Extending the fedora classroom to be more than just planned classroom sessions

[Ankur Sinha]

Hello everyone,

As the subject says, I'm interested in extending the fedora-classroom
project.

Of late, I've been looking to improve the ways that potential
contributors can interact better with us, the community, the *whole*
community. Now, while some potential contributors would already know
what and where they want to contribute with, I think a larger share
comes in _looking_ for some guidance to help them get started. At the
present, there isn't really a communication channel that does this.
Sure, we have the different mailing lists, but none of them are
_dedicated_ to guiding new potential contributors. I'm looking to make
one. :)

It is generally ambassadors that meet these potential contributors at
events etc. (since Ambassadors are "the face of fedora"). The
ambassadors therefore act as the first point of contact who would then
direct these potential contributors to the different channels. (However,
the ambassadors, while they may be part of other SIGs, would probably
not be a part of *all* SIGs and cannot know everything that goes on in
the project) Mostly, therefore, potential contributors end up applying
for ambassadorship. The sponsorship process in place for the ambassadors
suggests that new people first join one of the fedora sub-teams and then
apply for ambassadorship. It's logical really: how would you speak about
fedora if you don't know about it?

The question therefore arises: how do we make these potential
contributors interact with the entire community, not just ambassadors
that they meet? How do we make it easier to get in touch with SIGs so
that potential contributors will have an easier time getting started?
One solution is something like the "gnome-love" initiative[1]. I really
like it. It's informal, people guide new people (not spoon feed, mind
you!) and I really think the gnome-love project helps make new folks
feel at home with the project. This reduces the learning gradient quite
a bit IMO.

While my initial thought was just to shamelessly copy gnome and start
fedora-love (I even drafted a proposal[3]), I realized that we already
have the fedora-classroom project in place. We have an IRC channel too.
The intention of this sub-project is to teach the community. I was
wondering what you folks felt about making this the first point of
contact for potential contributors? Of course, we'll get in more people
from the SIGs who are interested in seeing what new talent walks in and
stuff. What do you folks think about "extending the fedora classroom to
be more than just planned classroom sessions"? It's quite a face change
really :)

One of the questions that you'd probably ask is: what's wrong with folks
just joining up the various mailing lists and getting started?
Quite a bit:
1. A lot of new contributors aren't sure of what sig they'd like to
start in. IMO, it would be helpful if some of the community were
available to guide them and help them make a decision
2. The various mailing lists are dedicated to work. They're not really
meant for mentoring purposes. We wouldn't like a flood of potential
contributors emailing the lists asking for guidance. 
3. We also have askfedora and the user mailing lists. However, I feel
these are dedicated to troubleshooting.

So, what d'ya folks think? :)

NOTE: I think this was taken up quite a while back, which is probably
how the page with mentors[2] listed came about. Not sure though.

[1] https://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mentors
[3]
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha/Proposal_Fedora_Love_mailing_...

[Kevin Fenzi]

On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:59:07 +0530
Ankur Sinha  wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> As the subject says, I'm interested in extending the fedora-classroom
> project.

...snip...
> While my initial thought was just to shamelessly copy gnome and start
> fedora-love (I even drafted a proposal[3]), I realized that we already
> have the fedora-classroom project in place. We have an IRC channel
> too. The intention of this sub-project is to teach the community. I
> was wondering what you folks felt about making this the first point of
> contact for potential contributors? Of course, we'll get in more
> people from the SIGs who are interested in seeing what new talent
> walks in and stuff. What do you folks think about "extending the
> fedora classroom to be more than just planned classroom sessions"?
> It's quite a face change really :)

Well, I'm not sure it's too good a fit name/mission wise. 
I think of classrooms as more "here's a teacher and here's a lesson"
rather than a 'here's a place you can find out more about where to go
and what to do'
> One of the questions that you'd probably ask is: what's wrong with
> folks just joining up the various mailing lists and getting started?
> Quite a bit:
> A lot of new contributors aren't sure of what sig they'd like to
>
> start in. IMO, it would be helpful if some of the community were
> available to guide them and help them make a decision
> 2. The various mailing lists are dedicated to work. They're not really
> meant for mentoring purposes. We wouldn't like a flood of potential
> contributors emailing the lists asking for guidance. 
> 3. We also have askfedora and the user mailing lists. However, I feel
> these are dedicated to troubleshooting.

I agree.
> So, what d'ya folks think? :)

Well, I wonder if this couldn't be more a 'fedora welcome' or
'information desk' or something. I guess it doesn't matter what it's
called...

Basically a place we could point anyone who says they want to give back
and join up, then they could ask questions and get an idea of where to
go and who to talk to before just wandering around.

I like the idea, but not sure how much it overlaps with classrooms.

kevin
--
> NOTE: I think this was taken up quite a while back, which is probably
> how the page with mentors[2] listed came about. Not sure though.
>
> [1] https://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove
> [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mentors
> [3]
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha/Proposal_Fedora_Love_mailing_...

[Ankur Sinha]

Hey Kevin, folks,

On Tue, 2012-06-05 at 16:43 -0600, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:59:07 +0530
> Ankur Sinha  wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > As the subject says, I'm interested in extending the
>
> fedora-classroom
> > project.

<snip>
> Well, I'm not sure it's too good a fit name/mission wise. 
> I think of classrooms as more "here's a teacher and here's a lesson"
> rather than a 'here's a place you can find out more about where to go
> and what to do'

I understand. I was initially thinking of setting up a different
independently channel, which is how this proposal[1] came about.

I noticed that the classroom list isn't used a lot, neither is the
channel, so I thought I'd first see if extending this already in-place
infra would do the job :)
> > One of the questions that you'd probably ask is: what's wrong with
> > folks just joining up the various mailing lists and getting started?
> > Quite a bit:
> > A lot of new contributors aren't sure of what sig they'd like to
> >
> > start in. IMO, it would be helpful if some of the community were
> > available to guide them and help them make a decision
> > 2. The various mailing lists are dedicated to work. They're not
>
> really
> > meant for mentoring purposes. We wouldn't like a flood of potential
> > contributors emailing the lists asking for guidance. 
> > 3. We also have askfedora and the user mailing lists. However, I
>
> feel
> > these are dedicated to troubleshooting.
>
> I agree.

Great :)
> > So, what d'ya folks think? :)
>
> Well, I wonder if this couldn't be more a 'fedora welcome' or
> 'information desk' or something. I guess it doesn't matter what it's
> called...

Aye. However, I'd prefer we have an informal name. It doesn't matter to
us really, but a fun, informal name would help new comers IMO.
Gnome-love sounds good, I'm sure we can think up something similar.

fedora-friends
fedora-join
fedora-join-us
fedora-newbies
new-to-fedora/new-2-fedora
fedstart
fedora-start
fedora-???

Any fun names? Maybe I can nudge the marketing/design/ambassador lists
for more?
> Basically a place we could point anyone who says they want to give
> back
> and join up, then they could ask questions and get an idea of where to
> go and who to talk to before just wandering around.
>
> I like the idea, but not sure how much it overlaps with classrooms.

I agree. I just thought that the new infra we're setting up is about
guiding folks, and it's what the classroom lists etc are broadly set up
to do :)

So, you think we should set up a completely separate list and IRC
channel for this then? Another "fedora $fun-name SIG" sort of thing?
> kevin

[Kevin Fenzi]

On Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:14:00 +0530
Ankur Sinha  wrote:
> I understand. I was initially thinking of setting up a different
> independently channel, which is how this proposal[1] came about.
>
> I noticed that the classroom list isn't used a lot, neither is the
> channel, so I thought I'd first see if extending this already in-place
> infra would do the job :)

Yeah, but new channels are easy to make. ;)

...snip...
> So, you think we should set up a completely separate list and IRC
> channel for this then? Another "fedora $fun-name SIG" sort of thing?

Something like this was looked at before.

See:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Welcome_SIG

Is this similar to what you are looking for?

Perhaps ping those folks and try and revive that effort?

kevin

[Ankur Sinha]

On Fri, 2012-06-08 at 12:18 -0600, Kevin Fenzi wrote:

Hi Kevin,

I'm sorry I couldn't reply earlier. I've been travelling :)
> On Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:14:00 +0530
> Ankur Sinha  wrote:
> > I understand. I was initially thinking of setting up a different
> > independently channel, which is how this proposal[1] came about.
> >
> > I noticed that the classroom list isn't used a lot, neither is the
> > channel, so I thought I'd first see if extending this already
>
> in-place
> > infra would do the job :)
>
> Yeah, but new channels are easy to make. ;)

Sure, but I was trying to avoid adding another to the long list of
channels fedora folks have to keep an eye out on :P
> ...snip...
> > So, you think we should set up a completely separate list and IRC
> > channel for this then? Another "fedora $fun-name SIG" sort of thing?
>
> Something like this was looked at before.
>
> See:
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Welcome_SIG
>
> Is this similar to what you are looking for?

Ah! Great. Looks like exactly what I'm trying to do! :D
> Perhaps ping those folks and try and revive that effort?

I'm on it! Thanks.
> kevin

[Ankur Sinha]

On Tue, 2012-06-12 at 11:40 +0530, Ankur Sinha wrote:
> Ah! Great. Looks like exactly what I'm trying to do! :D

Correction: not exactly :P

This sig is also about helping users transition to fedora. However, we
already have enough channels for that IMO.

I'll talk to the folks and see if we can narrow the intended audience
down to prospective contributors.