This is a bit long, but I hope it will be useful to folks. If there are
things that are unclear, please ask, and assume that I left something
out or didn't explain it well rather than any sort of malice. :)
====
Inside of Red Hat, March 1 is always a magical date, because that
represents the beginning of a new budget year.
Part of the preparation that has been going on with regard to that in
the Fedora space has been:
(1) Establishing Paul Frields as the new FPL.
(2) Establishing Tom Callaway as the Fedora Engineering Manager.
(3) Setting up a "Community Architecture" team inside of Red Hat.
(4) Having a solid budget for Fedora Engineering and also for Community
Architecture.
The first three things have been completed -- Paul's first official day
at Red Hat is next Monday, and the Community Architecture stuff is
pretty much all set (more on that later).
The fourth is pseudo-complete, pending approval of all the budgets and
such that will be happening in the next month, but I am optimistic.
The success that Fedora has achieved in the past two years has made the
case for increased Red Hat investment in Fedora a (comparatively) easy
sell.
====
It is important that the Fedora community has an idea of how things are
laid out in Red Hat's organizational hierarchy.
Before I say anything else, I want to make one point INCREDIBLY CLEAR:
***************
There is a lot of overlap in Fedora in terms of roles, responsibilities,
etc. We are interested more than anything in simply GETTING STUFF DONE.
Within Red Hat, the people who are paid to spend their days on Fedora
are all catalysts and community builders. But while Fedora itself has a
relatively loose organizational structure, Red Hat is a company, and
people all have to be slotted somewhere.
The people who work 100% on Fedora are not the gatekeepers -- we don't
want or need to be "authority figures" on the work that people are
doing. It is about ACCOUNTABILITY rather than RESPONSIBILITY.
We don't do everything ourselves, but we are accountable for making sure
that certain things get done. The Fedora Way dictates that we do this
by being transparent, open, and building communities around different
tasks.
***************
Both Paul and Spot are part of the engineering department. In the
Fedora space, this also includes lots of the "usual" names that you
expect like Jeremy, Bill, Toshio, Seth, Luke, the kernel guys, etc. So
for the most part, the Fedora engineering guys are all collected
together.
Paul's role as FPL obviously gives him the ability (and mandate) to
reach into any part of the Fedora organization that he likes, but
organizationally it was determined that it made most sense to have him
in engineering.
====
Separate from that is Red Hat's Corporate Marketing department, and this
is where the Community Architecture team is being created. This is a
new name to an old idea -- with Greg doing what he has always done, me
in need of a new job, and Jack coming on full time in a
community-building position, it made sense to formalize ourselves.
The Community Architecture team is responsible for all of Red Hat's
community efforts, and to achieve its goals by encouraging and
developing new leadership within the Fedora community.
By its nature, most of this work will take place directly in Fedora, and
therefore we "report" to the Fedora Board, but we will also be
responsible for community related activities that are within Red Hat's
scope, but outside of Fedora's.
The details of my own role are still being worked out, but that is a
side point, and when there is more to say, I will say it.
====
We are committed to making sure that Fedora Board and Fedora Advisory
Board know what we are up to, what we are working on, etc.
Additionally, by discussing our objectives and goals in public, we hope
to be able to build on the work that others are doing, and to allow
folks anywhere in the Fedora community to help us out.
NOTE: by its very nature, the community goals that we have require us to
*work with and build community* while we achieve them. That is implicit
in all of this. In some cases, the goals that we list are already in
progress elsewhere. The names that we put next to them simply reflect
the *Red Hat employee who will be held accountable for the result or
lack thereof*.
For example, on our list of goals is "mini-FUDCon at LinuxTag". Gerold
Kassube has ben (and still is) the point person for LinuxTag. But Max's
name is next to it. That simply means that Max is accountable by Red
Hat for the end result. The best way Max can be successful is to work
with Gerold and give him everything that he needs.
Similarly, there are some "Fedora Marketing" related goals. Karsten and
Colby Hoke have been doing a lot of work in this area... they are
leaders in the effort, but we still need a name of someone whose job it
is to make sure that the leadership continues, thrives, etc.
====
This email is just a really long way of pointing you here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CommunityArchitecture
None of the stuff on here is necessarily *new* -- it's pretty much
business as usual. It is simply an attempt to formalize some of the
things that we have always done, and in so formalizing them, be able to
justify significantly higher budget (and therefore
responsibility/accountability) than we previously had.
Welcome your comments, questions, etc.
--Max, Lame Duck Fedora Project Leader
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