Google Adwords - not sure if off-topic

inode0 inode0 at gmail.com
Sun Apr 18 23:01:28 UTC 2010


On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 5:34 PM, Matthew Jadud <mjadud at allegheny.edu> wrote:
> I will say, drawing from inode0's next message:
>
> "I think the purpose of a FAD is to identify work that needs to be
> done that can only get done or can get done faster by meeting face to
> face. Identify who needs to be there to get the work done (this really
> normally means current contributors with special skills) and get them
> in the same place to focus on getting that work done."
>
> Really, the best way to get new contributors is to provide them with a
> real-world, face-to-face contact who will ground them/anchor them in
> the community. If you can't use F2F meetings like FADs to do this, it
> isn't clear to me where you do it. As a result, you will only ever get
> more sysadmins joining the project, and not artists.

I really could not agree with you more. I think we should be sending
Fedora artists to the places where artists gather in the same way we
send people with appropriate skills to the traditional conferences we
attend. They speak the language, they understand the hurdles, they can
show how cool the art community within Fedora is to other artists and
inspire them.

> Now, if you invite the local art school to send over 30 of its
> designers, send them all home with T-shirts, get them doing some
> collaborative design with members of the core community, and then
> provide them all with contacts they can reach out to if they decide
> they want to get more involved... well, that starts to sound like a
> way to build community. If a FAD can't support that kind of outreach,
> what can/does? If the answer is nothing, then you have your answer why
> non-techies aren't coming in to join the party... the world of open
> source is largely invisible (taking place only on email and IRC), and
> once there, it is a overwhelming and, too often, hostile place for the
> newcomer.

If you happen to be having an art related FAD in that community sure.
But sending 30 local designers to the ambassador FAD, or the F14
planning FAD, or the fill-in-the-blank FAD isn't going to work well.
There is no reason we can't have well thought out recruitment events,
whether we call them FADs or not. I would totally support sending
artists and swag to any place they could engage other artists for both
Fedora promotion/awareness as well as recruiting.

John


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