The Fedora Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Team rounded out 2023 with a focus on celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Fedora Project and officially welcoming new team members. This post is a brief recap of the fourth quarter of 2023 (October to December) for the DEI Team. The end of the year is typically a slower time in Fedora due to holidays, but we had some major highlights in 2023 Q4 anyways:

  • Shifted our sprint planning from a monthly cadence to a quarterly cadence.
  • Revived Fedora Appreciation Week after five years, to celebrate our 20th anniversary.
  • Welcomed two new team members, Robert Wright and Emma Kidney.
  • Fedora Pride was established, and represented at some of our virtual events.

This post summarizes these highlights and also paints a picture of what we were looking forward to in 2024 Q1. Read on to get the full scoop!

Shifting from monthly to quarterly planning

In our previous sprint report, the new GitLab-centered workflow was introduced. We originally launched with a monthly cadence. However, we quickly realized that a monthly cadence was not the right fit for our team. Many of our projects span many months, like planning an event. This means that a few things get done every month, but many ongoing tasks shift every month.

Adopting a quarterly format worked better because that better matches the cadence at which the Fedora DEI Team operates. Event planning might span two to three months. This means that most events could fit into a three-month window. Some things still get shifted from quarter to quarter, but as long as we anticipate that, it works fine for us!

Most importantly, a quarterly cadence means that we can always clearly describe what was accomplished, what we are working on, and we can speculate on the future. Our hope is that it also makes reports like this easier to read!

A successful Fedora Appreciation Week

The previous report mentioned that planning for the Fedora Appreciation Week was underway. And it successfully happened! For context, Fedora Appreciation Week first started in 2018 for the 15th anniversary of Fedora. Fedora Appreciation Week, abbreviated as FAW, is a week-long event organized by the Fedora DEI Team. It is dedicated to celebrating the efforts of Fedora Project contributors and expressing gratitude to one another. Fedora Appreciation Week happened from November 6–12, 2023.

At-a-glance statistics from Appreciation Week

πŸš€ Here are some stats from FAW 2023:

  • 12 Contributor Stories
  • 44 images shared on Fedora Discussion
  • 4 speakers who shared their Fedora Story at the Release Party: Chris Idoko, Emma Kidney, Kevin Fenzi, and Aoife Moloney πŸŽ‰
  • 15 posts on social media with the #WeAreFedora hashtag
  • lots of cookies πŸͺ

Read the Contributor Stories

πŸ“ You can check out all the articles highlighting what happened during FAW:

Thank you to our contributors!

Thanks a lot to everyone who contributed to making Fedora Appreciation Week happen! πŸ’™ πŸŽ‰ Your participation and contributions have made this event a truly special and memorable experience. As we move forward, let’s carry the spirit of gratitude with us and continue to acknowledge the exceptional efforts of our Fedora community.

Welcoming Robert and Emma to the DEI Team

Our Fedora DEI Team continues to grow! Although neither of these two names were new to us, we officially nominated and voted Robert Wright and Emma Kidney as the newest inductees to the Fedora DEI Team. Robert is an infrastructure contributor and co-lead to the Community Operations Community Initiative. Emma is a Design Team member and she has been a key contributor for managing graphic design and brand identity for events like Fedora Flock and our release parties. She also designed our team logo!

We are so excited to have Robert and Emma join us as official team members! Although their contributions span before they were officially inducted, we cannot wait to see them continue to contribute and shine in our team. πŸš€

Fedora Pride establishes as a Fedora DEI Community

In Q4 2023, Fedora Pride achieved several notable accomplishments:

  • Successfully hosted a release party mini-event for Fedora 39, featuring an engaging session of the game Among Us. This event fostered community engagement and celebrated the new release.
  • Held meetings in October 2023 (and a few months of 2023). The session focused on strategizing future initiatives and strengthening community involvement.
  • Initiated the development of a new GitLab project to hold SIG identified issues.

Looking ahead to 2024 Q1

At the time of publishing, this report is already coming out at the end of 2024 Q1. Oops! That means you can expect to see a 2024 Q1 article later this April. However, to give you an early sneak preview, this is a summary of what the DEI Team was working on from January to March 2024:

  • Fedora Council Hackfest: The Fedora Council held its annual in-person hackfest in February 2024 for annual planning. The DEI Advisor, Jona Azizaj, represented the DEI Team in conversations about the Fedora Strategy and more. Look out for more about the Council Hackfest in future Community Blog posts.
  • Fedora Week of Diversity: Planning is already underway for the DEI Team’s next virtual in June 2024. Fedora Week of Diversity is the successor to Fedora Women’s Day, originally started in 2016 as a celebration of the diverse people who make up our Fedora community. Volunteers are needed! See the issue for more details.
  • GNOME collaboration: Following the initial meeting of some DEI Team members with the GNOME community at GNOME Asia 2023, we wanted to continue collaboration with the GNOME D&I team. Jona Azizaj and Justin W. Flory continue to represent the Fedora community there upstream and provide guidance based on past experiences with the Fedora DEI Team.
  • Marketing Team collaboration: Following up on a request from Marketing Team member Daimar Stein, the DEI Team is working together with the Marketing Team to provide more perspectives and ideas to messaging campaigns. Since the issue was opened, we are working on an outreach timeline for Fedora Week of Diversity and collaborated on a post for World Autism Acceptance/Awareness Day.

Stay tuned for the full 2024 Q1 report in an upcoming article. In reflection, the end of 2023 was a busy ending to a year that saw the comeback of the DEI Team after a dormant period. As we continue building up our capacity and focusing in our team vision and mission, we are also slowly growing our team and exploring new ways to not just recognize, but also celebrate the unique diversity that makes up our global Fedora contributor community.

Want to get involved? Join the DEI Team Matrix chat room (#dei:fedoraproject.org) and follow the Fedora Discussion tag. We meet twice monthly. Our next meeting can be found on the Fedora Calendar.