[Fedora-ambassadors-list] Ambassador's Purpose

Patrick Barnes nman64 at n-man.com
Sat Mar 11 16:01:58 UTC 2006


On Thursday 09 March 2006 22:12, Tejas Dinkar wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 21:27 -0600, Robert 'Bob' Jensen wrote:
> > Why are we ambassadors?
> >
> > I am an ambassador so I can better present Fedora to groups of people
> > through Slides and structured content.
>
> Only partly for me.

Everyone would provide a slightly different reason for helping.  We need 
everyone contributing in a way that takes advantage of their strengths.  As 
long as their goals are in line with the goals of the project, the diversity 
only helps to form a healthy program.

>
> Structured content are good to some extent. We mustn't forget bofs,
> install fest, and general cheer leading.

Yes!  The lack of attention to these things is something we need to work on.

>
> > 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.
>
> This is the exact opposite in my eyes.
>
> I was at both foss.in and LinuxAsia. (4k people at the first, IIRC)
>
> Which were major events, and I was at the booth at FOSS.in for all 4
> days.
>
> Both were major FOSS events, and, <surprise, surprise> everyone already
> knew what Fedora was. In fact, trying to promote fedora at any foss
> event (to me) appears redundant.
>
> Yes, it is important that people know the latest and best of what going
> around the fedora world, but more important than that is to get people
> who use entirely proprietary software in to fedora.
>
> And you don't see such people at large events.
>
> These people usually loaf around college tech-fests... in fact, I've
> pulled random people off my college corridors and given them a lecture
> on free software, and lent them MY FC4 CDs.

This is exactly the sort of thing we need to encourage and support.  Clearly, 
we aren't doing enough to put the focus on these smaller efforts.  Many 
people in the Ambassadors program are content to ignore these ideas, waiting 
for large events where they can request merchandise and participate with 
hundreds or thousands of others.  It is these little thing that should be our 
focus, with the larger events just being a way to support our established 
community.

>
> > 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.
>
> po-tay-to, po-taaa-to.
>
> How difficult is it, really, to get on the ambassadors list?
>
> We set some bare minimum, but actually the only thing you need to get
> onto this list is a valid name, and email.
>
> Anyone who wants to get on the ambassadors list needs only to prove that
> he has some interest in spreading the freedom, which he will have by
> definition if he plans on contributing on the Marketing List. The only
> exception being the media, but we can ping the marketing list every time
> we reach a benchmark.
>
> <apologies to all the 'she's who are reading this for the use of 'he'>

Unfortunately, that's not the case.  We have a strict set of requirements to 
have each person become an Ambassador and prove themselves before they may 
join the Ambassadors list.  The Marketing list is open this way, but this 
list is rather exclusive.  We don't *want* everyone to be part of this list.  
That's why we need to do a better job of sorting out which mail should go to 
which list.

> > 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.
>
> Well, in my opinion, the Marketing list is deprecated.
>
> The ambassadors list gives structure to what the marketing list does.
>
> And further more, the Ambassadors project gives everyone a chance to
> participate as a PEER in the project.
>
> IMO, the marketing project just lacked that, plus the term is rather
> derogatory for those of us who want to be hackers.

Neither of these lists is targeted at "hackers".  They do have very different 
purposes, and the Marketing list should NOT be deprecated in any sense.  It 
was horrible leadership that allowed the Marketing list to die and be 
replaced by this list, which does not serve the same purpose.  Both should be 
kept alive to serve their separate and important duties.

>
> > 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.
>
> Hmmm, I disagree...
>
> Ambassadors should be the front end. Yes, I think marketing shouldn't
> die. But I'd really appreciate a specific answer to this question:
>
> `What can Marketing do better than the Ambassadors?`.
>
> better = [faster, more efficient, reach more people].

This is a matter of the scope of the Ambassadors program.  Ambassadors are NOT 
intended to develop our Marketing strategy or plan our initiatives.  They are 
NOT meant to produce the Marketing materials.  They are meant only to be a 
voice and point of contact.  They are very, very important as that voice and 
are our "front" at the local level.  The Marketing program is meant to 
provide our global voice and to develop our marketing that is to be used by 
the Ambassadors and our other projects and venues to deliver Fedora's ideas.

>
> > 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.
>
> I have given flame bait.
>
> Flame away.

If we start to flame war, are we really doing our jobs?  We don't need a 
battle, we need cooperation to assure that we are doing The Right Thing.  I 
think the Ambassadors team is a strong team (dare I say "of friends") that 
has an opportunity to make a difference.  In order to do that, we must make 
sure we keep focus and hold on to our goals.  We need to make sure that each 
of Ambassadors and Marketing are doing things in a way that best serves the 
Fedora Project and our community.  Ambassadors and Marketing have slightly 
different goals, and allowing them to become polluted only hurts their shared 
goals.

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

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

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