[Ambassadors] Max's Blog Post re: Ambassadors Discussion
Gerold Kassube
gerold at lugd.org
Mon Feb 26 09:27:05 UTC 2007
Jeffrey,
+5 for your mail ...
you're talking and writing out of my heart and my soul.
We (European Ambassadors) asked lot of times for the "Fedora Ambassadors
Kit" which you give you now a different role as it was in the first time
we thought about; but you're more right than the core idea was ...
As far as I remember we mentioned that the Ambassador Kit was a Kit for
every new Ambassador to help him(self) to get in touch with the Fedora
Organisation and getting him(self) involved what he has/should do as
Ambassador ...
maybe we miss this also ...
Your idea with the Event Box is imho one step in the right way;
regional, filled with what you need to build up a "Fedora Presentation"
regardless chairs, tables, walls and so on ...
Why not set up an wiki-page and collect what other Ambassadors,
attendees of booth think what is needed and usefull?!
Regards
Gerold
Am Sonntag, den 25.02.2007, 13:19 -0500 schrieb Jeffrey Tadlock:
> In reading Max's blog post on 2/24 [1] he brings up some key points that
> I feel merit further discussion on helping build a strong foundation for
> the ambassadors.
>
> :Begin snippet of Max's Blog post:
> "Part of this problem is one of localization. You can go through the
> process of learning to be an Fedora packager regardless of where you
> live, but unless you are near a place where there are already active
> Ambassadors organizing events, it's hard to get real experience doing an
> event.
>
> Another topic of conversation was helping to delegate responsibility. If
> an event is going to happen, there are several roles that need to be
> filled. One is purely operational -- coordinating with the location,
> scheduling the talks, making sure that there are handouts or posters,
> getting swag, publicity, etc. The skill set needed to do these kinds of
> things is different from the skill set needed once you actually get to
> the event and stand at the booth or deliver a talk.
>
> Once you're actually speaking about Fedora, now it's about the message,
> and I think that for a lot of Ambassadors, we need to do a better job of
> filtering. Freedom, choice, community model -- those are the core
> principles of Fedora. After that, you need to be able to say in about 30
> to 60 seconds what the high points of the current release are, and what
> the next release will include."
> :End snippet of Max's Blog post:
>
>
> Organizing an event does take some real work and for some it might not
> be their area of expertise. I do think there are several things the
> Ambassador project could do to help lower this hurdle and increase the
> number of local events Fedora has a presence at.
>
> My thoughts are based on what I learned from helping organize the Fedora
> presence at the Ohio Linux Fest in 2006. While we prepared for this
> event we felt there must be a better way to organize for something such
> as this - something a little more cookie cutter to reduce the actual
> work load of organizing the materials and such and allow more time
> focusing on other areas while at the event.
>
> I think one thing that could go very far in helping with some of the
> larger events is to see the Event Kit that Jack Aboutboul worked on come
> to realization. The page for the Event Kit [2] is blank. I think we
> should look at the Gnome Event Box [3] as something the Fedora Project
> should put in place. For those unfamiliar with the Gnome Event Box, it
> is a large, sturdy box that they ship to Gnome volunteers presenting at
> various events. It includes an LCD screen, a desktop computer, mouse,
> keyboard, various networking equipment, posters/banners and materials to
> help in hanging these things at the booth. It is close to a booth in a
> box. Something such as this reduces the amount of work that must be
> repeated each time someone from the Fedora Project attends an event.
>
> A Fedora Event Box would allow an ambassador to request the box for a
> certain date and have it shipped to them. When they receive the box
> they will have all the basic materials needed to put together a good
> looking booth for Fedora and also allow them more time to focus on other
> aspects of an event. To me this lowers the hurdle significantly to
> volunteering to attend an event. The costs of such a box are filling
> the box with the appropriate materials and then the shipping costs from
> event to event. The benefits to these costs are well put together
> Fedora Booths and hopefully more participation in local events.
>
> Beyond the Event Box, making sure people know the core principals of
> Fedora is important. For this I present the Ubuntu Marketing Flier [4]
> as an example of a very clean at-a-glance look into the distro. I think
> Fedora needs a similar brochure to promote what makes Fedora what it is.
> We can also state where to get Fedora, where to ask questions and
> where to get support from the community. We can make such a flier
> readily available for Ambassadors in a format that will allow
> ambassadors to take the file to a print shop for local production.
>
> For Release Features in upcoming versions a clean, well formatted single
> page can cover the highlights of future releases. This document can get
> updated for each upcoming release and be readily available to
> ambassadors to take to their local print shop for production for the
> actual event.
>
> Many ambassadors also bring DVDs, T-Shirts, stickers, etc to events for
> sale from the booth to help defray the costs of getting us there to
> begin with. Our booth at the Ohio Linux Fest had all of these and we
> were pretty successful at paying for most (not all) of our costs to
> attend the event. Having templates that are ready for production and
> guidelines on how to give the information to the T-shirt maker or
> sticker maker can also reduce the amount of repeated work. For
> ambassadors with their own ideas, they could certainly run with that,
> but for other ambassadors they can just take the templates from the web
> and use the guidelines provided on the site. I see this as lowering the
> hurdle for event planning and organization.
>
> In summary I see the following setup as greatly helping ease the
> organization efforts of attending events and hopefully leading to an
> increase in the number of events Fedora is able to attend - simply
> because we have made it easier.
>
> * Fedora Event Kit (box):
> This will include the basic materials to get a booth up and running. An
> ambassador requests and receives this and can be assured of having a
> near immediate professional presence at an event.
>
> * Marketing Fliers:
> Two fliers, one brochure covering the core principals of Fedora -
> explains what Fedora is about, where to obtain Fedora and where to get
> support from the community. The other flier lists the features in the
> upcoming release - to be updated with each new release. These would be
> readily available on the web to allow the ambassador to locally produce
> the materials.
>
> * Schwag. Readily available (or at least clear steps on how to obtain
> the necessary high resolution images) images and templates for use with
> T-Shirt and Sticker logos. Also guidelines on what to tell a T-Shirt or
> sticker producer to make sure you get the materials you want.
>
> By laying these ideas out clearly on wiki I think the hurdles to
> organizing events can be reduced greatly. This will either allow a
> person to simply request the materials and have access to the brochures
> to have a good presence at an event with minimal effort or free up
> valuable time for people who organize the Fedora Booth at events to
> focus on lining up speakers, prepping a birds of a feather session, etc,
> etc. I know if there had been these elements in place for the Ohio
> Linux Fest we would have had a much easier time of getting everything
> organized.
>
> And finally, when I helped organize the Fedora Booth at the Ohio Linux
> Fest I was assigned a "mentor". This was a single contact that if I ran
> into trouble along they way or had questions in general I could easily
> email and he would either answer the questions I had, get me in contact
> with the correct person or get the answers for me. I think we should
> continue this. Let those of us that have organized events previously
> volunteer to be a mentor. Most likely those of us that volunteer to
> mentor will be familiar enough with the Ambassadors and people within
> the Fedora Project itself to help get answers and help guide new event
> organizers as needed to insure a successful Fedora presence at events.
> We would just be a friendly ear to help keep folks from getting overwhelmed.
>
> --Jeffrey
>
> [1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/9394.html
>
> [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/EventKit
>
> [3] http://live.gnome.org/GnomeEventsBox
>
> [4]
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DIYMarketing?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Ubuntu_leaflet.pdf
>
> --
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> Fedora-ambassadors-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-ambassadors-list
--
Regards
Gerold Kassube
Fedora Ambassador
Deutschland / Germany
Schweiz / Switzerland
Email: GeroldKa at fedoraproject.org
1024D/F33128B9 4ABC A903 F1F4 D9CC C422 AACA EDF1 DF42 F331 28B9
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