[Ambassadors] clarity regarding budget (was Re: Meeting minutes FAmSCo 2010-2-19)

[Max Spevack]

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011, inode0 wrote:

>> I think there is a general desire to make sure that budget can also 
>> be spent to continue to facilitate non-ambassador work in regions.
>>
>> Want an example?  Ok.  Here's one:
>>
>> Ambassadors who are organizing events should desire that there is at 
>> least one TECHNICAL talk being given at each event by a Fedora 
>> contributor.
>>
>> Why not make sure that the event owners are thinking about what 
>> technical talks would be good -- based on the Fedora talking points, 
>> features, etc -- and making sure that the most qualified person to 
>> give that talk in the area gets the talk submitted, and if it is 
>> accepted, gets some travel funding to give the talk?
>>
>> That's an expanded use of regional support money, that relates not 
>> only to the evangelization and marketing side of Fedora in the 
>> region, but also makes sure that technical contributors are getting a 
>> chance to meet other Fedora folks, interact with the community, etc.
>
> I think this is a brilliant suggestion on multiple levels. It will 
> improve our presence at events, improve the content delivered, and 
> create more engagement between ambassadors and other contributors 
> within the project. Win every which way I look!
>
> SXSWi is another example that is about to happen that I think sort of 
> falls into this same category where ambassadors happen to see an 
> opportunity where other contributors can be helped to accomplish 
> things related to marketing, recruitment, and skill development all of 
> which benefit Fedora.

Glad you liked my suggestion, and I agree with your comments about SXSW.

On to the rest of your note.....

> But I really was not thinking at all about the current FAmSCo budget 
> when I started this discussion. I was thinking about funding of 
> largely engineering efforts within the community that I don't see 
> being driven by ambassadors much if at all today but that I have no 
> doubt exists and should be promoted.
>
> Examples:
>
> * Who knew a "usability test kit" was needed by the design folks? I 
> know I heard absolutely nothing about this until it existed thanks to 
> another friendly funding source.
>
> * Engineering FADs - I don't see very many of these happening and I 
> can't believe there aren't a large number of them sitting there 
> waiting to happen.
>
> * Would 5 beagle boards make a difference in someone's efforts? I'm 
> sure you can imagine other opportunities where some small amount of 
> equipment might make a difference in someone's work. They aren't 
> coming to us now and if we don't happen to happily fall into knowledge 
> of the need we can't drive this sort of thing to happen.
>
> So I was thinking more of a "fictional" small budget for these sorts 
> of engineering purposes that could be managed by people who simply are 
> closer to that action than we are. I know there is overlap, but the 
> folks who think engineering 24 hours a day know a lot more about needs 
> and opportunities for important kickstarts than I ever will.
>
> This budget would necessarily be quite small out of the gate. But if 
> it ended up being spent on things that had real value, value that the 
> funding sources could clearly see, then I can imagine this part of the 
> budget growing over time without negatively impacting other budget 
> areas.
>
> I hope this is more clear now. It may be a stupid idea, it may not be 
> the right time. I do hope a time comes when community engineers also 
> have a robust budget that they manage to further their contributions 
> to the project. I'll put this dog to bed now.

I fully support this, John, and I thank you for continuing to articulate 
it.

And I'll echo back to my idea of an (informal at first) Fedora Finance 
SIG that can try to connect up some of these dots, which might allow us 
to make some progress without requiring first setting up a whole bunch 
of new processes or potential blocks.  More of a coalition of the 
willing sort of thing.  :)

--Max