Best practices for Fedora Ambassadors
This page documents best practices and standard operating procedures for Fedora Ambassadors on duty at Fedora-supported events. It does not prescribe a hard requirement of what to do as an Ambassador, but it provides guidelines on how to align in-person interaction with the values of the Fedora community.
Have your own suggestions to these best practices? Propose your ideas as a new issue or by opening a Merge Request.
Know and understand the Four Foundations
TL;DNR: When in doubt, remember the Four F’s. Freedom, Friends, Features, First.
The Fedora community is a diverse community of people with a variety of backgrounds, nationalities, languages, and views. We share common ground but we do not agree on everything as a project all the time. However, all our actions as a community should be centered on a set of shared values that we agree upon. Fedora has four key values that define who we are as a community, and we call those key values the Four Foundations.
Ambassadors are real, human faces behind our project. For many people, a Fedora Ambassador at an event represents someone who is familiar with the project and knows how things work. This means they can share their favorite successes of Fedora and/or their biggest challenges or frustrations with Fedora. When an Ambassador responds to someone at an event, there is not a fixed script. Often in conversation, one has to improvise.
When an Ambassador needs to do that real-time improvisation, this is when the Four Foundations are a helpful reminder of how to speak rightly as a representative of our diverse community. Any response should fit within the bounds of our four key values as a community: Freedom, Friends, Features, First. You can read more about the meaning of each Foundation in Fedora’s Mission and Foundations.
Etiquette
As representatives of the Fedora community, an Ambassador has important responsibility in being that representative. The actions of one Ambassador can have a far-reaching effect, for better and for worse. These etiquette tips will help you start community interactions off on the right footing.
Know your team.
Spend time to get to know your fellow Fedorans at the event with you. Learn about their background and topics of knowledge. This way, if a conference-goer asks a question that one Ambassador cannot answer, there is always someone else who could help answer a query or solve an issue that someone is having. Knowing about what skills and knowledge your team is bringing to the table makes you an effective community connector.
Prioritize in-front booth conversations with visitors.
When running a booth or stand, make sure that visitors to the booth have first priority for conversations. While it is natural to want to catch up with fellow Fedora contributors and Ambassadors, a shift at a booth is service to our community to interact with the Fedora community. Catching up should happen outside of a booth shift or when there is a pause in booth traffic. It is important to be respectful of visitors to the booth. If a conversation behind the booth is not inclusive of unattended booth visitors, put it on pause until after interacting with the visitor.
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