Contributor Spotlight Podcast

[Ryan Rix]

Hey all,

At a few weeks' ago marketing(may have been ambassadors?) meeting, I drug Paul 
Mellors (cc'd) into a discussion with Max Spevack and I about creating a 
podcast where various Fedora contributors would be interviewed by the host(s) 
about what they do in the project, how they found Fedora, why they are a 
member, etc etc etc...

Well, I think that such a thing would be a good marketing project, and think 
that the new year would be the perfect time to start it up. Max said he had 
some ideas on the podcast, and so did Paul, so I think it would be a good idea 
to start up this discussion again, in a mailing list. I don't know if Paul is 
a member of this list (I think so) but hopefully he doesn't mind joining in on 
the discussion :)

Mine are, in essence, that first paragraph, it's a pretty straightforward 
idea, I think. We'd brainstorm a list of contributors; not just big names, but 
a lot of the newer developers, too. This has, I think, a two-fold effect: It 
gets new developers who get featured -really- excited and the chance to 
promote $project of theirs, and it shows people who may be thinking about 
contributing just how easy it can be.

Thoughts?

Ryan

[Mel Chua]

So, On 12/19/2009 08:21 PM, Ryan Rix wrote:
> At a few weeks' ago marketing(may have been ambassadors?) meeting, I drug Paul
> Mellors (cc'd) into a discussion with Max Spevack and I about creating a
> podcast
>
> <snip>
> We'd brainstorm a list of contributors; not just big names, but
> a lot of the newer developers, too. This has, I think, a two-fold effect: It
> gets new developers who get featured -really- excited and the chance to
> promote $project of theirs, and it shows people who may be thinking about
> contributing just how easy it can be.
>
> Thoughts?

Even easier startup: interview chain. You interview someone, they become 
the next interviewer and have to interview someone else, and so on down 
the line. (Note: this only works if it's really easy to set up for 
making a podcast, so that's something to check.)

This is one of those great ideas that came up once upon a time, and 
keeps coming up (because it /is/ a great idea), and mostly needs someone 
to step up and do the first interview. ;)

--Mel

[Ryan Rix]

On Sat 19 December 2009 9:28:12 pm Mel Chua wrote:
> and mostly needs someone 
> to step up and do the first interview. ;)

Shall we add the final step to getting that first interview to tuesday's 
agenda? :)

[Robyn Bergeron]

On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Ryan Rix  wrote:
> On Sat 19 December 2009 9:28:12 pm Mel Chua wrote:
> > and mostly needs someone
> > to step up and do the first interview. ;)
>
> Shall we add the final step to getting that first interview to tuesday's
> agenda? :)

I think in addition to that it would be useful to maybe send an email
with a link to a wiki page where people can (a) sign up to be
interviewed and (b) maybe provide a few dates (like a week time-frame)
where they would be available to do something.

This would be great stuff for Fedora Insight :)

I have been thinking something along the same line - although I was
thinking more in terms of print / email / irc interviews, since I'd
imagine quite a number of devs don't necessarily have the gear needed
to do audio, or the bandwidth to follow Paul's guide to doing a
podcast interview (I'll plug that link again for goodness:
http://osdir.com/ml/fedora-news-list/2009-10/msg00000.html).   The
great part about it is - in addition to getting developers excited
about contributing, like Ryan mentioned - is that it also helps to
open up the dialog a little more between marketing and engineering.

Alternately, we could do two separate chains - one where we have devs
interviewing each other on features via email, and maybe the
occasional podcast interview by us.

And since I'm such a marketeer, I have a fabulous name for it: "Under
the Hood" ... since that's basically what we're doing, taking a look
under the hood with these interviews.

Fa la la la la, la la la la......

-Robyn
> --
> Ryan Rix
> Fedora KDE SIG Member, Phoenix AZ Ambassador, News KDE Beat writer
>
> New Mail address: [e-mail] -> [e-mail] !!
> http://hackersramblings.wordpress.com | http://identi.ca/phrkonaleash
> XMPP: [e-mail]          | MSN: [e-mail]
> AIM:  phrkonaleash                    | Yahoo: phrkonaleash
> IRC:  [e-mail]/#srcedit,#plugaz,#fedora-kde and
>      countless other FOSS channels.
>
> --
> Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list

[Robyn Bergeron]

PS. I have a potential interviewee i could butter up. :)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 10:15 PM, Robyn Bergeron
 wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Ryan Rix  wrote:
> > On Sat 19 December 2009 9:28:12 pm Mel Chua wrote:
> > > and mostly needs someone
> > > to step up and do the first interview. ;)
> >
> > Shall we add the final step to getting that first interview to tuesday's
> > agenda? :)
>
> I think in addition to that it would be useful to maybe send an email
> with a link to a wiki page where people can (a) sign up to be
> interviewed and (b) maybe provide a few dates (like a week time-frame)
> where they would be available to do something.
>
> This would be great stuff for Fedora Insight :)
>
> I have been thinking something along the same line - although I was
> thinking more in terms of print / email / irc interviews, since I'd
> imagine quite a number of devs don't necessarily have the gear needed
> to do audio, or the bandwidth to follow Paul's guide to doing a
> podcast interview (I'll plug that link again for goodness:
> http://osdir.com/ml/fedora-news-list/2009-10/msg00000.html).   The
> great part about it is - in addition to getting developers excited
> about contributing, like Ryan mentioned - is that it also helps to
> open up the dialog a little more between marketing and engineering.
>
> Alternately, we could do two separate chains - one where we have devs
> interviewing each other on features via email, and maybe the
> occasional podcast interview by us.
>
> And since I'm such a marketeer, I have a fabulous name for it: "Under
> the Hood" ... since that's basically what we're doing, taking a look
> under the hood with these interviews.
>
> Fa la la la la, la la la la......
>
> -Robyn
> > --
> > Ryan Rix
> > Fedora KDE SIG Member, Phoenix AZ Ambassador, News KDE Beat writer
> >
> > New Mail address: [e-mail] -> [e-mail] !!
> > http://hackersramblings.wordpress.com | http://identi.ca/phrkonaleash
> > XMPP: [e-mail]          | MSN: [e-mail]
> > AIM:  phrkonaleash                    | Yahoo: phrkonaleash
> > IRC:  [e-mail]/#srcedit,#plugaz,#fedora-kde and
> >      countless other FOSS channels.
> >
> > --
> > Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list

[Max Spevack]

On Sat, 19 Dec 2009, Mel Chua wrote:
> Even easier startup: interview chain. You interview someone, they 
> become the next interviewer and have to interview someone else, and so 
> on down the line. (Note: this only works if it's really easy to set up 
> for making a podcast, so that's something to check.)
>
> This is one of those great ideas that came up once upon a time, and 
> keeps coming up (because it /is/ a great idea), and mostly needs 
> someone to step up and do the first interview. ;)

Here is my idea for the interview chain.  Feel free to adapt, change, 
throw out, or do with as you please.  :)

GUIDING PRINCIPLE: There are a huge number of people in our community, 
and most contributors probably only really work with a handful of people 
each day.  While they may recognize many names, how much do contributors 
really know about what others are doing?  Does someone who writes for 
the Docs Team have any idea what it's like to maintain package $FOO? 
Does someone who participates in Fedora Test Days every now and then 
have any idea of what it takes to produce the Installation Guide every 
release?  How much does an Ambassador in Germany know about what 
Ambassadors in Venezuela are doing?

GOAL: Our goal is to give two Fedora contributors who might *never 
otherwise interact* a reason to have a conversation, and to share the 
most interesting parts of that conversation with the rest of the Fedora 
community.

Rule #1 -- Don't interview someone you have ever met face to face.

Rule #2 -- Don't interview someone who lives in the same country that 
you live in.

Suggestion #1 -- Try to use Fedora Talk, and record the conversation. 
You can edit it a little bit with Audacity, or just post the raw audio. 
It becomes a podcast in which Contributor #1 interviews Contributor #2 
and has a conversation in which the entire community gets to know about 
Contributor #2.  (There is a wiki page that gives some instructions 
about this, but I can't look it up because I'm writing this email on an 
airplane.)

Suggestion #2 -- If audio recording doesn't work, conduct the 
conversation over IRC, so that it is more interactive than simply 
sending a bunch of questions from one person to another over email.

Rule #3 -- Within 2 weeks of the interview, Contributor #1 (the 
interviewer) posts whatever form your interview/conversation takes to 
Planet Fedora, and perhaps to a wiki page that can track all of this. 
We already have an Interviews page on the wiki that we could grow and 
expand.

Rule #4 -- Within 2 weeks of the interview, Contributor #2 (the person 
who was interviewed) starts off a new interview in the chain.

I can see the value in having multiple chains, but I can also see the 
value in only having one chain, making it a Big Deal, and thus having a 
friendly dose of peer pressure on folks to not be the one to break the 
chain.

--Max

[María Leandro]

Hello!!!

This is an excellent idea, this is my feedback

2009/12/22 Max Spevack
> On Sat, 19 Dec 2009, Mel Chua wrote:
>
> Even easier startup: interview chain. You interview someone, they become
> > the next interviewer and have to interview someone else, and so on down the
> > line. (Note: this only works if it's really easy to set up for making a
> > podcast, so that's something to check.)
> >
> > This is one of those great ideas that came up once upon a time, and keeps
> > coming up (because it /is/ a great idea), and mostly needs someone to step
> > up and do the first interview. ;)
>
> Here is my idea for the interview chain.  Feel free to adapt, change, throw
> out, or do with as you please.  :)
>
> GUIDING PRINCIPLE: There are a huge number of people in our community, and
> most contributors probably only really work with a handful of people each
> day.  While they may recognize many names, how much do contributors really
> know about what others are doing?  Does someone who writes for the Docs Team
> have any idea what it's like to maintain package $FOO? Does someone who
> participates in Fedora Test Days every now and then have any idea of what it
> takes to produce the Installation Guide every release?  How much does an
> Ambassador in Germany know about what Ambassadors in Venezuela are doing?

This will be a great complement to the User Research Plan, so we could know
the both sides of the coin. What's happening with projects and what's up to
ambassadors

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User_Research_Plan
> GOAL: Our goal is to give two Fedora contributors who might *never
> otherwise interact* a reason to have a conversation, and to share the most
> interesting parts of that conversation with the rest of the Fedora
> community.
>
> Rule #1 -- Don't interview someone you have ever met face to face.
>
> ...or someone you talk with everyday.
> Rule #2 -- Don't interview someone who lives in the same country that you
> live in.

question: should all interviews be made in english? might be the easy way to
understand us all. Also we could use some translation after the interviews
so everyone can reach the content.
> Suggestion #1 -- Try to use Fedora Talk, and record the conversation. You
> can edit it a little bit with Audacity, or just post the raw audio. It
> becomes a podcast in which Contributor #1 interviews Contributor #2 and has
> a conversation in which the entire community gets to know about Contributor
> #2.  (There is a wiki page that gives some instructions about this, but I
> can't look it up because I'm writing this email on an airplane.)

Also we could use some video interview:
a.- contributor#1 send questions over mail to contributor#2 and this one
records a video with their answers
b.- contributor#1 send a video with the questions to contributor#2 and this
one records a video with their answers. then *someone* joins the both videos
with a cute splash :D

maybe is a good idea also, not to only "meet the ambassadors voice" but also
"meet ambassadors". if they don't fee confortable with english videos we
could use also subtitles.
> Suggestion #2 -- If audio recording doesn't work, conduct the conversation
> over IRC, so that it is more interactive than simply sending a bunch of
> questions from one person to another over email.
>
> Rule #3 -- Within 2 weeks of the interview, Contributor #1 (the
> interviewer) posts whatever form your interview/conversation takes to Planet
> Fedora, and perhaps to a wiki page that can track all of this. We already
> have an Interviews page on the wiki that we could grow and expand.

I could make this wiki page with the first idea I got from mo of the
"meet-fedora" page:

http://tatica.org/meet-fedora/

Should/Can I create this wiki page right now?? :D
> Rule #4 -- Within 2 weeks of the interview, Contributor #2 (the person who
> was interviewed) starts off a new interview in the chain.
>
> I can see the value in having multiple chains, but I can also see the value
> in only having one chain, making it a Big Deal, and thus having a friendly
> dose of peer pressure on folks to not be the one to break the chain.

I think 2 weeks between interviews is too much. We should put something more
like "if the contributor#2 doesn't continue the chain in 2 weeks, a
contributor#3 will do it (or something like that)" to prevent the chain of
interviews stop
> --Max
>
> --
> Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list

[Nicu Buculei]

On 12/23/2009 03:15 PM, María Leandro wrote:
> 2009/12/22 Max Spevack
>     Suggestion #1 -- Try to use Fedora Talk, and record the
>     conversation. You can edit it a little bit with Audacity, or just
>     post the raw audio. It becomes a podcast in which Contributor #1
>     interviews Contributor #2 and has a conversation in which the entire
>     community gets to know about Contributor #2.  (There is a wiki page
>     that gives some instructions about this, but I can't look it up
>     because I'm writing this email on an airplane.)
>
> Also we could use some video interview:
> a.- contributor#1 send questions over mail to contributor#2 and this one
> records a video with their answers
> b.- contributor#1 send a video with the questions to contributor#2 and
> this one records a video with their answers. then *someone* joins the
> both videos with a cute splash :D

Dumb question: is there any way to dump in a file a video chat held over 
Jabber?[*] (actually, two files, one for each person, then mixing is not 
very hard)

[*] both Empathy and Pidgin can do video conference in F12

[Max Spevack]

(Catching up on email after vacation)
> question: should all interviews be made in english? might be the easy 
> way to understand us all. Also we could use some translation after the 
> interviews so everyone can reach the content.

I tend to believe that the international scope of Fedora is important. 
I'd say that folks can do the interview in whatever language they like, 
and we can always translate to English later if it's not already in 
English.

But I think people should do what is most natural to them, in a project 
like this one.

A few links were posted in other parts of this thread:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User_Research_Plan

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ContributorPodcast

http://tatica.org/meet-fedora/

I'll look at those once I have internet access again, and if I have more 
thoughts, I'll share them.

Happy New Year!

--Max

[Ryan Rix]

On Tue 22 December 2009 7:28:50 pm Max Spevack wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Dec 2009, Mel Chua wrote:
> > Even easier startup: interview chain. You interview someone, they
> > become the next interviewer and have to interview someone else, and so
> > on down the line. (Note: this only works if it's really easy to set up
> > for making a podcast, so that's something to check.)
> >
> > This is one of those great ideas that came up once upon a time, and
> > keeps coming up (because it /is/ a great idea), and mostly needs
> > someone to step up and do the first interview. ;)
>
> Here is my idea for the interview chain.  Feel free to adapt, change,
> throw out, or do with as you please.  :)

[snip]

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ContributorPodcast -- How does this look, 
everyone? Comments? Suggestions? I tried to mash Maria's, Max's and my ideas 
into this page, feel free to, as Max said, adapt, change, or throw it out ;)

[María Leandro]

Awesome!!!

I already add myself to the list, now... when/who will start? :D

2009/12/24 Ryan Rix
> On Tue 22 December 2009 7:28:50 pm Max Spevack wrote:
> > On Sat, 19 Dec 2009, Mel Chua wrote:
> > > Even easier startup: interview chain. You interview someone, they
> > > become the next interviewer and have to interview someone else, and so
> > > on down the line. (Note: this only works if it's really easy to set up
> > > for making a podcast, so that's something to check.)
> > >
> > > This is one of those great ideas that came up once upon a time, and
> > > keeps coming up (because it /is/ a great idea), and mostly needs
> > > someone to step up and do the first interview. ;)
> >
> > Here is my idea for the interview chain.  Feel free to adapt, change,
> > throw out, or do with as you please.  :)
>
> [snip]
>
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ContributorPodcast -- How does this look,
> everyone? Comments? Suggestions? I tried to mash Maria's, Max's and my
> ideas
> into this page, feel free to, as Max said, adapt, change, or throw it out
> ;)
>
> --
> Ryan Rix
> Fedora KDE SIG Member, Phoenix AZ Ambassador, News KDE Beat writer
>
> New Mail address: [e-mail] -> [e-mail] !!
> http://hackersramblings.wordpress.com | http://identi.ca/phrkonaleash
> XMPP: [e-mail]          | MSN: [e-mail]
> AIM:  phrkonaleash                    | Yahoo: phrkonaleash
> IRC:  [e-mail]/#srcedit,#plugaz,#fedora-kde and
>      countless other FOSS channels.
>
> --
> Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list