After deep consideration, I am resigning from the Fedora Council effective at the end of the Fedora 26 release cycle.

Why I’m stepping back 🔗

When I decided to run for Fedora Council in July, I had not yet moved back to Rochester, New York. From my past experiences, I didn’t predict an issue to fulfill my commitments to the Fedora community. However, since moving back to Rochester, it is difficult to fulfill my expectations, Council and otherwise, to Fedora.

I’m entering the last years of my degree and the rigor of my coursework demands more time and focus. Additionally, I’m working more hours this year than I have in the past, which takes away more time Fedora. Because student loans are too real.

If I expected these changes, I would not have run for the Council. However, from my short time on the Council, I understand the energy and dedication needed to represent the community effectively. During my campaign and term, this was my driving motivation – to do my best to represent an international community of thousands in the highest body of leadership in Fedora. Now, I do not feel I am meeting my standard of participation and engagement. Already, I’ve stepped back from the Fedora Magazine and Marketing teams to focus more time in other areas of Fedora. Now, it is right to do the same for the Council.

I will spend the most time in the CommOps and Diversity teams, since I believe that is where I can make the largest impact as a contributor.

Fedora 27 Council elections 🔗

I privately shared my resignation with the Fedora Council before writing this post. After discussing with other Council members, the plan is

1. Elect a new, full-term Council member for Fedora 27 and 28
2. Elect a new, half-term Council member for only Fedora 27

In past elections with half-term seats, the candidate with the most votes receives the full-term seat and the runner-up receives the half-term seat. I expect this to happen again, although final details will come once the election phase begins.

Thank you for your trust 🔗

This is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made in Fedora. Serving on the Fedora Council is the greatest privilege. My election to the Council by hundreds of people was humbling and inspired me to not only lead by example, but represent the perspective of the greater Fedora community to the Council. This was the greatest honor for me and it disappoints me to finish my term early.

However, based on current circumstances, I believe this is the best path forward to make sure the community is well-represented in Fedora leadership. Thank you for your trust and I hope I can return to serve the community in this capacity someday in the future.

Past term 🔗

In this past election, the Council encouraged the new FAmSCo to retool themselves. They should support the Ambassadors in a new age of Linux outreach and events. And they have done exactly that. Clarifications and improvements to the mentorship policies are taking place, the Fedora Ambassadors Membership Administration (FAMA) was reformed, and a Fedora Activity Day (FAD) for the LATAM region was successfully planned and executed. As a voting Ambassador, I am proud of all FAmSCo members and happy to see the progress they have made this term.

One concern 🔗

However, one thing stood out to me the past election. All of the representatives on FAmSCo were only from the EMEA and LATAM regions. Part of the fault is that there were no NA candidates and only one candidate from APAC. Therefore, the benefit of this was that EMEA and LATAM communities were more in touch with FAmSCo, since members in their meeting included elected representatives. In NA and APAC, this was not the case.

For Ambassadors in these regions, we did not have an attendee in our meetings to share news with FAmSCo. If we wanted to keep up, we would have to dig deeper. In March, I filed two tickets to suggest opening the mailing list to public participation and establishing an IRC channel presence. Consequently, FAmSCo has improved on being more accessible and transparent for all Ambassadors.

However, there is still a disconnection when your region doesn’t have an elected official to help represent the unique needs and perspectives of your region. In NA, I thought it would help to have a representative. This past June, I traveled to India and met with some Ambassadors in Pune, India. My discussions with them led me to believe that APAC needs representation in FAmSCo too.

Looking ahead to the next FAmSCo 🔗

Three seats are open for this coming election in August, leaving four (fantastic and well-qualified) FAmSCo members from EMEA to serve another term. Therefore, this leaves one region of the world well-represented by the Fedora Ambassador leadership body. Seeing as there are three seats up for elections and three regions that could be represented, I encourage voters in the next FAmSCo election to remember how big the Fedora community is.

The planet is big, and it’s hard to know what’s happening in different countries, regions, and continents. While we are all united as Fedora Ambassadors, there are unique challenges that our Fedora friends from one region may face that others may not. There are cultural, language, and currency differences. Some communities have a better foundation while others need guidance and encouragement to grow. I encourage all participating voters in this next election to remember our friends around the world and to help keep everyone included and involved in the conversations that drive the project forward.

On Tuesday, November 8th, 2016, the FOSS@MAGIC at the MAGIC Center at RIT held the annual Election Night Hackathon. Over 140 students from across campus and across departments gathered together to work on a range of civic projects as the election night results came in. This year’s hackathon was the sixth in a long-standing tradition of civic duty and open source collaboration.

Starting the Election Night Hackathon 🔗

For this year’s event, registration was a ticketed event because of the overwhelming interest in the election. At 5:00pm, the sign-in table popped up in front of the Student Innovation Hall, where the hackathon would take place. Students began lining up to receive their wristband for admission, food, and open source swag.

The space quickly became filled over the next hour as people began settling in for the night to work on projects (or maybe homework). On all sides were a range of projector screens with a range of sources for election night coverage. There would not be a lack of information through the night. In addition to the federal election, local and state elections throughout New York were also included on the projectors.

The Election Night Hackathon had no shortage of goodies provided by numerous open source organizations, companies, and supporters. The “swag table” featured plenty of stickers for people to add to their laptops or other devices. The Fedora Project, GitHub, Red Hat, the MAGIC Center, and more were available for attendees to pick their favorites out.

Projects 🔗

At the peak of the event, nearly 140 students, faculty, staff, and local citizens filled the MAGIC Center and overflow work spaces. Dan Schneiderman, the event coordinator and FOSS@MAGIC Research Associate and Community Liaison, led the event on a high note with a brief kick-off ceremony. Hackers were provided with a list of resources for building applications related to civic hacking. Shortly after the start, attendees began talking with one another to discuss project ideas or other topics to work on throughout the night. Professors and alumni provided mentorship, advice, and help for students planning projects.

Tyler Reimold worked on creating an open source server for real-time election updates in a Reddit thread. His Python-based project used the Huffington Post and Reddit APIs to build the application.

Adjunct professor at Monroe Community College  David M. Shein gathered a small group of hackers to build a website. The website, thankyousuffragists.org, honors and maps the graves of women around the country who campaigned for the right to vote. The early stage site allows people to add the locations of graves around the country to a map. “I personally loved how a number of our attendees were inspired by the crowds that stopped by Susan B. Anthony’s grave in Rochester, which then led to a project focused on honoring her work,” Schneiderman said.

Additionally, another project was the 2016 Election Viewer by Mark Repka. His Node-powered application delivered a state-by-state breakdown of election results throughout the night. Attendees were encouraged to check it out and provide feedback as he built the site to provide accurate coverage during the heat of the election coverage. You can view Mark’s application on his website, browse its own API, or find the source code on GitHub (MIT License).

Many other students worked on smaller projects or collaborated with professors on other ideas. Dr. Vullo at RIT opened a call for students to help him with a virtual reality idea powered by AFrame. Most of the projects and work from the evening was published on GitHub in the spirit of contributing civic hacking projects to the open source ecosystem.

And the winner is… 🔗

After seven hours of hacking and nail-biting, the election results were mostly called by midnight. With a short conclusion speech by Schneiderman, the hackathon began closing down in time for the next day of classes. “[My favorite part was] the collaborations and the mixing of students from majors that don’t usually get to work alongside each other. Attendance was a mix of computer science, marketing, political science, engineering, history, and visual arts,” Schneiderman said. Special thanks for the event go to the MAGIC Center at RIT for providing space and resources for the event. Additional thanks go to Red Hat for supporting the FOSS@MAGIC initiative so these events are made possible. You can find the full photo album from the event on 500px.

November 8th is a day that will stand in memory for a long time, and the Election Night Hackathon is a great opportunity for students to engage in discussion and collaboration with others in the community to identify issues in the civic area and try to build open source solutions to those problems. We’re looking forward to continuing the tradition next year for the next round of local, state, and federal elections.

Today, the Fedora Elections for December 2015 officially began at 00:00 UTC. The voting period will be open from now until December 14th, 2015, at 23:59 UTC. Fedora is a community-driven project, and voting is one of the greatest ways you can have an impact in how Fedora runs, either as a user or a contributor. Your vote is powerful, and you should be informed before casting your vote!

Fedora Elections for FAmSCo 🔗

This Election is especially interesting because of the open seats for the Fedora Ambassador Steering Committee (FAmSCo). The plan is to phase out FAmSCo in order of the Fedora Outreach Steering Committee (FOSCo). However, this plan is still one that is in progress and there are many details being hammered out. Because of the plans to transition, the current board sitting in the Fedora Ambassador Steering Committee have been elected for the past year, something that normally has new elections every six months. In the interim period while FOSCo is expanded, FAmSCo is running an Election to bring new, fresh blood into the board.

Inform yourself 🔗

There are a lot of things happening across Fedora right now, so it is important that you inform yourself for the Fedora Elections. I have had the unique perspective of reading, reviewing, and proofreading many of the candidate interviews. As a result, I have had the advantage of reading every candidate’s platform and what their vision for the Project is. It’s important that you vote with an informed opinion about whose platforms you agree with most. There are a lot of important topics on the table for this Election cycle, and an informed vote is the best way to make a vote. Please take the time to read the candidate interviews!

Fedora Elections, December 2015 Interviews 🔗

• Fedora Ambassador Steering Committee interviews
• Fedora Engineering Steering Committee interviews
• Fedora Council interviews