Great Idea Leo!
I think we have to do it urgently!
I'll be starting it as soon as I can.
Any idea/suggestion for name at the wiki?
The mentoring program and direct interviews proposed by us at FAMSCO
last year improved the Ambassadors Program but the level of direct
contributions to Fedora (mainly in Latam) are very low.
IMHO we need try to understand the reasons for this kind of behavior
and define strategies to change it.
Great part of ambassadors are talking about Fedora, distributing
media
and are talking all days on IRC. That's good, but we need to improve
the level of contributions to keep Fedora growing. We need more people
packaging, translating, creating documentation and many other things
that contribute directly to Fedora as GNU/Linux Distribution.
I agree with Padula. Many people here think that being an Ambassador
means just giving talks once while and/or redistributing free media
sponsored by the project. We know that's a great effort, but doing
just it they'll not bring valuable things to the project as people in
other parts of the world do.
Guillermo Gomes from Venezuela, Juan M.(Mexico), Matias
Maceira(Argentina) and many guys from Brazil are creating a tech group
in Latam (RPMDEV) to create documentation and learn/teach about
Packaging. The idea is to create a strong packaging group in Latam. By
now we have ~10 packagers from Brazil and that number are very small
compared with the number of ambassadors in Latam.
I'm just waiting for the official announcement of F13 schedule so that
I can announce a FAD in Brazil in early 2010.
The idea is gathering as many Ambassadors and Developers as possible
in Sao Paulo for 2-3 days and work on F13 related stuff. Some people
will work in translations, other in packaging, other will hunt for
bugs, other will try to fix it and so on.
Since we'll have skilled people at the conference, we may also have
short tutorial sessions so that people can teach other participants
how to package, translate etc. All sessions probably will be recorded
so that people who can't afford or be able to travel to São Paulo to
attend can learn from the videos.
We are not expecting being funded by the project for this conference
and it probably will take place in some easy access place such as an
University or School. Each Ambassador will pay for his travel expenses
and I hope having something between 20-30 people plus local
participants.
Leo
--
Leonardo Menezes Vaz
++55 51 91568225
Sent from Meridiani Planum, Mars.