12:32 p.m.
Hi all,
Aside from the blog posts that have already been made about LFNW, I'm
curious to know more about the Fedora Activity Day that we held there.
How did it go? What sorts of things were achieved? What sort of
turnout was there, what should we do differently in the future, etc.?
Thanks,
Max
12:39 p.m.
On Sat, 2 May 2009, Max Spevack wrote:
Aside from the blog posts that have already been made about LFNW,
I'm
curious to know more about the Fedora Activity Day that we held there.
How did it go? What sorts of things were achieved? What sort of
turnout was there, what should we do differently in the future, etc.?
I realize that there's also some summary information on the wiki page:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Activity_Day_at_LFNW_2009
and I'm grateful for it. I guess I'm just curious to know if there's
any other feedback, good or bad, and to get some more flavor for what
that part of the event was like.
--Max
1:56 p.m.
On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Max Spevack <mspevack(a)redhat.com> wrote:
On Sat, 2 May 2009, Max Spevack wrote:
> Aside from the blog posts that have already been made about LFNW, I'm
> curious to know more about the Fedora Activity Day that we held there. How
> did it go? What sorts of things were achieved? What sort of turnout was
> there, what should we do differently in the future, etc.?
I realize that there's also some summary information on the wiki page:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Activity_Day_at_LFNW_2009
and I'm grateful for it. I guess I'm just curious to know if there's any
other feedback, good or bad, and to get some more flavor for what that part
of the event was like.
--Max
I probably should have blogged more about the FAD. I think it went
pretty swell. Larry is quite the Advocate and presenter, probably
comes from dealing with classrooms full of students on a regular
basis.
As far as the success of this FAD, I would say that it didn't match up
to what I wanted to do. However, I feel there were a lot of people in
the room who wanted to learn more about Fedora. I did feel like we
were being utilized more to ask questions than actually get a task
done.
More to this point, I think the fact that we had such a big Fedora
presence this year was an exciting thing for folks in the Northwest.
My opinion is that if we come back next year, we'll get a similar
response and a few of the folks who attended our FAD this year will
help us to organize and get goals done. I will say that there needs to
be a couple things at every FAD. Even though we've only done 2, I
can see similarities between SCALE and LFNW.
First is that we need a representative (or two) to sit at the entrance
and answer questions. Something like 'Ask a Fedoran' at a small table
right near the door. This is much like triage. If people come to
work on an activity that we've advertised, they'll get them inside and
working with someone who's in charge of that particular activity.
This is the key and part of what keeps us focused.
Secondly, I think we need to have a design of what we're there to
accomplish. At SCaLE, we had a much better idea of what was to be
accomplished. We went to task on it and were able to complete a few
things. This was good and with the triage person, we really could've
gotten more done. Thus a learning experience. At LFNW, it felt more
like we were scattered, didn't really have any idea of what we were
going to work on until we showed up and because of that, we didn't
really accomplish much at all other than helping folks with their
fedora problems.
In both cases (SCaLE and LFNW) I have found that we were well received
and that people were excited to see our presence. We've made a great
impact on these communities. However, with the two improvements I've
mentioned, I feel we could really help these communities *and* get a
few things done. I don't think there is a way to avoid talking with
the public at a FAD, we should be welcoming them. The key here is
management of people and getting them where they want to be quickly
and efficiently. Thus, I am suggesting that any FAD held alongside a
larger event *must* have defined people and goals.
I hope this feedback helps overall. Karsten and I have talked at
length about much of this and we've continually been working on the
'How to organize a FAD'[1] page on the wiki. I think that's the best
place to continue to focus our efforts and improve the FAD experience.
Cheers,
Clint
1 - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_organize_a_FAD
2:09 p.m.
Clint sums it up very eloquently -- I can't add anything to that. On the
"triage" aspect, I could have done better on that -- that was my role -- but
I was juggling a couple of things at once and couldn't give any of the
things I was doing the attention they individually deserved.
I'm trying to get to a point where I can write a final blog item about LFNW
-- a lot of this thing called "life" is getting in the way -- where I'll
address several issues.
I'll be contributing to the FAD how-to wiki page.
Larry Cafiero
On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Clint Savage <herlo1(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I probably should have blogged more about the FAD. I think it went
pretty swell. Larry is quite the Advocate and presenter, probably
comes from dealing with classrooms full of students on a regular
basis.
As far as the success of this FAD, I would say that it didn't match up
to what I wanted to do. However, I feel there were a lot of people in
the room who wanted to learn more about Fedora. I did feel like we
were being utilized more to ask questions than actually get a task
done.
More to this point, I think the fact that we had such a big Fedora
presence this year was an exciting thing for folks in the Northwest.
My opinion is that if we come back next year, we'll get a similar
response and a few of the folks who attended our FAD this year will
help us to organize and get goals done. I will say that there needs to
be a couple things at every FAD. Even though we've only done 2, I
can see similarities between SCALE and LFNW.
First is that we need a representative (or two) to sit at the entrance
and answer questions. Something like 'Ask a Fedoran' at a small table
right near the door. This is much like triage. If people come to
work on an activity that we've advertised, they'll get them inside and
working with someone who's in charge of that particular activity.
This is the key and part of what keeps us focused.
Secondly, I think we need to have a design of what we're there to
accomplish. At SCaLE, we had a much better idea of what was to be
accomplished. We went to task on it and were able to complete a few
things. This was good and with the triage person, we really could've
gotten more done. Thus a learning experience. At LFNW, it felt more
like we were scattered, didn't really have any idea of what we were
going to work on until we showed up and because of that, we didn't
really accomplish much at all other than helping folks with their
fedora problems.
In both cases (SCaLE and LFNW) I have found that we were well received
and that people were excited to see our presence. We've made a great
impact on these communities. However, with the two improvements I've
mentioned, I feel we could really help these communities *and* get a
few things done. I don't think there is a way to avoid talking with
the public at a FAD, we should be welcoming them. The key here is
management of people and getting them where they want to be quickly
and efficiently. Thus, I am suggesting that any FAD held alongside a
larger event *must* have defined people and goals.
I hope this feedback helps overall. Karsten and I have talked at
length about much of this and we've continually been working on the
'How to organize a FAD'[1] page on the wiki. I think that's the best
place to continue to focus our efforts and improve the FAD experience.
Cheers,
Clint
1 - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_organize_a_FAD
--
Fedora-ambassadors-list mailing list
Fedora-ambassadors-list(a)redhat.com
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-ambassadors-list
12:06 p.m.
On Sat, May 02, 2009 at 12:09:11PM -0700, Larry Cafiero wrote:
Clint sums it up very eloquently -- I can't add anything to that.
On the
"triage" aspect, I could have done better on that -- that was my role -- but I
was juggling a couple of things at once and couldn't give any of the things I
was doing the attention they individually deserved.
I'm trying to get to a point where I can write a final blog item about LFNW --
a lot of this thing called "life" is getting in the way -- where I'll
address
several issues.
I'll be contributing to the FAD how-to wiki page.
Fedora is never boring because it's a constant growth and improvement
process -- not just for each of us, but for the teams and the project
as a whole. The perfect event or process is probably impossible but
we keep trying anyway. Thanks for being part of our team and bringing
so many wonderful pieces together for LFNW, Larry.
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
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http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
11:52 a.m.
On Sat, May 02, 2009 at 12:56:29PM -0600, Clint Savage wrote:
First is that we need a representative (or two) to sit at the
entrance
and answer questions. Something like 'Ask a Fedoran' at a small table
right near the door. This is much like triage. If people come to
work on an activity that we've advertised, they'll get them inside and
working with someone who's in charge of that particular activity.
This is the key and part of what keeps us focused.
This is a very astute observation. I know that a FAD is being
organized for the SELF conference[1]. Hopefully the folks setting
that event up will look at the experience of the LFNW FAD attendees
and use it to inform their planning.
Secondly, I think we need to have a design of what we're there
to
accomplish. At SCaLE, we had a much better idea of what was to be
accomplished. We went to task on it and were able to complete a few
things. This was good and with the triage person, we really could've
gotten more done. Thus a learning experience. At LFNW, it felt more
like we were scattered, didn't really have any idea of what we were
going to work on until we showed up and because of that, we didn't
really accomplish much at all other than helping folks with their
fedora problems.
Point also well taken. This is something that Max and I agree with
whole-heartedly in general. Whether you call it the "5P principle" or
come at it from the standpoint of budget allotment, it still makes
sense that having a plan going into the event is always going to
contribute to success.
In both cases (SCaLE and LFNW) I have found that we were well
received
and that people were excited to see our presence. We've made a great
impact on these communities. However, with the two improvements I've
mentioned, I feel we could really help these communities *and* get a
few things done. I don't think there is a way to avoid talking with
the public at a FAD, we should be welcoming them. The key here is
management of people and getting them where they want to be quickly
and efficiently. Thus, I am suggesting that any FAD held alongside a
larger event *must* have defined people and goals.
I hope this feedback helps overall. Karsten and I have talked at
length about much of this and we've continually been working on the
'How to organize a FAD'[1] page on the wiki. I think that's the best
place to continue to focus our efforts and improve the FAD experience.
Excellent comments Clint -- maybe you could work another blog post out
of the two points you just made more clearly than I could have! ;-)
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
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participants (4)
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