Budget April 1 - May 31
by Max Spevack
Hi there Ambassadors:
Let's talk about how budget is going to be allocated for Ambassadors,
events, and media for the next 2 months.
----
KEY ITEM #1 TO UNDERSTAND:
Red Hat's fiscal year 2009 begins on March 1, 2008. It ends on February
28, 2009. From a budget point of view, it is divided into four quarters:
* Q1: March 1 - May 31
* Q2: June 1 - August 31
* Q3: September 1 - November 30
* Q4: December 1 - February 28
During each of these quarters, we start with a $12,000 USD budget for
"global events and swag". This number can be tweaked a little bit, but
for planning purposes we should keep that number in mind.
If we don't spend the money, it disappears at the end of the quarter.
----
KEY ITEM #2 TO UNDERSTAND:
Certain events have been given "special priority" and allocated a
separate budget from the $12,000 USD general fund.
For the current year, these events are:
FISL (Brazil -- April)
LinuxTag (Berlin -- May)
FUDCon (Boston -- June)
FUDCon (Somewhere in Europe -- September or October)
FUDCon (LCA in Australia -- January)
FOSDEM (Brussels -- February)
----
Q1 (March 1 - May 31)
We have already spent about $2,800 for various events, including FOSDEM,
an OLPC for EMEA, NOTACON, and some leftover FOSS.in expenses.
This means that we have about $9,000 left to allocate.
Looking at the events page, there are 2 events in North America that we
still need to support, 4 events in South America, and somewhere between
1-3 events in Europe.
That is one consideration.
A second consideration is that in May, we will need to produce CDs,
DVDs, and USB keys for Fedora 9, for use at events, and possibly for
supporting the Free Media project (which we have done in the past).
----
DECISIONS THAT WE MUST MAKE:
How can we allocate money to organizers in regions, and allow them to
prioritize their own shows? Rather than having FAMSCo decide an exact $
amount for each show, it's better to give a lump sum of money to the
organizers in each region, and let them divide it up.
How do we make sure that our limited resources can allow people in all
regions to be successful? Where can we use money set aside for the
"large events" to help with smaller events in the region.
For example, a lot of money is being spent to produce various media and
swag for FISL. It seems reasonable to think that extra could be
produced, or that there will be leftover, that can be used at other
shows in South America.
The same idea applies for LinuxTag.
----
Here is what I would like to do:
For each region:
1) Identify a "media production person" who will be responsible for
taking the Fedora Art Team's designs and finding the BEST PRICE POSSIBLE
to create LiveCDs, DVDs, or USB keys in that region. Then be
responsible for getting that swag to the events where it is needed.
In North America, I have been this person. I'll do it again for Fedora
9, but that will probably be the last time, since I'm going to be in
EMEA soon.
2) Identify a Red Hat contact (or contacts) in each region who might be
able to help with local office funding for swag. It never hurts to ask.
3) Figure out a general breakdown of funds for each region, and that
allows the local Ambassadors to figure out how to support each
event and the need for swag/media to share across events.
----
A FIRST DRAFT:
North America -- $2,500
South America -- $2,000
Europe -- $1,500
Asia -- $3,000
This should allow us to support the shows that are listed on the Fedora
Events page for the rest of Q1, and also give local Ambassadors freedom
between swag, an initial batch of media, etc.
----
Your thoughts and comments are encouraged.
16 years, 1 month
Budget June 1 - August 31
by Max Spevack
The previous email lays out the context around which we are doing our
budgeting for Ambassadors.
Let's talk now about Q2 of this year -- June 1 - August 31. Again, we
have $12,000 USD to spread around for "global events and swag".
----
KEY ITEM #1:
FAMSCo has decided that the FedoraEvents page on the wiki will "freeze"
1 month early (on May 1), and the events that are listed on the page and
*have an organizer/accountable ambassador* will receive funding.
The "special" event in Q2 that has its own separate funding is FUDCon
Boston, so we can ignore that from a budget perspective.
Current status (with 1 month left before deadline):
North America
3 events with owners (OSCON, LinuxWorld SF, UTOSC)
1 event that needs an owner (Ottawa Linux Symposium)
South America
1 event with owner (CESOL)
Europe
1 event with owner (RMLL)
2 events that need owners (LUG Radio Live, FrOSCon)
Asia
No events
In addition to those events, we also need to continue to set aside money
for local regions to produce additional Fedora 9 media and swag.
So, let's start filling out the event roster for Q2.
--Max
16 years, 1 month
Speaking engagement at Northeastern University report
by Jesse Keating
I've just returned from a speaking engagement at Northeastern University
here in Boston MA., USA. This was for the ACM students, Association of
Computing Machinery.
Even though it was midterms time, we had a good 30 students show up for
the talk. I started with a quick history of Linux and GNU and a brief
outline of what makes a Linux distribution. I then went on to compare
and contrast some of today's popular Linux distributions, going over
package management, init systems, governance models,
commercial/community aspects, etc... I then went further in detail as
to what makes up Fedora, and why I feel that Fedora is a very strong
project to contribute to.
After that I did about 30 minutes of question and answer. Many good
questions were asked, such as what is RH/Fedora's relationship with
CentOS, how do we compete with Ubuntu, what return on RH's investment
in Fedora is there, how does the Fedora work make it's way into RHEL,
what is RHEL's release model, and a few other things.
All in all I think it was a very good engagement. The students were
very knowledgeable and interested. Many expressed interest in getting
more information, and potentially interning or otherwise contributing
to Fedora. Every student picked up a Live CD of Fedora 8 as well.
I hope to do more things with Northeastern in the future. They have a
very cool program and some very neat students. Linux is slowly making
it's way into their infrastructure, mostly led by student efforts.
--
Jesse Keating
Fedora -- All my bits are free, are yours?
16 years, 1 month
