This is a part of the Mindshare Elections Interviews series. Voting is open to all Fedora contributors. The voting period starts on Friday, 26 November and closes promptly at 23:59:59 UTC on Thursday, 9 December 2021.

Interview with Stephen Snow

• Fedora Account: jakfrost
• IRC: jakfrost (found in fedora-coreos, silverblue, fedora-magazine, fedora-workstation, fedora-qa, fedora[m])
• Fedora User Wiki Page

Questions

What is your background in Fedora? What have you worked on and what are you doing now?

I have/still help out with moderation at discussion.fp.o and ask.fp.o as well as general support for users where I can.
I am also an editor for the Fedora Magazine and have written some posts for it as well, which makes me a part of Mindshare in any case. Though I don’t edit as much currently. I have also helped out a bit with Silverblue documentation early on, though Alan Day is doing a great job at it now for sure.

Please elaborate on the personal “Why” which motivates you to be a candidate for Mindshare.

I started my Fedora journey as a Fedora Ambassadors and learning all about  Fedora values, “How to become a successful Fedora Ambassadors “. All Community members from the Fedora Ambassadors team welcomed me, warm Just like my motivations to moderate forums, write blog posts about Fedora stuff, and help with documentation, I feel I get way more from the community than I give in return. This is as much a part of my personality as my smile, and I am driven internally to satisfy that compulsion to assist in the community. This really stems (in the Fedora POV) from the foundation of Fedora the community, with those four principles, that were true enough when first proposed by like minded individuals, that their truth endures today.

How would you improve Mindshare Committee visibility and awareness in the Fedora community?

By active engagement regularly with the community. Where the community in general, is meeting to discuss things Fedora related has spread a bit with the introduction of Matrix rooms, and discussion and ask on Discourse. Being active across those areas plus IRC and mailing lists takes time and a bit of dedication. Since I have done some editing for Fedora Magazine, I would definitely suggest we create a post for it detailing what Fedora Mindshare is, who is in the group, how the community can use this resource, and anything else that should be noted about Fedora Mindshare.

What would you like to contribute to the Mindshare Committee during your term?

Personally, I would like to be able to help out wherever I am needed and can exploit my knowledge/experience, though selfishly I would embrace learning new things because I enjoy learning new things! My background is pretty diverse as far as career path is concerned. Though primarily a technician/technologist I have soft skills developed in roles like PM and supervision, as well as documentation and presentation experience. I think I can use all of my skills to assist the Fedora community, and am comfortable working alongside many different workgroups. I envision the role with Mindshare is a facilitator role, for the diverse workgroups that exist as part of the Fedora Community. Enabling cross communication and sharing of ideas, platforms, knowledge, diversity.