[Ambassadors] Workshop on Fedora 14

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2011 at 03:09:38PM +0000, Tristan Santore wrote:
> On 09/03/11 06:05, mak wrote:
> > 
> > 2011/3/9 Angel <linux463291 at gmail.com <mailto:linux463291 at gmail.com>>
> > 
> >     Now I see, why you are mad.
> > 
> >     2011/3/9 mak <mahayalamkhan at gmail.com <mailto:mahayalamkhan at gmail.com>>
> > 
> >         Because, someone is a self proclaimed "leader" of Bangladesh
> >         Fedora Community. I wanted to make you aware of that.
> > 
> > 
> >     In January 1, 2009, I have officially took permission from Paul
> >     Frields (that time Fedora Project Leader) to representing Fedora
> >     Officially in Bangladesh. Max was there and the mail was also CC'd
> >     to Joerg Simon and Fabian Affolter. Feel free to check the archive
> >     of fedora-advisory-board list.
> > 
> >     If you question, why me, why not you or others? My question is also
> >     same, why not you or others? You are a Fedora Ambassador from long
> >     long time than me, no one was stopping you to take the lead, and do
> >     some work. But the reality was different, I have wrote about this
> >     whole situation and my experience on my blog, titled ´Fedora
> >     Bangladesh and my Frustration´. I am sure, you have read it.
> > 
> > We (all other contributor from Bangladesh) believe in networking and
> > don't like hierarchy, that's why we never felt to be a leader.
> > 
> > I feel pity on you; after that all frustration you seek (sneaked) the
> > permission to be the leader. And I wonder how the board approved without
> > asking the Bangladesh community. I'm going to raise the issue in Fedora
> > Board why the hell they didn't asked Bangladesh community. Have the
> > community voted you or voted the board to assign you as our leader? I
> > will ask them.
> > 
> > But as being a so called leader, you should have known that, Fedora
> > events should be open to all. Why didn't you guided Mr. Monir on that.
> > 
> > The list is public, and people from Bangladesh have started reading this
> > thread.
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> first of all, I am nowhere near the APNIC region, I do not know any of
> you, I do not work for Red Hat either,but..and here is the big but, I
> have to read this mailing list, and from what I gathered after reading
> through your thread is that:
> 
> 1.non of you have read each others messages properly.
> 
> 2. We only have one project leader, and that is Jared.
> 
> 3. The Fedora Ambassadors programme, is not a personal playground for
> egocentrics, its a community effort to give benefit to the rest of the
> community, not yourselves! So if you missed the whole point of the
> exercise you got it a bit wrong.
> 
> 4.There is really no need to get personal about matters, random insults
> solve nothing, and in fact, shows more that non of you should be
> ambassadors in the first place. If you cant treat each other right, what
> can we expect from you, in terms of treating fellow Fedora
> users/potential users. Such behaviour is not very professional in any case.
> 
> 5. In terms of this whole "leader" non-sense, any of you can make an
> event, the event organiser is responsible for making decisions, but
> should seek help from others with experience to hold the event.
> Again, its about serving the community, not yourselves. The more help
> you get from others the better. If you do not agree with somebodies
> event, and how he/she is organising it, stay away and make your own event.
> 
> If Max, Paul etc.. said you should take "control" to some degree, I am
> sure it was meant in a sense to further the Fedora project as a whole,
> not to tell people what and what not to do or anything along those lines.
> 
> Naturally, also this does not prevent others from doing events etc..
> We are free people in Fedora, we do what we want within reason, and if
> we don't get funding, we will still hold an event.

By way of background... I can only presume the reference to some sort
of Board blessing was this advisory-board posting:

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/advisory-board/2009-January/006295.html   

That posting addresses the use of the Fedora trademark in an entity
name (or domain name).  It doesn't grant anyone an exclusive right to
be the sole leader of the Bangladesh community.  The message
encouraged having community growth in Bangladesh, but not in an
exclusive way.  One person stepped up to offer resources to help grow
community, and I encouraged him to do so.

The misunderstanding here seems to be that there can be only one
"official" or "legal" representative in a locale.  We want the
community in an area to work together.  Fedora should be about
collaboration and not power struggle.

In other words, I basically agree with what Tristan said in his
response.  Leadership in Fedora comes from actively getting involved
*and* doing it in a way that is collaborative and cooperative with
your peers.  Both elements are part of being an effective leader.  And
I continue to believe anyone can be a leader in Fedora by bringing
together both those elements -- (1) putting thought into action, and
(2) doing it in such a way that you are supporting and collaborating
with others.

Let's take a breath and realize that working together toward common
goals is the best way to continue making Fedora better and better.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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