[FAmSCo] Ambassador "exchange program"

[Max Spevack]

Hi all,

Joerg sent me an IRC earlier today which got me thinking a bit about 
Ambassadors from different countries or regions traveling to meet each 
other.

I feel like I wrote something related to this recently, but for the life 
of me I can't remember where, so I'm re-writing it here because I think 
it's useful to all of FAMSCO:

* I believe that there is signficant value in helping to support 
Ambassadors from different regions or countries who might never 
otherwise meet each other to have some interactions.

* It would be very easy to go overboard on this and become a Fedora 
Travel Agency, and we don't want to do that.  It has to be smart, and 
with a point.

* When we find new Ambassadors who we feel like could become the leaders 
in countries where we haven't had a strong presence, sending someone to 
those countries to help kickstart an event and offer some face-to-face 
interaction is incredibly valuable.

http://kitall.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-about-free-software-conference.html

* Another example that I think was valuable was when we brought Kushal 
and Nayyar to LinuxTag in Germany a few years ago.  It builds 
connections and networking that can payoff down the road -- Kushal is 
now a Red Hat employee in India, and helps with community building 
there.

* Joerg's trip to India last December is another fantastic example.

* Dimitris and Diego spent a bunch of time face to face in 2008 and 2009 
with some Fedora support, and that's paid off huge benefits for i18n and 
Transifex.

In short, I think it's useful for FAMSCO to try to identify and handful 
of opportunities like this every year, and make them happen.  It's 
planting seeds for relatively small cost, that can have potentially huge 
benefit down the road.

--Max