Hello all!
Following our last EMEA Ambassadors Meeting [1] (meeting log [2]) I would like to share the synopsis of the things said on "Campus Ambassadors group" issue during the meeting. Bert Desmet (now "Campus Ambassadors" president) was there to answer some of our questions, but we think that the scope of this discussion is much wider, so here I am summarizing the Q/As made in our meeting.
Q: How broad is the definition of campus? universities only? A: More meant for college / uni students
Q: Who can become a Campus Ambassador? Do you have to be an Ambassador already? A: No, you don't have to be an ambassador (but you need to have the cla done, and you have to be in college / university / some other school)
Q: Universities or Schools? (concerning the scope i guess) A: Schools count too :)
Q: There is gonna be a special group in FAS? A: There is already one [3]
Q: How far does the campus ambassador program differ from the "normal" one? A: That's one of the things we still have to clarify in the next meetings
Q: Bert, who elected you? (As the president of Campus group) A: The people who attended last meeting ;)
Q: So the approach is the same as Ambassadors with smaller scope? A: Indeed :)
Q: I don't really get why we need "campusambassadors"? Why can't regular ambassadors do that as well? And how will you ensure that "campusambassadors" are knowledged enough? A: Well, we will be more 'specialized', and we will also try to have good 'quality control' on the people
(All answers were given by Bert)
Also some points were made from fellow ambassadors, like :
* They are welcome to do it within Ambassadors and use our mentoring approach (Joerg Simon) * There is a huge difference between schools and universities, so I think, it is needed to have special skilled people to deliver the thought of FOSS to the student (Sascha Thomas Spreitzer) * We aim from high school students to older ones (Bert Desmet) * I think we have great examples of Students who follow this approach, I think personally that they all can live within the Ambassadors Group (Joerg Simon) * There is an danger that we cause new management overhead with another ambassador group (Joerg Simon)
As you can see many questions were made and some of them fall outside the scope of Ambassadors. Given the fact that the new Campus Ambassador group resembles a lot to our Ambassadors group, it would be nice if we could have some discussion/opinions on this subject from Ambassadors throughout the world.
My personal opinion is that we do not need a different group for this kind of job, and we could rather organize Ambassador-SIGs (Special Interest Groups) with different scopes but all within Ambassadors' way of doing things (mentoring, infrastructure, budget etc).
~π
[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:Ambassadors_2010-2-17 [2] http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting/2010-02-17/fedora-meeting.20... [3] https://admin.fedoraproject.org/accounts/group/view/campusambassadors
2010/2/26 Pierros Papadeas ppapadeas@gmail.com:
Hello all!
Following our last EMEA Ambassadors Meeting [1] (meeting log [2]) I would like to share the synopsis of the things said on "Campus Ambassadors group" issue during the meeting. Bert Desmet (now "Campus Ambassadors" president) was there to answer some of our questions, but we think that the scope of this discussion is much wider, so here I am summarizing the Q/As made in our meeting.
First, congratulations to Bert and a big thank you to you and your peers for taking ownership of this.
I will make some remarks below that reflect my opinions about various things but I think it is really important that the parameters of the program be defined and driven by the campus ambassadors who will ultimately make this successful with their efforts.
Q: How broad is the definition of campus? universities only? A: More meant for college / uni students
I would say high school and above is the target audience but we would expect most activity at the university level.
Q: Who can become a Campus Ambassador? Do you have to be an Ambassador already? A: No, you don't have to be an ambassador (but you need to have the cla done, and you have to be in college / university / some other school)
I agree with this. I think the bar for entry should be lower than for an Ambassador to begin with however I expect there will initially be a lot of Ambassadors who also are Campus Ambassadors and I hope there are a lot of new Campus Ambassadors who later join the Ambassador program and continue their work with us after or during their time in school.
Q: Universities or Schools? (concerning the scope i guess) A: Schools count too :)
Q: There is gonna be a special group in FAS? A: There is already one [3]
Q: How far does the campus ambassador program differ from the "normal" one? A: That's one of the things we still have to clarify in the next meetings
Let's walk through the reasons identified for the existence of a Campus Ambassador program.
* To build up individual Fedora communities on campuses, and provide resources for students to organize events and contribute their code and ideas to Fedora.
Outsiders (ambassadors who are not students) cannot possibly be as effective as insiders (students) at building these campus communities.
* To help students network with other open source and Fedora contributors, and lay the groundwork for potential summer internships.
Here is where Fedora can positively impact new young contributors.
* To create a fun and exciting network of passionate, dedicated people to spearhead Fedora's presence on college campuses.
People like me stopping in for a talk about Fedora at a local High School or college will never have the persistent impact that can be achieved through students on those campuses being engaged and active.
* To work with faculty and students both to promote free and open source software on campus.
Engagement of faculty is I think one of the long term high impact benefits of this program. And I think engaging faculty is far more likely to occur with the daily interaction between faculty and bright, engaged, and enthusiastic students than it could be with hit and run visits from people outside those institutions.
Q: Bert, who elected you? (As the president of Campus group) A: The people who attended last meeting ;)
Congratulations again Bert!
Q: So the approach is the same as Ambassadors with smaller scope? A: Indeed :)
The scope is big, but the focus is smaller.
Q: I don't really get why we need "campusambassadors"? Why can't regular ambassadors do that as well? And how will you ensure that "campusambassadors" are knowledged enough? A: Well, we will be more 'specialized', and we will also try to have good 'quality control' on the people
I have tried above to give some reasons I think students can achieve the stated goals better than non-students can. My hope and expectation is that new campus ambassadors will hang around with old ones and learn from them. Regular meetings and places on irc for campus ambassadors to exchange ideas with each other and learn about Fedora will help all involved grow.
(All answers were given by Bert)
Also some points were made from fellow ambassadors, like :
- They are welcome to do it within Ambassadors and use our mentoring
approach (Joerg Simon)
- There is a huge difference between schools and universities, so I
think, it is needed to have special skilled people to deliver the thought of FOSS to the student (Sascha Thomas Spreitzer)
- We aim from high school students to older ones (Bert Desmet)
- I think we have great examples of Students who follow this approach,
I think personally that they all can live within the Ambassadors Group (Joerg Simon)
- There is an danger that we cause new management overhead with
another ambassador group (Joerg Simon)
I agree with Joerg in this concern. There is a danger but I see an upside too. If we leave the management to the campus ambassadors (the old guys are here to help and advise if our help is desired) they will learn a lot about community management as well. Watching Max and Paul makes community management look easy. It isn't as all of us who have bitten off a little piece to chew on know. But I think doing this will make the campus ambassador leadership more valuable to the Fedora Project in the future and will better prepare them for whatever lies ahead in life.
As you can see many questions were made and some of them fall outside the scope of Ambassadors. Given the fact that the new Campus Ambassador group resembles a lot to our Ambassadors group, it would be nice if we could have some discussion/opinions on this subject from Ambassadors throughout the world.
My personal opinion is that we do not need a different group for this kind of job, and we could rather organize Ambassador-SIGs (Special Interest Groups) with different scopes but all within Ambassadors' way of doing things (mentoring, infrastructure, budget etc). To work with faculty and students both to promote free and open source software on campus
Whether we think of the campus ambassadors as a group or a SIG or whatever doesn't much matter to me. What matters is having people like Bert step up, get clear on the goals, and make stuff happen. This is a really exciting program to a lot of us and I want it to succeed as much as anyone. I have decided the best way for that to happen is for me not to meddle too much in it. Those who have a vested interest in its outcome, the campus ambassadors themselves, need to be the engineers on this train for it to leave the station and start rolling down the track.
John
First off, thank you very much for creating this! :)
As a student, I would be very interested in joining this - However, I am in a UK Secondary School (I think its an equivelant of a US High School), so talks every month would perhaps be a little hard to manage. Yes, I could give a presentation to the Board of Governors and the IT department, but a school-wide one is impossible :(
I shall get around to applying tomorrow (well, today, as it is 00:32 in England!).
Thank you once again Bert!
Regards,
Joe (ascenseur) ------------------------------------------------------- Joe O'Dell
Fedora Ambassador & Contributor (FreeMedia) http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ascenseur
bedsLUG Co-Ordinator bedslug.co.cc
DFEY Member (SouthEast) dfey.org
Ubuntu-UK Group Member (ascenseur) https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JoeODell
On 27 Feb 2010, at 00:15, inode0 wrote:
2010/2/26 Pierros Papadeas ppapadeas@gmail.com:
Hello all!
Following our last EMEA Ambassadors Meeting [1] (meeting log [2]) I would like to share the synopsis of the things said on "Campus Ambassadors group" issue during the meeting. Bert Desmet (now "Campus Ambassadors" president) was there to answer some of our questions, but we think that the scope of this discussion is much wider, so here I am summarizing the Q/As made in our meeting.
First, congratulations to Bert and a big thank you to you and your peers for taking ownership of this.
I will make some remarks below that reflect my opinions about various things but I think it is really important that the parameters of the program be defined and driven by the campus ambassadors who will ultimately make this successful with their efforts.
Q: How broad is the definition of campus? universities only? A: More meant for college / uni students
I would say high school and above is the target audience but we would expect most activity at the university level.
Q: Who can become a Campus Ambassador? Do you have to be an Ambassador already? A: No, you don't have to be an ambassador (but you need to have the cla done, and you have to be in college / university / some other school)
I agree with this. I think the bar for entry should be lower than for an Ambassador to begin with however I expect there will initially be a lot of Ambassadors who also are Campus Ambassadors and I hope there are a lot of new Campus Ambassadors who later join the Ambassador program and continue their work with us after or during their time in school.
Q: Universities or Schools? (concerning the scope i guess) A: Schools count too :)
Q: There is gonna be a special group in FAS? A: There is already one [3]
Q: How far does the campus ambassador program differ from the "normal" one? A: That's one of the things we still have to clarify in the next meetings
Let's walk through the reasons identified for the existence of a Campus Ambassador program.
- To build up individual Fedora communities on campuses, and provide
resources for students to organize events and contribute their code and ideas to Fedora.
Outsiders (ambassadors who are not students) cannot possibly be as effective as insiders (students) at building these campus communities.
- To help students network with other open source and Fedora
contributors, and lay the groundwork for potential summer internships.
Here is where Fedora can positively impact new young contributors.
- To create a fun and exciting network of passionate, dedicated people
to spearhead Fedora's presence on college campuses.
People like me stopping in for a talk about Fedora at a local High School or college will never have the persistent impact that can be achieved through students on those campuses being engaged and active.
- To work with faculty and students both to promote free and open
source software on campus.
Engagement of faculty is I think one of the long term high impact benefits of this program. And I think engaging faculty is far more likely to occur with the daily interaction between faculty and bright, engaged, and enthusiastic students than it could be with hit and run visits from people outside those institutions.
Q: Bert, who elected you? (As the president of Campus group) A: The people who attended last meeting ;)
Congratulations again Bert!
Q: So the approach is the same as Ambassadors with smaller scope? A: Indeed :)
The scope is big, but the focus is smaller.
Q: I don't really get why we need "campusambassadors"? Why can't regular ambassadors do that as well? And how will you ensure that "campusambassadors" are knowledged enough? A: Well, we will be more 'specialized', and we will also try to have good 'quality control' on the people
I have tried above to give some reasons I think students can achieve the stated goals better than non-students can. My hope and expectation is that new campus ambassadors will hang around with old ones and learn from them. Regular meetings and places on irc for campus ambassadors to exchange ideas with each other and learn about Fedora will help all involved grow.
(All answers were given by Bert)
Also some points were made from fellow ambassadors, like :
- They are welcome to do it within Ambassadors and use our mentoring
approach (Joerg Simon)
- There is a huge difference between schools and universities, so I
think, it is needed to have special skilled people to deliver the thought of FOSS to the student (Sascha Thomas Spreitzer)
- We aim from high school students to older ones (Bert Desmet)
- I think we have great examples of Students who follow this approach,
I think personally that they all can live within the Ambassadors Group (Joerg Simon)
- There is an danger that we cause new management overhead with
another ambassador group (Joerg Simon)
I agree with Joerg in this concern. There is a danger but I see an upside too. If we leave the management to the campus ambassadors (the old guys are here to help and advise if our help is desired) they will learn a lot about community management as well. Watching Max and Paul makes community management look easy. It isn't as all of us who have bitten off a little piece to chew on know. But I think doing this will make the campus ambassador leadership more valuable to the Fedora Project in the future and will better prepare them for whatever lies ahead in life.
As you can see many questions were made and some of them fall outside the scope of Ambassadors. Given the fact that the new Campus Ambassador group resembles a lot to our Ambassadors group, it would be nice if we could have some discussion/opinions on this subject from Ambassadors throughout the world.
My personal opinion is that we do not need a different group for this kind of job, and we could rather organize Ambassador-SIGs (Special Interest Groups) with different scopes but all within Ambassadors' way of doing things (mentoring, infrastructure, budget etc). To work with faculty and students both to promote free and open source software on campus
Whether we think of the campus ambassadors as a group or a SIG or whatever doesn't much matter to me. What matters is having people like Bert step up, get clear on the goals, and make stuff happen. This is a really exciting program to a lot of us and I want it to succeed as much as anyone. I have decided the best way for that to happen is for me not to meddle too much in it. Those who have a vested interest in its outcome, the campus ambassadors themselves, need to be the engineers on this train for it to leave the station and start rolling down the track.
John
ambassadors mailing list ambassadors@lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/ambassadors
2010/2/26 Joe O'Dell joseph.odell@googlemail.com:
First off, thank you very much for creating this! :) As a student, I would be very interested in joining this - However, I am in a UK Secondary School (I think its an equivelant of a US High School), so talks every month would perhaps be a little hard to manage. Yes, I could give a presentation to the Board of Governors and the IT department, but a school-wide one is impossible :( I shall get around to applying tomorrow (well, today, as it is 00:32 in England!). Thank you once again Bert!
Hey Joe,
I think the goal is one tech talk per semester, not each month. And it doesn't need to be to the whole school. Could be to a club or during a class or whatever.
Attend some meetings and I'm sure Bert and others will have suggestions. Everything is flexible. :)
John
Woops! Must have got confused between semester and month - could I suggest another term to be used instead of "semester"? I may be wrong, but that is a term mainly used in the US - Perhaps one talk per "Academic Year" would be more universal?
Everything is flexible. :)
Of course! :D I shall join along with the CampusAmbassadors project and try to do as much as I can!
Regards, Joe ------------------------------------------------------- Joe O'Dell
Fedora Ambassador & Contributor (FreeMedia) http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ascenseur
bedsLUG Co-Ordinator bedslug.co.cc
DFEY Member (SouthEast) dfey.org
Ubuntu-UK Group Member (ascenseur) https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JoeODell
On 27 Feb 2010, at 00:38, inode0 wrote:
2010/2/26 Joe O'Dell joseph.odell@googlemail.com:
First off, thank you very much for creating this! :) As a student, I would be very interested in joining this - However, I am in a UK Secondary School (I think its an equivelant of a US High School), so talks every month would perhaps be a little hard to manage. Yes, I could give a presentation to the Board of Governors and the IT department, but a school-wide one is impossible :( I shall get around to applying tomorrow (well, today, as it is 00:32 in England!). Thank you once again Bert!
Hey Joe,
I think the goal is one tech talk per semester, not each month. And it doesn't need to be to the whole school. Could be to a club or during a class or whatever.
Attend some meetings and I'm sure Bert and others will have suggestions.
John
ambassadors mailing list ambassadors@lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/ambassadors
ambassadors@lists.fedoraproject.org
-
inode0 -
Joe O'Dell -
Pierros Papadeas