Fedora on the Final Frontier

[Jeff Spaleta]

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 7:56 AM, Chris Ricker <kaboom at oobleck.net> wrote:
>  My favorite discovered Fedora usage so far -- I accidentally crashed (as
>  in "made it reboot," not as in "ran into it") a gas pump at a Sam's
>  Club. It was running Fedora 5

Awesome!

But how do we get people who are making use of Fedora...even for
unexpectedly mundane things like Gas pumps.. to start talking about it
in a way that is constructive and helps generate new contributions to
open source.  It's in their own best interests to report back to us,
to help fuel the engine of continued open development.  Fedora is out
there, and its out there in a big way. Beyond all the hype and the
focus of the traditional "desktop".. Fedora is helping get crap done.
We need to be able to tell a few of the more interesting stories as
recruitment propaganda.

Do we need to insert some sort of call for usage stories in the
installer?  Do I hook up Paul to some sort of Pavlovian machine and
train him to  talk about this in every interview he gives for the next
few months?  Do we make a shout out at FUDCon and the Red Hat Summit?

And where would we drive people who had interesting stories to tell?
Do we give them a contact person like Jack? Do we give them a
wikispace?

All i know for sure is, these sort of stories are needed, because they
inspire a desire to contribute to a greater cause.  Eyecandy might
generate end-users.. but its stuff that like that will inspire people
to walk in the door(it might not be our door, but some project's door)
and start contributing to open technology.

-jef