Hello,
I was wondering if any one was interested in joining me to writing a series of "Fedora: under the hood" posts (if the editorial team permits, of course) with the aim being to:
- show that Fedora is a FOSS community with the OS being our mode of choice to work towards the community mission. - discuss the work that goes into the creation of each release: including programme management, design, rebuilds, QA, websites, announcements---all of it.
The hope is that by speaking actively about why, who, and how we do things, we improve the general understanding of how we tick. In addition, that improved understanding will hopefully encourage more "users" (to use the "vendor <-> user" terminology explained later) to join the community and contribute to FOSS---in whatever way they choose. Finally, it will also make people aware of the resources that the community has or does not have access too, and why some things are done and others aren't.
Rationale:
Based on my personal experiences, so this is anecdotal evidence, it seems that most people outside the community have little or no understanding of how the Fedora community does things. They seem to apply the "vendor <-> user" development model to Fedora too: someone, somewhere, for some reason, is doing all of this for "users" instead of the "community" paradigm: where there isn't a clear distinction between "developers" and users---all contributors are also users, and we're all part of the community and contribute in whatever ways we can often in our free time.
Mostly, the magazine includes posts on how to use software: "to do things with Fedora". The new website also says "Make the most of using Fedora" next the Fedora magazine bit. So, users get to learn about all using the tools and the software, and not much about why, who, how, all of this software (and the accompanying information) is developed/integrated/provided to them.
PS: Of course, the primary aspect of the "vendor <-> user" paradigm is that the user pays in exchange for the service. This enables the "vendor" to maintain the resources required to continue providing the service and further improve it. How users "pay" to use Fedora if we also follow this model does not seem to come up often somehow.
Thoughts?
Hi,
I think this is a great idea for series of articles about Fedora. You are right that most of our users probably don't know how much work is done for each release, how many people are working on Fedora and how they can repay.
I support this idea and I can help with it if needed.
Regards, mkonecny
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Wednesday, May 22, 2019 12:02 AM, Ankur Sinha sanjay.ankur@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
I was wondering if any one was interested in joining me to writing a series of "Fedora: under the hood" posts (if the editorial team permits, of course) with the aim being to:
show that Fedora is a FOSS community with the OS being our mode of choice to work towards the community mission.
discuss the work that goes into the creation of each release: including programme management, design, rebuilds, QA, websites, announcements---all of it.
The hope is that by speaking actively about why, who, and how we do things, we improve the general understanding of how we tick. In addition, that improved understanding will hopefully encourage more "users" (to use the "vendor <-> user" terminology explained later) to
join the community and contribute to FOSS---in whatever way they choose. Finally, it will also make people aware of the resources that the community has or does not have access too, and why some things are done and others aren't.
Rationale:
Based on my personal experiences, so this is anecdotal evidence, it seems that most people outside the community have little or no understanding of how the Fedora community does things. They seem to apply the "vendor <-> user" development model to Fedora too: someone, somewhere, for some reason, is doing all of this for "users" instead of the "community" paradigm: where there isn't a clear distinction between "developers" and users---all contributors are also users, and we're all part of the community and contribute in whatever ways we can often in our free time.
Mostly, the magazine includes posts on how to use software: "to do things with Fedora". The new website also says "Make the most of using Fedora" next the Fedora magazine bit. So, users get to learn about all using the tools and the software, and not much about why, who, how, all of this software (and the accompanying information) is developed/integrated/provided to them.
PS: Of course, the primary aspect of the "vendor <-> user" paradigm is that
the user pays in exchange for the service. This enables the "vendor" to maintain the resources required to continue providing the service and further improve it. How users "pay" to use Fedora if we also follow this model does not seem to come up often somehow.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Regards,
Ankur Sinha "FranciscoD" https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha
Time zone: Europe/London
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I recommend proceeding in one of these two ways:
* Start by writing the first 1-2 articles, without referencing a series. When the 3rd article is published, we can start talking about it as a series. The articles can be pitched one at a time and you don't need to have it plotted out in advance.
* If you want to introduce it specifically as a series, make a plan for what the individual articles cover, and draft at least 3 articles to start. Then you can reference "next article in this series" and things like that, in each article.
I recommend these options because we've received numerous series pitches in the past where the author has not been able to deliver the content promised. This leaves the Magazine looking like it is under-delivering, which we should avoid. I'm confident this series is a good idea, and would be happy to see either approach above -- they're equally valid IMHO.
Paul
On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 07:37:48AM +0000, Michal Konecny wrote:
Hi,
I think this is a great idea for series of articles about Fedora. You are right that most of our users probably don't know how much work is done for each release, how many people are working on Fedora and how they can repay.
I support this idea and I can help with it if needed.
Regards, mkonecny
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Wednesday, May 22, 2019 12:02 AM, Ankur Sinha sanjay.ankur@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
I was wondering if any one was interested in joining me to writing a series of "Fedora: under the hood" posts (if the editorial team permits, of course) with the aim being to:
show that Fedora is a FOSS community with the OS being our mode of choice to work towards the community mission.
discuss the work that goes into the creation of each release: including programme management, design, rebuilds, QA, websites, announcements---all of it.
The hope is that by speaking actively about why, who, and how we do things, we improve the general understanding of how we tick. In addition, that improved understanding will hopefully encourage more "users" (to use the "vendor <-> user" terminology explained later) to
join the community and contribute to FOSS---in whatever way they choose. Finally, it will also make people aware of the resources that the community has or does not have access too, and why some things are done and others aren't.
Rationale:
Based on my personal experiences, so this is anecdotal evidence, it seems that most people outside the community have little or no understanding of how the Fedora community does things. They seem to apply the "vendor <-> user" development model to Fedora too: someone, somewhere, for some reason, is doing all of this for "users" instead of the "community" paradigm: where there isn't a clear distinction between "developers" and users---all contributors are also users, and we're all part of the community and contribute in whatever ways we can often in our free time.
Mostly, the magazine includes posts on how to use software: "to do things with Fedora". The new website also says "Make the most of using Fedora" next the Fedora magazine bit. So, users get to learn about all using the tools and the software, and not much about why, who, how, all of this software (and the accompanying information) is developed/integrated/provided to them.
PS: Of course, the primary aspect of the "vendor <-> user" paradigm is that
the user pays in exchange for the service. This enables the "vendor" to maintain the resources required to continue providing the service and further improve it. How users "pay" to use Fedora if we also follow this model does not seem to come up often somehow.
Thoughts?
I love this idea. I'd be happy to write a program management post or several. What topics would we like to see in that area?
On Wed, May 22, 2019 11:03:49 -0400, Ben Cotton wrote:
I love this idea. I'd be happy to write a program management post or several. What topics would we like to see in that area?
I've not put it all down yet, but a post on the release schedule and all the work that the Program manager does to ensure we follow it is definitely on the list. So this is very good news :)
(I don't think most of us in the community know how the release schedule is drafted, by the way!)
The idea was to base them on the "roles"---we have too many teams, so they will have to be grouped in some way, and this is a good starting point: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join
What do you think?
Additionally, what do we think of the posts having the general objective of explaining to people outside the community:
- the task(s): what needs to be done, why? - the process: how it is done, why? (technical aspect?) - the resources required to carry out the process (and resource limits and the resultant prioritisation of tasks) - who puts in these resources: the team (the human aspect) - a final word on how one can join the team to increase their resources, and enable them to do more.
Hi Ben,
On Thu, May 23, 2019 13:28:59 +0100, Ankur Sinha wrote:
On Wed, May 22, 2019 11:03:49 -0400, Ben Cotton wrote:
I love this idea. I'd be happy to write a program management post or several. What topics would we like to see in that area?
I've not put it all down yet, but a post on the release schedule and all the work that the Program manager does to ensure we follow it is definitely on the list. So this is very good news :)
I thought about it a bit. What do you think of starting with posts on these two subjects:
- the Fedora community development model: speaks about how in FOSS, and therefore Fedora, there isn't as clear a difference between devs and users as there is in the general "vendor <-> user" model. (I'm sure someone must have written about this before. Would anyone have any links to well written posts?)
- what went into Fedora 30: an overview of the release cycle with bits on the many teams (people) and the work that went into it?
They're related but fairly independent at the same time, so they can be reviewed and published separately without blocking each other.
By the way, this is such a great image. I wonder if we can publicise it more: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/orgchart/
On Tue, Jun 4, 2019 at 5:07 AM Ankur Sinha sanjay.ankur@gmail.com wrote:
I thought about it a bit. What do you think of starting with posts on these two subjects:
- the Fedora community development model:
- what went into Fedora 30:
These are great starting points! I'll try to get one or both drafted in the next week or two.
On Tue, Jun 04, 2019 10:12:58 -0400, Ben Cotton wrote:
On Tue, Jun 4, 2019 at 5:07 AM Ankur Sinha sanjay.ankur@gmail.com wrote:
I thought about it a bit. What do you think of starting with posts on these two subjects:
- the Fedora community development model:
- what went into Fedora 30:
These are great starting points! I'll try to get one or both drafted in the next week or two.
Is it OK if I gave the community development model post a crack while you worked on the other?
On Tue, Jun 4, 2019 at 2:19 PM Ankur Sinha sanjay.ankur@gmail.com wrote:
Is it OK if I gave the community development model post a crack while you worked on the other?
Go for it!
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your reply.
On Wed, May 22, 2019 10:00:12 -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
I recommend proceeding in one of these two ways:
- Start by writing the first 1-2 articles, without referencing a series. When the 3rd article is published, we can start talking about it as a series. The articles can be pitched one at a time and you don't need to have it plotted out in advance.
I think we'll follow this method. I do want to reach out to the various teams to gather some information and perspective from them. Using this give us the necessary flexibility.
<snip>
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