Fedora Looks To Overhaul Its Community Outreach

In addition to pursuing many technical changes for its Linux distribution like systemd-oomd by default, Btrfs Zstd compression, and standalone XWayland releases, the Fedora project is also looking to overhaul its community outreach this year.

Fedora's "Community Outreach Revamp" is to focus on existing outreach teams within Fedora that are "struggling to function" or need greater support for success.

Under the plan, various efforts like Fedora Ambassadors and Advocates will all go underneath the "CommOps" umbrella. This year they plan to draft and execute on a marketing plan, complete a role handbook, translate the handbook into at least 5~8 languages, and more.

Deliverables

- Completion of Role Handbooks. Timeline: January 2021 -June 2021
- CommOps, Join SIG, Advocate, Ambassador, Ambassador Emeritus. Timeline: February 2021 - June 2021
- Formalized and documented process for reps to Mindshare. Timeline: February 2021 - June 2021
- Execution and analysis of Community Outreach survey. Timeline: December 2020 - January 2021
- Execution and documentation of Mindshare Team Interviews Timeline: July 2020 - February 2021
- Branding for CommOps team/subteams. Timeline: April 2021 - September 2021
- Draft and execution of Marketing plan. Timeline: June 2021 - December 2021
- Translations of Role Handbooks into 5-8 key languages. Timeline: June 2021 - December 2021
- CommOps team/sub-teams are aware and satisfied with new processes/structure. Timeline: June 2021 - December 2021

Outcomes

- The Ambassador team is full of active contributors who know what to do and how to do it.
- The process for how to organize events and request swag is well known to all Ambassadors, and those within the larger CommOps umbrella.
- Members from CommOps & subteams are practicing new/updated forms of organized community outreach.
- Clear onboarding documentation and process on how to get involved in the Community Outreach teams.
- Brand awareness from CommOps new structure is beginning to grow based on branding and relevant marketing plans.
- More contributors engaged in the Ambassadors program, but also the CommOps team overall.
- Weekly meetings for Community Outreach.

More information on the planned community outreach changes for this Red Hat sponsored project via the Fedora Wiki.

Fedora's community outreach and marketing over the years has changed a lot over the years, including the giving out of free hot dogs when marking their "Beefy Miracle" release.

Feedback on the proposal is currently being solicited via discussion.fedoraproject.org.