[Ambassadors] Red Hat's investments (was Re: Going passive)

[Jeroen van Meeuwen]

On Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:19:40 am Jared K. Smith wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 6:15 PM, Jeroen van Meeuwen <kanarip at kanarip.com> 
wrote:
> > Luckily, examples exist of people being appointed in important positions,
> > and making it very, very clear only U.S. citizens are eligible, aside
> > from the issue of Red Hat, Inc. ignoring EMEA.
> 
> This isn't entirely true.  Appointed seats on the Fedora Board, for
> example, can come from anywhere.

Seeing as how I stated "examples exist", "isn't entirely true" does not apply 
and is invalid as a qualification of my statement without proper fact taking 
apart each such example -which I did not state individually on purpose, 
because the actual point I made is not related to any one example.

You can take the appointed seats on the Fedora Project Board as the example 
therefor rendering that part of my statement invalid, but the facts stated may 
have no relationship to the example that I was telling you does exist.

> It's certainly not my intention to
> limit Fedora or its governance to one particular part of the world, or
> to ignore EMEA as you state.

I've also said, that this is not any one individual's, nor any one group of 
individual's fault, intention, misguidance or whatever. I've continuously 
pointed at *Red Hat, Inc.*. The particular case in point here with EMEA being 
ignored is that EMEA, with Europe being one of the biggest continents in terms 
of contributor value, requires assistance similar to the extent of LATAM and 
APAC, but beyond what *Red Hat, Inc.* is willing to offer -though several 
people have fought for it to be different- as it turns out *Red Hat, Inc.*'s 
willingness or capabilities in this example does not meet community needs.

Again though, this will prove to just be another incident merely indicative of 
the bigger issue.

> My goal is to build a community that's
> both diverse and inclusive of people with a wide variety of
> backgrounds and experiences.
> 

And such wide variety of backgrounds and experiences being part of the project 
requires a correct perspective on one's own for individuals that are in fact 
in a controlling position, regardless of whether they are rightfully so.

> As we discussed when I was in Zurich, I think I understand (at least
> some of) your frustrations, and I'm doing what I can to try to
> eliminate some of the barriers (or perceived barriers in some cases)
> that keep people from collaborating more with Fedora.
> 

Look, I'm not in this for me. I'll do what I do whereever I can and I can Get 
Shit Done anywhere else. I keep arguing the cases, sometimes seemingly 
endlessly, with the Fedora Project because I *know*, from first-hand 
experience, what the Fedora Project can be worth to any one individual 
contributor and to Free Software as a whole. You, or anyone else for that 
matter, can see things differently, and we don't have to agree on every little 
tiny detail concerning the implementation, the execution, the governance, or 
whatever else, and we do not even have to appreciate each other's perspective 
on things as much as the other person does, but without the "how?" neither of 
all of us is put in a position to move anything forward.

That said, looking at what "how?" entails or might entail, where the Fedora 
Project may move within the aforementioned boundaries, where contributors may 
move within the Fedora Project, and where considerations ultimately come from 
to stop things from happening, I very much doubt we, the mere mortals, are 
going to be allowed to participate in making the Fedora Project live up to its 
full potential. *That* is the real problem, and not a "perceived barrier".

Kind regards,

Jeroen van Meeuwen
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