[Fedora-ambassadors-list] Ambassador's Purpose

Patrick Barnes nman64 at n-man.com
Fri Mar 10 03:55:34 UTC 2006


I think these are very important points that are long overdue.  We've been 
trucking along without paying enough attention to these issues as they have 
continued to develop.

On Thursday 09 March 2006 21:27, Robert 'Bob' Jensen wrote:
> After 4 months in the ambassador project I have several questions and
> also some opinions. I will answer my own questions so you know where I
> am coming from.
>
> Why are we ambassadors?
>
> I am an ambassador so I can better present Fedora to groups of people
> through Slides and structured content.

I have participated in the Ambassadors program in the hopes of expanding my 
past participation in the Marketing program to spread Fedora in my local 
area.

>
> Do small events count?
>
> I do not think our current format lends itself to discussing general
> ideas of bringing Fedora to the masses. I get the feeling that our
> leadership is of the opinion that large high profile events are the ones
> that count. Everything else is just filler.

In placing our top priorities on the larger projects, we have allowed the 
smaller ones to fall into the background, losing the valuable attention they 
deserve.  A grass-roots approach is how we started out, how we've gotten this 
far, and how I think we should continue, using the larger events to support 
that effort.

>
> Should ambassadors be members of the marketing list?
>
> I think they should. Many ideas that have been posted to the PRIVATE
> Ambassadors list should have been posted to the PUBLIC Marketing list
> for greater input.

The policy of the Fedora Project has always been to remain as transparent as 
possible.  Anything that doesn't need to be private should be taken to more 
public lists.  Allowing access to archives simply isn't enough to engage the 
public audience.

>
> What should the ambassadors project and list focus on?
>
> They should focus on supporting Ambassadors and events no matter how
> small.

...and events shouldn't be our only focus.  There are plenty of important ways 
that Ambassadors can spread Fedora without events.  We can't forget that.

>
> Where did the Ambassadors project come from?
>
> For more information on this you will have to look at the Oct 2005
> archives of the marketing list.

Community Marketing Contacts.  The Ambassadors program was originally intended 
to provide a public and local-level voice for the Marketing program, not to 
replace it.

>
> What happened to the Marketing project?
>
> It would seem that leadership lost focus, the Ambassadors project was
> created from this lack of focus as a subproject and the general
> marketing project was allowed to die.

The way the Marketing program disappeared was very unfortunate.  It should not 
have been allowed to happen that way.  Ambassadors does not obsolete 
Marketing, it supplements it.  There are many objectives that are not within 
the stated goals of the Ambassadors, and the Marketing program should be 
revived to fulfill those objectives.

>
> Why is the Ambassadors list private?
>
> The Ambassadors list was made private as I remember to prevent people
> from signing up just to get free stuff and promo items.

I think we were also trying to prevent pollution of the list with the wrong 
types of messages.  In some respects, we have failed.  IIRC, the archives are 
open.  Perhaps we should consider making a separate list, read-only, that 
will duplicate all ambassadors-list messages and has open subscriptions.  
This would allow outsiders to follow the list without regularly checking the 
archives.

>
> What can we do to make things better?
>
> I think we need to re-ignite the Marketing project as the driving force
> of Fedora Marketing. Bring Marketing Tasks back in to the Public view,
> part of this will be to Focus the Ambassadors project on supporting
> Ambassadors in getting to events and related items including giveaway
> "stuff" and keep Marketing in the marketing list.
>
> I am sure more will come from me later, this will be plenty to talk
> about for now. If anyone has the guts to that is.

Reviving Marketing has been on my mind for some time.  This is something I 
would really like to take on, but we'll have to take on some of these other 
issues to make it happen the way it should and allow our projects to be all 
that they can be.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
nman64 at n-man.com

http://www.n-man.com/

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-- 

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