Getting out the vote for the Fedora 10 election season

[Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)]

>> As a start is there a general need to raise the awareness of the
>> election and voting process we are using?
>> Can we generate general interest material covering topics like:
>> Why vote? How do you qualify for voting? What's this range voting stuff?
>
>>From out in the field I hear several reasons people don't vote. One
> common reason is that they are new to the project and don't feel they
> know enough about who everyone is and what the various committees do
> to feel competent to participate.

That's exactly the reason why I didn't vote for the first election I was
allowed to : the latest Fedora Board election.

> So one thing that I think would help new contributors get their
> bearings, and not just with respect to elections, is something like an
> organization chart that explains the structure of the Fedora project
> generally. What are all these committees? What purpose do they serve?
> What problems do the solve? Knowing that much will suggest a reason to
> care to many people I think.

That would not really have helped me (and people in my case). My issue was
that I knew absolutely nothing about the candidates. How could I vote for
one or another ?

The answer came from Yaakov Neemoy after some beers: if I don't know who
to vote for, I should just give the same score to everyone. That will have
the exact same result, except it will show that I care enough about Fedora
to actually take the time to do it.

This possibility, as evident as it might seem, was totally unclear to me,
and I don't think I'm the only one. It might be worth adding that in the
voting page I guess.

Regards,


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Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)
French Fedora Ambassador

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"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~Benjamin Franklin