From Fedora Project Wiki

The Fedora Ambassadors program is currently undergoing a revamp. More details can be found at Fedora Ambassadors Revamp 2020.

Purpose

This document is to discuss and layout the program for mentoring those who are new to Fedora Ambassadorship. Below is a rough idea of the values we'd like to communicate to new Ambassadors, processes new Ambassadors need to know, ideas on how they can contribute to the community.

Values of the Mentor Program

First, like the Fedora Community at large, our Ambassador community is made up of volunteers. As such we need to stay true to the "Do what you can" motto of being an Ambassador. The activities or projects below are meant as examples of what an Ambassador can do, not what an Ambassador must or should do.

The core values of Fedora are:

  • Openness (both in source code and transparency of organization)
  • Freedom
  • Community
  • Service
  • Innovation

    Process of Welcoming New Ambassadors

    Currently in North America, David Nalley greets new Ambassadors with the following e-mail:

    Please excuse the forminess of this email, I don't know the level of
    involvement you have had in open source software, so this email
    assumes very little.
    
    First, please make sure your User: page has your location and email
    address at a minimum.
    Second, if you need to order supplies and swag such as tshirts, media,
    pins, stickers - do so at: https://fedorahosted.org/famnarequests
    Third: If you don't have a blog, you need to get one. Livejournal,
    Blogger, and Wordpress.com seem to be favorites now. You also need to
    get the blog aggregated to the Fedora Planet:
    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet   <-- Read that to learn how to
    do so, if you need help ask in #fedora-ambassadors
    
    
    So now about getting up to speed within the Ambassadors, we have
    meetings regularly on IRC. You'll see the schedule here:
    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Meetings
    We regularly hang out in #fedora-ambassadors on a regular basis, feel
    free to join us. Someone should always be there if you have questions.
    
    You need to be familiar with our Code of Conduct and Forbidden Items
    that Joerg Simon has sent you links to in your welcome email. Fedora
    takes freedom very seriously, and we seek to be the standard bearer
    with regards to freedom, so please understand those, and if you don't,
    please ask someone.
    
    In North America we have designated a number of regional Ambassadors,
    they'll be happy to mentor you and get you up to speed and you can
    generally trust their advice/opinion. They are:
    
    David Nalley - Southeast. IRC: ke4qqq
    Clint Savage - Mountain West. IRC: herlo
    John Rose - Central. IRC: inode0
    Brian Powell - Northeast. IRC: demonjester
    Larry Cafiero - West Coast. IRC: lcafiero
    
    The Ambassadors are largely self-directed, so look for opportunities
    to talk (offer your services as a speaker on behalf of Fedora to LUGs
    near you) try and make sure Fedora has a presence at nearby
    installfests and activities like BarCamp. There are also regional
    conferences that we tend to attend such as the Southeast Linuxfest and
    Ohio Linuxfest.. If you need resources - such as money to buy pizza
    for a LUG meeting you are speaking at, let us know. It is the regional
    ambassadors job to get you resources (and the Fedora Ambassadors
    Steering Committee (FAmSCo) to make sure the regions have enough
    resources)
    
    I also think that you need to know what's going on in Fedora if you
    are going to be representing Fedora so I generally argue that every
    Ambassador should be subscribed to the Fedora Advisory Board mailing
    list.
    http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
    
    You should also read planet.fedoraproject daily, or use a newsreader
    to keep up with it.
    
    Also check out Fedora Weekly News every week so you don't miss
    something important.
    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/LatestIssue
    
    
    You also should spend some copious time reading the wiki - learn about
    the various groups within Fedora, how to get involved, etc. I
    generally recommend that people get involved in something other than
    Ambassadors. This isn't a requirement but it will increase your
    exposure to the internals of Fedora. The groups with the lowest
    barrier to entry are the Bugzappers and Documentation.
    https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Joining
    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Join
    But look around and see what else interests you.
    
    Finally I think that it is imperative that representatives of Fedora
    understand the Free/Libre Open Source Software. As such I think the
    easiest way to do that is to read some of the older writings on the
    subject. Not that Fedora necessarily agrees with everything in these
    writings or even likes the authors, but they are important to
    understand:
    
    Writings from Eric Raymond:
    The Cathedral and the Bazaar
    Homesteading the Noosphere
    
    Writings from Richard Stallman:
    Free Software, Free Society
    The Gnu Manifesto
    
    All of the above are free on the net, so it won't cost you to read them.
    
    If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
    

    The first item is resources for an introduction to the open source community and explanation of what open source is.

    Second, fedora community resources, and wiki pages the Ambassador should be familiar with.

    Third a reminder about the content sent by Joerg

    Fourth, the designated regional ambassadors and contact info.

    Lastly, some words of wisdom and more homework about the community and resources.

    Discussion

    A lot of the items in the welcome e-mail are on the wiki, do we just need a single wiki page to aggregate the content, so that when the new Ambassador is reading the welcome e-mail they keep seeing the same URL over and over, so it becomes their first stop?

    We tell them IRC handles for ambassadors, but don't tell them the IRC server or what client they can use (important?)

    Is this welcome e-mail too long? too short?

    Events

    Besides attending LUG meetings or conferences/conventions, what else can ambassadors do?

    Other

    In IRC we've mentioned making a short web video of Greg DeKoenigsberg, Max Spevack, Paul Frields, to introduce people to the Fedora community. Thoughts on what subjects we should ask for, or other people to include?