Fedora Mindshare Committee
The Fedora Mindshare Committee is a body focused on representing and supporting the Fedora contributor community, particularly in areas like events, outreach, and recognition. It is undergoing a revamp to become a more functional leadership body, with a focus on regional event support, project-wide recognition, and digital ambassadorship. This restructuring aims to address issues of inactivity and redefine the committee’s role to better serve the evolving needs of the Fedora Project.
Responsibilities
The Fedora Mindshare Committee has the following responsibilities:
Regional Event Support
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Support and coordinate budget requests for events in each region (EMEA, LATAM, NA, APAC), acting as a liaison between the regions, the FCA, and the wider committee.
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Review funding requests, ensuring the regional representative advocates for the sponsorship’s approval and that requests adhere to a clearly defined process (similar to the Fedora Advocate Program).
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Ensure active regional representation and assist the FCA in planning events.
Recognition Service
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Recognize the efforts of contributors across the project by working with project teams (QA, Design, Rel-Eng, etc.) to reward contributions.
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Develop and implement a system for recognition, including:
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Determine the review frequency (weekly/monthly/per release).
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Ensure recognized individuals receive a reward (swag, blog post, etc.).
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Work with the FCA to develop an SOP for identifying recognition efforts.
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Create metrics to measure the impact of contributions.
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Present recognition metrics to the Fedora Council regularly.
Digital Ambassadorship
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Support Digital Ambassadors and integrate them with the Fedora Marketing Team to align with Fedora’s brand and communication goals.
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Collaborate with the Marketing Team to create and maintain resources, including:
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Content (e.g. blog posts, tutorials, etc.).
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Templates for online campaigns (e.g. banners, video scripts, infographics).
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A training program for Digital Ambassadors on Fedora’s tone, messaging, and values.
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Workshops (Fedora Classroom) on tools (social media schedulers, analytics platforms, graphic design).
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Establish and track clear KPIs (engagement rates, follower growth) to measure the impact of Digital Ambassadorship activities, and share regular progress reports with the Mindshare Committee and the Fedora Council.
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Leverage Digital Ambassadors to bridge in-person and online events, particularly Release Parties, through:
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Event promotion on social media and encouragement of online participation.
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Livestream sessions or highlight reels.
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Gather byte-sized clips from Fedora contributors to help “attach-a-username-to-a-face”.
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Hosting virtual Release Parties or webinars with interactive sessions (e.g. Q&As, trivia, polls).
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Publishing post-event blogs summarizing highlights and contributions.
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Encourage Digital Ambassadors to share personal stories or event photos.
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Develop and implement a managed social media framework, including:
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Account Types:
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Global Accounts (official Fedora accounts managed by the Marketing Team).
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Regional/Language Accounts (accounts managed by trained Digital Ambassadors).
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Guidelines and Policies:
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A clear social media policy (e.g. approval workflows, moderation guidelines, brand tone).
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Ensuring compliance with the Fedora Code of Conduct.
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Platform Diversity:
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Encouraging participation on various platforms (e.g. Twitter/X, Mastodon, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.).
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Exploring emerging platforms (e.g. BlueSky).
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Making Decisions
The Fedora Mindshare Committee makes decisions in two ways. It uses "lazy approval" for basic decisions. It uses "full consensus" for more important decisions.
Lazy Approval
The committee uses "lazy approval" for many basic decisions. In this process, the committee assumes that everyone agrees. This is true unless someone objects within a specific timeframe. The timeframe is usually three to seven days. The committee states the timeframe each time. The committee uses this process for decisions that:
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Have short-term effects.
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Can be easily reversed.
Any committee member can ask for more time. Any member can ask for the decision to require full consensus.
Full Consensus
The committee uses "full consensus" for more important decisions. For these decisions to pass, they need:
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Three or more positive votes (+3).
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No negative votes (-1).
A negative vote stops the decision-making process. It also requires discussion. To be valid, negative votes must include:
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Specific concerns about the proposal.
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Suggestions for changes to make the proposal acceptable.
A vote of "0" can show disagreement. It can also show a willingness to accept the decision. Members should explain a "0" vote.
This decision-making model follows Fedora’s "Friends" foundation. This foundation emphasizes finding acceptable consensus. The goal is to benefit free software. This model relies on a community of mutual respect. This is true even when members disagree.
The Mindshare Committee generally discusses issues publicly. Any Fedora Project member can share their opinions. The committee must carefully consider these opinions. However, only committee members' votes count in the final decision.
Where to find Fedora Mindshare Committee
The Fedora Mindshare Committee uses the following communication platforms:
- Asynchronous
- Synchronous
The Discourse forum is best for asynchronous communication. This means it is best for questions or topics that someone may respond to later. It is better for longer, threaded discussions.
The Fedora Mindshare Committee Matrix room is best for synchronous communication. This means it is best for quick feedback, like a conversation. It is helpful for real-time discussions or getting someone’s attention more quickly.
Ticket-based task management
The Fedora Mindshare Committee operates in a ticket-based workflow. Our open tickets are in our GitLab repository. New tasks are added as "issues" into GitLab.
This is a public issue tracker. If you have a privacy- or security-sensitive issue, check the This issue is confidential box when creating the issue.
Meetings
The Fedora Mindshare Committee holds regular text-based meetings in a Matrix room to discuss current issues, clear through anything outstanding which can be quickly resolved, and ensure that nothing important is left in limbo. The meeting format is intended to be quick updates and long discussion. It is a good opportunity to check in with other members of the team in real-time and understand what is going on in their area, while allowing anyone in the public to observe how the Fedora Mindshare Committee operate.
The meeting minutes are published automatically on Fedora Meetbot Logs.
Composition
The Fedora Mindshare Committee has seven (7) seats with the following roles:
Fedora Community Architect (x1)
The Fedora Community Architect (FCA) is the chairperson of the Fedora Mindshare Committee. This is a permanent position. The FCA’s responsibilities include:
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Running regular meetings.
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Managing the Fedora Mindshare Committee’s outreach budget.
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Supporting other Fedora Mindshare Committee members.
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Maintaining documentation.
Program Administrators (x4)
Program Administrators are elected positions responsible for managing the Fedora Ambassadors and Advocates programs. They represent and advocate for community members. Their responsibilities include:
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Running Ambassador/Advocate meetings.
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Sponsoring events.
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Counseling Ambassadors.
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Guiding Ambassadors on resources.
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Mentoring Advocates.
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Maintaining documentation.
Program Administrators serve 1-year terms, with two seats elected each release cycle.
Marketing Team Representative (x1)
The Marketing Team Representative is a connection point between the Fedora Marketing Team and the Ambassador/Advocate community. They provide access to Fedora outreach channels. Their responsibility is to help maintain a content calendar related to in-person events.
This is a 1-year appointed position.
Community Operations (CommOps) Representative (x1)
The Community Operations (CommOps) Representative facilitates planning and execution, primarily assisting the FCA.
This is a 1-year appointed position.
Current members
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Fedora Community Architect (FCA): Justin W. Wheeler (jflory7)
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Ambassador Representative: FAmA Nick Bebout (nb)
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CommOps Representative: Alberto Rodríguez Sánchez (bt0dotninja / bt0)
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Website & Apps Representative: Onuralp Sezer (thunderbirdtr)
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Design Representative: Máirín Duffy (Duffy)
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Docs Representative: Petr Bokoč (pbokoc)
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Mentored Project Representative: Smera Goel (smeragoel)
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Elected Representative: Madeline Peck (madelinepeck) (f37-f38)
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Elected Representative: Fernando F. Mancera (ffmancera) (f38-f39)
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