"What is the Fedora Project?"

[Jeffrey Ollie]

John, thanks for getting this discussion started.  I'm not on the
board, but I thought that I'd weigh in with a few words.  I recently
completed the practical portion of the Boy Scout's Wood Badge
training.  For those that are not familiar, the Wood Badge is Boy
Scout's highest level of leadership training (if you have the
opportunity I highly recommend it).  As a part of that training, we
spent a lot of time talking about values, mission statements, vision
statements and goals[1].  I won't go into a lot of detail here, but
let me crib from my notes:

Values: core beliefs or desires that guide or motivate our attitudes
    and actions

    Examples:

    Merck: http://www.merck.com/about/mission.html
    3M: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/about-3M/information/about/us/

Mission statements: A brief statement that reflects the core values of
    an organization and communicates the organizations long-term
    objectives - why the organization exists.

    Examples:

    Merck:  http://www.merck.com/about/mission.html
    Starbucks: http://www.starbucks.com/mission/

Vision statements: A vision is a picture of future success.

    Examples:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw#t=8m40s
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk#t=11m59s

Goals: statements of action or intent that will bring you closer to
    your vision.  Goals should be SMART[2].

Ok, so Fedora isn't the Boy Scouts, but leadership skills transcend
organizations and I hope that by defining the above we can really take
Fedora to the next level.  Obviously, I have some idea as to what
Fedora's values, mission, and vision should be but I thought that this
message would stir the pot enough for now.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_planning
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_%28project_management%29

-- 
Jeff Ollie