Get Involved Guide

= Get Involved Guide (GIG) =

Documentation Summary
Purpose: How to get involved in Fedora

Audience: New and potential contributors

Assumptions: The reader is interested in contributing

Related Documents: None

Lead Writer: Paul Frields

 All contributors and module assignments 

PURPOSE
Acquaint those new to FOSS/Fedora with concepts they can use to be active contributors, and feel like they're a vital part of a larger community.

The Getting Involved Guide (GI Guide) is a quick reference guide for open source community members who want to get involved with the Fedora Project. This guide focuses on a simple approach to understanding what the Fedora Project does, why it is important, and the value of getting involved. In addition, this guide gives examples of many useful ways to get involved with the Fedora Project.

PHILOSOPHIES

 * Philosophy of FOSS
 * What freedoms does FOSS offer?
 * Release early + often
 * Talk about your work with others (excitement -> assistance -> product)
 * [work in a little topic matter e.g. K. Fogel's "Producing OSS," citing as necessary]
 * If it's worth developing, it's worth documenting
 * Wiki for collaborative writing (not everybody can use gobby) (heh)
 * DocBook XML for final versions
 * Partner with a documentation writer
 * Involve other Fedora subprojects as needed (see above)
 * Philosophy of Fedora
 * Organization, or a loose facsimile thereof
 * How meritocracy works in Fedora
 * Patching and working with upstream
 * Release timeline
 * Why we don't currently do LTS

COMMUNICATION

 * How to ask smart questions (and not trip over your ego on the way in)
 * IRC
 * Mailing list
 * Blogs / Planet Fedora
 * Presentations at FOSS Events (Progress reports, solicit ideas)

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE
Whether you are an individual user with little to no development experience, or a full-fledged developer from a major corporation, we want to help you help us. The Fedora Project staff recognizes the need to simplify much of the processes required to enable all different types of contributers to participate. In doing so, we're developing a process to help a new community member participate, and ultimately help the Fedora Project succeed.

While all of the glamour and fame go to those who develop the software used in Fedora, there are many areas of this project that can be done by those of other intelligences. In other words, if you are smart and want to contribute, it can be done.

Below is a list of several ways one can contribute to the Fedora Project. We'll try to make them concise and simple to quickly join and contribute.

Document!
The Fedora Project is full of good documentation, but it needs to be better, and there's always more to write. Consider the following ways to add your touch to the coolest distribution on the planet.

Wiki
The Fedora Project wiki is the main source for the drafts of the features and procedures. These procedures, while documented here, will also be available on the wiki at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs.

Fedora Documentation Project
Fedora also provides documentation for its project. Have a look at http://docs.fedoraproject.org to find resources for just about any topic covered by the Fedora Project. These documents are generated in DocBook and Publican (future) to provide a simple structured delivery in any form, be it html, pdf, xml or others. Many of the documents are generated from the wiki pages.

Develop!

 * Configure development environment
 * Eclipse (?)
 * Source code revision control (git/SVN/CVS/arch/bzr/etc.)
 * Devhelp
 * JBoss.org
 * Trac ?
 * Getting resources
 * fedorahosted.org
 * other infra resources

Package!

 * Why packages?
 * How to package
 * Learn about the packaging tools
 * Packaging best practices (don't package as root, etc.)
 * See also: other resources, such as the Guru Labs guide, Red Hat RPM Guide, etc.

Help Spread the Word
Help Fedora Grow by improving and refining the value and message of the Fedora Project by joining Fedora Marketing

Help Others use Fedora
Many, many people in this world enjoy using free software, but many times the resources are unavailable. The goal of the Fedora Media Project is to help deliver CDs or DVDs to those who have slow or non-existant internet access. By providing this media, many more folks can try out Fedora and spread the word!

Provide Fedora SWAG
The Fedora Store has been created to help spread the word. Great SWAG can be purchased at the store. Help fill the store with awesome SWAG.

Bug triage!

 * Getting started doc
 * Bugzilla account
 * Posting bugs
 * Duplicating
 * Triaging bugs

ORGANIZATION AND JOINING

 * Join the Fedora Project (divert this to wiki page?)
 * Why Fedora is better.
 * Find an itch you'd like to scratch, and get started! RIGHT ON!!!
 * Learn about the infrastructure Fedora offers for participation
 * Best practices? cobbler, etc.? not sure if this is appropriate
 * mock
 * koji
 * bodhi
 * Use for Fedora mainline
 * scratch-build capability
 * bugzilla
 * trac
 * yum/createrepo
 * fedorahosted.org
 * git
 * transifex