[Ambassadors] Policy RFC: Dealing with Media (and no I don't mean CD/DVDs)

Larry Cafiero larry.cafiero at gmail.com
Wed Aug 27 16:36:56 UTC 2008


Picking up the conversation late in the proverbial game . . .

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 7:01 AM, David Nalley <david at gnsa.us> wrote:

> My experience is that most Ambassadors are also members of Marketing.
> IIRC many moons ago joining the Marketing project was recommended on
> the Ambassadors join page. While I think there is probably more of
> disconnect between the two groups than previously existed there are
> still many people who are in both groups.

I thought being an ambassador and being a member of marketing were
required when becoming an ambassador. If it isn't, should it be?

> But I should go back and talk about why we decided to plod down this
> path - last night after introing Larry's page - (around the 9:15
> timestamp) Jack said: "the general stance is we should
> get stuff cleared with someone before we do anything with media"
> http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-August/msg00411.html

Allow me a scenario: I'd hate to be Jack or whomever has to field, oh,
hundreds of requests answering "Can I send a press release to my local
media, please?" in the advent of F10 release party/installfests, for
example; not to mention having to read and check off on each of them.
An extreme example? Possibly, but in my opinion it's not unreasonable
to think that every ambassador is a potential local -- local -- media
contact representing Fedora.

So again, let me repeat that the idea and execution for the wiki stems
from helping LOCAL ambassadors deal with LOCAL media. In my opinion,
having Fedora ambassadors who can deal with local media and maintain a
relationship with local media in the area only helps us going forward,
and is the purpose behind my developing this resource for ambassadors.

<suh-nip>

> The pragmatist in me says that the fact that I am a member of the
> Fedora Project, have a fp.o email, and can go around talking
> about/representing Fedora to LUGs, conferences etc. makes any special
> authority or clearance meaningless.

+1 -- If you can trust us to talk to LUGs and conferences, we should
be entrusted with talking to local media on Fedora events that happen
locally. Clearly, as David pointed out in an earlier e-mail (not
copied here), if things are pushed "upstairs" to a regional or
national level, coverage-wise, someone with more authority may need to
be involved, and an ambassador could use either common sense or
guidelines on when to kick a story back to someone with media
authority.

Normally, I vote for common sense, but I understand that guidelines
may be in order for an organization this large, if for no other reason
than to cut down on the "loose cannon" syndrome.

Larry Cafiero




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