[Fedora-ambassadors-list] Concentration of Ambassadors

[Glauber Reis]

On 11/30/05, Patrick Barnes <nman64 at n-man.com> wrote:
> We need to establish a clear policy now with regard to how many
> Ambassadors we want in each region.  The original aim of the CMC program
> was to have one contact in each nation, with two in the larger nations.
> We now have more than this listed in some places.  I have no objections
> to allowing Ambassadors to have assistants, but we need to, IMHO, keep
> the window between the Fedora Project and Ambassadors relatively
> narrow.  What we need is a policy that states what kind of concentration
> we want for Ambassadors and how we handle pruning of inactive or deviant
> Ambassadors to make room for more active and reliable volunteers.  If we
> want to establish a process to assist Ambassadors in enlisting helpers,
> I think that would be great.  The very idea of an ambassador in other
> contexts is to provide a single, key point-of-contact between two
> entities.  Ambassadors act as the diplomatic leads, providing the
> gateway between nations and mediating the relationship.  They will
> always have people assisting them in their goals, but the ambassador
> themselves has no competing equivalent.  I think that having two
> Ambassadors per nation would be wise, but not the four or more we
> already have listed for some nations.  If we need to introduce some kind
> of 'embassy' to help Ambassadors coordinate between each other and with
> other help, we can do that, but we should avoid going crazy introducing
> new Ambassadors.  Opinions?
>
> --
> Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
> nman64 at n-man.com
>
> www.n-man.com
> --
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Hello, all.
I am the latest addition to the list of Ambassadors (brazilian ones)
and I' ve got some comments on this issue (as I think I might have
triggered it).

First off, I will list some motives why people like me are trying to
foster the adoption of Fedora in the local (Brazil and South America
as well) population.

Secondly, I will try and explain why I think that having such a small
number of Ambassador (in some particular situation) is no good.

I've been present at many brazilian events related to Software
Livre/Software Libre/Free Software and what I have noticed was a total
lack of (Fedora)presence to the point that it started bothering me, so
I went to Fedora Project website and looked for information as to how
to try and make it be a bit more present (locally). At the time(last
weekend), I was not aware of the existence of brazilian Ambassadors
and got very happy to know they are there and that I could help out.
Another point that bothers me is that people I know are switching from
Fedora to another distro, not because Fedora lacks
something(technically), but because other distros are showing
themselves off a bit more aggressively.

We all, in South America, are countries in development. I will focus
on Brazil but I think my opinion applies for other countries that
share the same problems.

Here in Brazil we try and use Software Livre as a tool for *inclusion*
into the "digital world" (we call it inclusão digital) and we are very
serious about it. We try, that way, make the *knowledge* available to
the ones that can not get it by themselves(even though we have not
gotten to the point of having it stated in our Constitution like our
brothers from Venezuela). But it is not only that, Software Livre
helps us break the chains that make us simply "market" to be exploited
and helps us understand that we have history, territory...particular
characteristics, culture.
We are a very, very big country, we are 180 millions and I am
convinced that, one way or another, Software Livre will help us out
when it comes to the development of our nation.
Fedora as a *Software Livre* tool may help in this whole process, but
how can we make it present at events around our (huge)country since we
have only 4(me inclusive) ones that want to advocate (even though on
of us lives outside the country)? Brazil has many (locally) important
events, and quoting Jon "maddog" Hall..."maybe, too many?", but
because they are many, we have more opportunity to make Fedora visible
and foster it in "social projects". I think advocating Fedora only to
make it visible(there are many other good distros) is no value in our
country, we have to overcome it and turn Fedora into an active tool
inside our Software Livre cause, that way it can help us overcome some
of our social problems.
So, I think for a country as big and as full of social problems as
Brazil, 5 or 6 Ambassadors spread around the country(that way we can
be present at each important event) would be good to try and make
Fedora available as a real tool in our Software Livre movement.
Again, we have to promote Fedora as one tool in our local Software
Livre movement and only after that, promote Fedora for being our
beloved Linux distro.

__
Glauber Adriano