0 Thank you -- don't forget! * ORGANIZERS, SPEAKERS, YOU * All those who are sharing * The Fedora Project is community-run and sponsored by Red Hat * We are a contributor-centric community * That focus makes Fedora very important not just for our users, but also for users of derivative distros (RHEL, CentOS) -- TENS OF MILLIONS 3 I'm going to tell you about: WHY WE CONCENTRATE ON CONTRIBUTORS HOW WE DO IT HOW IT INFLUENCES OUR PROJECT 4 Why we concentrate on contributors * inverted pyramid * Like the ocean * If you're looking at it from above it's just a lot of water * The further down you dive, the more exotic things get * We now know that there is an enormous amount of life at the deepest levels, a lot of it we don't fully understand yet * A lot more of what happens in the deep is important to the surface than most people think 6 * large surface == users or consumers * shallow water == file a bug, and you have just crossed the most difficult boundary * deep water == join a list, edit the wiki, contribute ideas and time * deepest water == write a patch, do design work, be a sysadmin, maintain a package, understand and represent the Project 10 * promotes upstream communities and "ecologically sound" principles * upstream are the 1000's of projects on which we rely for a complete platform * keeping patches or tweaks is an albatross, not an advantage * KDE team -- Rex Dieter, Kevin Kofler, et al. 14 * produces measurable results * MirrorManager and mirroring system -- decrease bandwidth (FC6 meltdown, Matt Domsch) * Self-hosting, L10N website maintained by the community (Ricky Zhou) * Needed a way to recognize young contributors who showed great promise - Fedora Scholarship 17 * Incented to provide maximum openness and transparency * 100% free and open source, everything we build * Keeps you honest * Anyone can take the building blocks * and turn them into something new * Contributors have many motivations * scratch their own itch * enjoy social learning * want to build a resume * openness increases effective ROI for each contributor 20 How to engage contributors (NOT IMPOSED, ENCOURAGED) * Set measurable milestones * What is one achievable goal your team could reach to improve in the next few months? * What is the next action you need to achieve to get there? * Who is going to do it? ("We" is often not the right answer.) * GET OUT OF THE WAY (More on this in a moment) * This seems like a lot of imposed order, doesn't it? * But looking back and showing progress is a huge motivator ("Look what we've achieved!") 23 * Set a long term strategy for growth of participation * Sometimes you have to forsake the more direct route * It's easy to build things compared to teaching others how to build them (Fedora Classroom -- monthly weekend long learning lab) * "Eaten by raptors" concept -- how would your community hold up if a key person vanished? 26 * While the mission for a team leader is to grow the team, the ultimate goal for a community leader is to empower others and get out of the way * Ambassadors and Fedora Media story * Documentation - FAD TOMORROW! 29 * Growing your community is like compounding interest * Takes dedication and willpower * You must do it with regularity * It's never too late to start, but starting early is best 30 Our focus on contributors led us to develop a better statement of our core values 30 Four Foundations * Freedom * 100% legal, redistributable * Important for anyone building something out of Fedora * Clint Savage's talk on Remixing * Do not restrict users, including their ability to redistribute * Content, websites, artwork, project code -- EVERYTHING * Never cutting corners * There is no point in talking the talk if you don't walk the walk. * "It's good enough for you, but not good enough for us" 33 * Friends * Everyone has something to give. * Art/Design, Translation, Writing/Editing, Explaining * join.fedoraproject.org * ~30,000 Fedora account holders (about half of them contributors who have signed the CLA) * Disagreement, then discussion, then consensus 36 * Features * Technical excellence * Upstream collaboration * Our features become part of great distros everywhere * Feature process allows contributors to strut their stuff * Red Hat has hired people based on the work they do in Fedora * Others could too 39 * First * Innovation * We are eager to do the heavy lifting * Rapid release cycle helps us maintain momentum while still allowing enough time for stabilization * Community R&D lab * Red Hat participates because they get something out of it -- integration of work every six months, see future shape of RHEL * Anyone can realize those same benefits on whatever scale is appropriate for the amount of effort they put in 42 * Fifth "F" is for Fail * Any good project fails sometimes! * It's all in what you do with it. * Fail faster -- GDK FTW!!!