Ambassadors, North America – Introduction

Throughout 2015, the Fedora Ambassadors of North America (FAmNA) have been a determined and dedicated group for Fedora, and has been for many years prior. As with any group, there is always going to be changes either in personnel or the program. Being adaptive and willing to overcome change is a quality with our Ambassadors that falls into the four foundations in First. Being the leading edge also indicates that “First” is also another word: “change”. Since we work with the foundation “First” it is expected that change goes hand in hand with everything we do within the project.

As we continue to grow and adapt, changes to what is expected of us as Ambassadors also must detail on how we need to promote Fedora. In recent meetings, many ideas have been tossed around in what or how we could further spread the product outside of events. As we continue to grow the “Freedom” to explore more events and ideas, it only gains positive influence both inside our organization and with the public. The last two foundations, “Features” and “Friends”, stand on their own. We have a fantastic group of people that provide valuable information and programming that is included in our software product, and friends are what we embrace as a group and live it in our everyday life with Fedora.

Top 3 Highlights

• Fedora’s presence at HackRU – a first within our community
  • This event attendance was primarily college aged adults that were running mostly windows. The event was quite successful in showing the attendees there is other, better alternative than Windows.
• Florida back on the map for Linux events
  • Florida is again back on the map for Linux events with the Free and Open Source and Technology Exposition (FOSSETCON) for the second year in a row, and doubling the attendees. This event has drawn some attention in the region for the second year and hopefully many more to come.
• Flock Rochester, New York
  • What else needs to be said, but the greatest collection of people all working towards producing one of the greatest Linux products ever released.

Top Goals for 2016

1. Focusing on increasing the Campus Ambassador membership. The program leads to positive involvement and new ideas for the entire project.
2. Involvement outside of the “Norm”. NA Ambassadors normally attend several festivals throughout the year promoting Fedora, but what about involvement in the local areas, such as LUGs, community colleges, high school technical expositions, or maybe hosting an install demonstration with a local high school or colleges’ computer / tech clubs.
3. Better tracking of the basic metrics. For example, budget, involvement within the community, meetings or local group/organization attendance, media distribution, and event reporting.

Conclusion

Throughout the years, Fedora has changed to fit the needs of our users and the growing technology. With any product that grows, so must the people that develop, test, certify, and use our product. Fedora has been the leader in all of the elements from development to release. All success that Fedora is as a reliable product is a result of our people.

Links

• Flock
  • flocktofedora.org
  • fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flock_2015_Talks
• Fossetcon
  • fossetcon.org
• HackRU
  • hackerleague.org/hackathons/hackru-spring-2015