Townhall 16:00:33 Meeting started Wed Nov 28 16:00:32 2012 UTC. The chair is MavJS. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 16:00:33 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 16:00:44 #meetingname FAmSCO Townhall 16:00:44 The meeting name has been set to 'famsco_townhall' 16:00:56 alrighty! 16:01:06 #topic Introduction 16:01:26 Could the candidates please introduce yourselves? :) 16:01:46 I am Tuan, Fedora Ambassador, package maintainer, FOSS activist from Vietnam 16:03:01 * aeperezt Alejandro Pérez, Fedora Amabssador, packager mantainer, translator, FamSCo , from Panama 16:04:51 #info The Candidates' info can be found here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAmSCo_nominations 16:06:34 So folks, you can ask the candidates questions over in #fedora-townhall-public and I'll queue them up here for the candidates to answer. :) 16:10:35 let's wait awhile for bckurera to get +v :) 16:12:21 so, we'll get back to bckurera once he's authd. :) 16:12:26 so first question. 16:13:09 #topic FranciscoD Q: Of late, there's been a lot of work going on to try and improve our framework for reimbursements and sponsorship. A few years back, we had community architecture, that would help with this. Do you think it worked better when CA was around? (it's no longer active as far as I know) 16:13:39 so if the candidates are ready, they shall answer the question. :) 16:15:40 bckurera: please do introduce yourself. and we've moved to our first question. it's in the topic. :) 16:15:43 hi bckurera here 16:17:20 Buddhika Kurera - Fedora Ambassador and contributor for some teams with in the project 16:17:46 1st question. actually, I had good time with the old way. I see CA did their job well. I see a lot of challenges in recent change. However, I think it would be better. 16:18:10 I see community voice has been stronger 16:18:46 and we got more chances to make overall situation better 16:18:49 yes. the idea behind is give regional communities enough opportunity on decision making on their budget. still credit card holders per region will work on reimburing funds. this reduces waiting time thats the est thing. 16:20:11 * bckurera i m on my mobil so not that good. sorry for cross replys sine there are some sync prob 16:20:28 Well CA, did its work, now we have other group within Red Had taking charge of managing budgets and reimburses when it is needed, think it will improve now that regions make desicion about how they spend their budget 16:21:28 more chances, especially in budget scheduling and allocating 16:23:06 however there is a consern. te new structure is not something for CA. it replace decision making which famsco did. 16:23:28 eof 16:23:57 we have tried to devide the responsibility among regions. yet controlled by famsco up to some extend. what CA really did is not yet fully replaced. 16:24:19 Now the CA place was taken by OSAS, I think it will work better 16:25:17 alright. anything more to add to the first question? 16:25:22 so what we really did is dividing power to make decision. 16:25:24 eof 16:26:21 so on to the next question. 16:26:27 #topic FranciscoD Q2. Do you think amabassadors need to be part of other teams in the project? Should we put processes in place to facilitate their involvement in other teams? 16:28:24 I think Ambassadors has a great work, and if they can manage other task within Fedora they can join, be part of other groups is a plus but not require 16:28:44 I really like that idea. it should be encouraged. i think we need to add this at the mentoring level. it is really hard we can set no guidelines. but we can encourage FAms to take part. 16:29:14 the 2nd question: I believe each ambassador should join to at least one other group. That would help he/she much to understand Fedora better; then do his/her job better. 16:30:29 this should be encouraged in ambassador joining process 16:32:28 #topic FranciscoD Q3. About fedora events that ambassadors hold: how frequently do you organize/attend these, and what is the goal: to get work done, or to meet new users and speak about fedora. What should the goals of the events be? Is funding justified for events where no work is done? 16:35:08 i m not sure what meant by no work done. if there is no work it is not an event. however this depends on the situation. there can be more goals. getting the experience like fudcons. meeting others and expanding network is also plus thing. the reason is we need to make sure it is a right investmnet for.future. 16:35:49 Event should focus on spread Fedora, organization and frequencies depending on the area, ambassadors should on this events should also focus on finding talent, that could become part of fedora 16:35:53 Q3: I myself organized/attended almost Fedora-specific events in my country and tried to present Fedora in other FOSS/Tech events such as SFD, DFD, LinuxDay, etc. 16:36:59 Funding should go where events needed to spread Fedora. 16:37:27 I try to get as many opportunities as possible to meet people in the community to spread out Fedora, try to get them involved to Fedora community 16:38:10 current event funding, from my view, is effective 16:40:05 I read almost event reports shared via mailing list. there are a lot of new good ideas. 16:40:49 * MavJS waits for the candidates to eof before another question. :) 16:40:49 we need more fedora related events so if funds is needed they should be there to spread Fedora word 16:40:54 eof 16:40:54 eof 16:42:00 #topic MavJS Q5. Considering funding can also go to events where there are only talks,presentation, do you think this is a waste of funding or another opportunity to get new contributors? 16:43:22 Q5. I don't see this events as waste of funds, many of Panamenian contributors I have meet at this kind of events 16:43:24 eof 16:44:40 I think it's not waste. It could help to spread Fedora out more, warm up current contributors and recruit more new contributors as well 16:44:48 eof 16:45:53 It is not rmthat easy to say this event is worth and this is not. it depends on many factors. but i think most events are really worth. een meeting other foss enthusiests are really a great oppertunity to expand the project. 16:47:52 * bckurera just came home and from my laptop :) 16:47:55 bckurera: do you still have more thoughts to add on? 16:48:01 for the current topic? 16:48:02 eof 16:48:06 alrighty! 16:48:12 #topic FranciscoD Q6. Do you think the ambassadors sig is doing their part as one of the largest fedora sub teams? For instance, during release, devel, design, mktg, QA, docs and more are up to their necks in work. What are the ambassadors doing at this time? 16:50:21 Most of contributors are FAms and vise versa, so they do a great job. But there is one thing, FAm is a group which has some defined tasks they carry out. For marketing for example there are separate team and they do their part. 16:51:39 FAm also join with those groups and do support fedora project that is good and should be encouraged. Currently FAm support for fedora project and it is something we should appreciate. 16:52:33 Q6: ambassadors are kinds of Fedora community representative; their main work is to interface with outside. I think most of work could be done normally inside the project without them. 16:52:41 Every team has its parts, Ambassadors do their job, not all ambassadors has the skills to share the load on every release but the ones that do normally join those groups and do the work. 16:52:42 eof 16:52:47 But my main idea on this is, FAm is a seperate team they have their own work to do, they should focus on them and if possible and it is good if they can support other teams as most of the are currently doing 16:53:02 eof 16:53:03 of course, inside and outside are both important 16:53:17 eof 16:53:45 alright, we'll have one last question and wrap up this meeting. :) 16:54:02 #topic cwickert Q7. what can we do to gain new contributors in countries that currently only have very little? 16:57:19 We need to be part of these countries FOSS events and give ambassadors from counties near by the resources to be part on events on those counties. Encourage contributors on countries with few contributors to find folks that can become Fedora Contributors 16:58:05 The number of contributors do matter but what about the quality over quantity, however it is good to expand the project as much as possible. Therefore we need to try to get more contributors from countries where we have few att he same time we need to focus on the quality on the countries where we have more contributors 16:58:12 A good point to start will be to identify the countries and foss or technology events were we can be part of 16:58:15 eof 16:58:17 It's exact situation in my country now. Currently, I am running a campaign to universities in my country to spread Fedora out more. I think there are a lot of potential Fedora/FOSS contributors in students. I am presenting to them that Fedora is one of the best place for them to learn and share. They will join and hopefully, most of them will continue with the community and become active contributors after being graduated. 16:58:43 it could be a good suggestion for ones in similar situation 16:58:45 eof 17:00:17 To expand to other countries first we need to get in touch with their FOSS communities and try to get more contributors, it is hard to generalize methods since it vary from country to country, therefore as the first step we need to get in touch with contacts we have in such a country and provide them required support to get expanded. So we need to identify what and who do we have in such countries, are they strong enough 17:00:20 eof 17:01:02 #topic Final Comments 17:01:45 please do add your final comments about your candidature 17:03:12 * tuanta no more 17:03:34 * MavJS waits for aeperezt & bckurera 's final comments. 17:04:04 * bckurera same here :) 17:04:19 * aeperezt thanks no more comments 17:04:24 okie! 17:04:34 #topic Thank You! 17:05:00 thanks for all your presents and questions 17:05:02 Before we end this town hall, thank you, all the candidates for taking your time to be with us to answer your questions. :) 17:05:05 happy voting :) 17:05:05 * bckurera big thanks to MavJS and FranciscoD :) 17:05:18 +1 bckurera 17:05:21 and a big thank you to Ankur a.k.a FranciscoD :) 17:05:35 alright! :) 17:05:41 #endmeeting