Location is still being worked on. But let's talk about the content!
I think last Flock was... fine... but didn't have the positive energy
I've gotten from it in years past. I think we should change it up a
little bit this time around.
Brian and I talked about this quite a bit after the recent Mindshare
and Documentation FADs. Those were both incredible, successful events.
Specifically, I think they were more generally succesful than the
"do-con" we've pushing Flock towards. Flock is vitally important, but
instead of focusing all of the get-together-and-do energy in one place
and time, we should plan on having more hackfests throughout the year.¹
For Flock, I think we should focus on three things:
1. Communicating the Fedora Strategy.
Everyone in Fedora should understand and feel well-aligned with the
project's goals, both long-term and tactical. We should all
understand the messaging we're using to attract new users and
contributors.
2. Planning the Next Strategy.
That strategy doesn't come from the top down, or from thin air, or
from, y'know, corporate puppeteers. It comes from the community.
Because we're so big and distributed, Flock can't be the only place
where we get new ideas, but it *should* be a summit where we
present, learn about, and discuss them.
3. Building Community Connections and Engagement.
We do amazing work as a global project, but there's no substitute
for direct human interaction. Flock helps tie us together and the
in-person interactions help us function better on IRC and mailing
lists throughout the year. To me, it's always been very energizing,
and we should emphasize that.
So, based on this, Brian and I came up with a draft idea of how
sessions should work. Not broken down into exact days or anything yet,
but basically in this order:
1. Plenary (one big room with everyone)
- A "sales kick-off"² session highlighting the overall messaging plan
for the year.
- The metrics runthrough
- Updates on Fedora Editions and current Objectives (20 minutes each)
focused on what's exciting for the next year
2. New Ideas Talks
Have the next Fedora Rings, or Fedora Editions plan, or rpm-ostree,
or something entirely new? Have something that bugs you and a plan
to fix it? Think we should grow our userbase in a particular area
by doing something we aren't? Pitch it!
These sessions would be preselected presentations with a CFP.
Additionally, presenters should tell us who they need to be in the
room to discuss / convince / get involved.
3. Topic-Focused Discussions
- SIG and Team meetings
- Regional planning for the next year
- Basically, mini-strategic-hackfests for various groups
4. A Wrap Up / Readout session (Plenary, again)
- could include a leadership panel dicussion
- five-minute summaries from the various breakouts
What do you all think?
----
1. More on the separately, since it's not Flock related, but if we had
_continuous_ hackfests as productive as these last two (and as many
others have been), we'd have astounding amounts of overall project
progress. Budget realistically does not actually allow _constant_
hackfests, but it's a nice aspiration.
2. But without actual _sales_, salespeople, or bad jokes.
--
Matthew Miller
<mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org>
Fedora Project Leader
