Ambassadors/Meetings/2006-05-04

= Fedora Ambassadors Meeting Minutes 2006-05-04 =

Participants

 * : AlexMaier
 * : ThomasCanniot
 * : ChitleshGoorah
 * : FrancescoUgolini
 * : DavidNalley
 * : FrancescoUgolini
 * : LeeJoseph
 * : PawelSadowski
 * : MaxSpevack
 * : RodrigoMenezes
 * : TheodorosSynodinos
 * : RodrigoMenezes
 * : TheodorosSynodinos

Regrets

 * ThomasChung
 * GeroldKassube
 * FlorianBrand
 * KarlieRobinson

Transcript

 * [[Image:Ambassadors_Meetings_2006]](2d)05(2d)04_fedora-ambassadors-2006-05-04.txt

= Summary =
 * Ambassadors Schedule: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Schedule
 * Fedora Events: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents

Famsco Update
Suggested Retail Price) and use those funds to recoup costs
 * 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
 * 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

 * See  Ambassadors Meetings  for the next meeting date and time.