[FAmSCo] Flock updates: Website, Preregistration, Call for talks, and MORE!

[Christoph Wickert]

Am Donnerstag, den 09.05.2013, 13:37 +0200 schrieb Jiri Eischmann:
> Christoph Wickert píše v Út 07. 05. 2013 v 19:56 +0200:
> > Moving this over to FAmSCo list...
> > 
> > Am Montag, den 06.05.2013, 12:07 -0700 schrieb Robyn Bergeron:
> > 
> > > You may submit as many topics as you feel qualified to deliver.
> > > Suggested topics include but are in no way limited to: 
> > > * ARM
> > > * Cloud
> > > * Community
> > > * Design
> > > * Desktop
> > > * Fedora Ambassadors
> > 
> > ^^^
> > 
> > I think the ambassadors are an excellent example of a group that does
> > not benefit from Flock. Please allow me to explain:
> > 
> > Most of our teams are global. If you are for example into packaging, it
> > doesn't matter where you live. Kevin and I work on Xfce; he lives in the
> > US, I in Germany. Sure we would love to discuss things face to face and
> > a global conference like Flock that brings many people together is a big
> > step forward.
> > 
> > On the other hand we have the ambassadors. They are regional teams to
> > represent Fedora in their local and regional community. The whole setup
> > is defines by regions. Each region their own meetings, mailing lists,
> > track instance(s), mentors and leaders. Global coordination is done by
> > FAmSCo and on the ambassadors mailing list. AFAICS there is no need for
> > further meetings etc.
> > 
> > When it comes to select the Flock attendees the question we have to ask
> > ourselves is: "What does this person bring to the table to make Fedora
> > 20 more awesome?". With this question in mind we will probably not
> > approve a lot of sponsorship requests for ambassadors. They have no
> > directly impact on Fedora 20, their real work starts after the release.
> > 
> > Robyn, please bear with me if I complain about how Flock is being
> > organized. But I'm afraid I'll have to keep on complaining. As a FAmSCo
> > member, I have to represent the ambassadors and FWIW, they have mixed
> > feelings about Flock. When I complained on flock-planning last week, I
> > didn't get any feedback from you or Spot, but 3 EMEA ambassadors
> > privately told me they appreciate my criticism as they are afraid they
> > will not make it to Flock.
> > 
> > I think the ambassadors are better off with FUDCons in their region.
> > Replacing regional FUDCons with a global Flock is a bad move for them
> > and that decision should not have been made without talking to FAmSCo.
> > 
> > Kind regards,
> > Christoph
> 
> Hi,
> I won't miss FUDCon EMEA so much because I never found it very
> beneficial to ambassadors. Yes, we need some "get-together" event for
> ambassadors in EMEA, but do we really need FUDCon?

Depends on what the ambassadors want.

If it's doing ambassadors business, then we agree they don't need Flock
or a FUDCon. But if they want to connect with other teams, then it's
good to have them at the same place.

> I personally found the FAD in Rheinfelden much more productive for us
> than FUDCon in Paris where we had just a quite short ambassador session.

I agree. For the local communities a FAD is better. But when it comes to
a global level, that means to FAmSCo, a FUDCon is better. Think of
blacksburg, where we worked on the FAmSCo election guidelines. It was a
2 h session with roughly a handful of people (3 of them FAmSCo members,
the rest long time ambassadors like inode0) and we finished what we
wanted to work on. I doubt that we could have done the same on IRC or
that bringing together FAmSCo members at a FAD is worth the effort.

> FUDCon NA and EMEA where too big to serve as focused meetings and too
> small to serve as a flagship conference of Fedora.
> Moreover, I don't find Sept or Oct when FUDCons EMEA were held a very
> good time for planning. December is much better.
> Instead of complaining about how Flock affects ambassadors in EMEA, I'd
> rather plan another FAD where, say, 15 most active ambassadors in EMEA
> will get together and which will be more focused.

The question for me is: Do we have money to host an ambassadors FAD? We
don't have one in our budget plan (do'h!) and as a FAD is a premier
event, the money comes from the same budget as the EMEA FUDCon that was
canceled in favor of Flock. This being said, I doubt we have money.

Kind regards,
Christoph