Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
If I understand correctly, whether someone is an appropriate Ambassador or not mostly depends on if he or she has a will to contribute openSUSE or not. Any special skills or knowledges are not required for becoming an Ambassador, right ?
Well, an ambassador should have a fair amount of knowledge about openSUSE, but they don't need to be a developer, etc.
That's just the point. At the moment, what all Ambassadors must do, should do and are strongly recommended to do are not clear. The program just suggests what Ambassadors can do and expected to do. They are not asked whether they possess the qualities of Ambassadors and act their part as Ambassadors or not. I know this makes the hurdle lower and I also wish as many persons as possible will be Ambassadors. But if we expect Ambassadors to have a fair amount of knowledge about openSUSE, there should be some standards or basis for that. Otherwise, IMHO, the purpose of the Ambassador program will be mostly equal to: 'If you want DVDs and some stuffs for your local events, please register yourself as an Ambassador'
If I introduced myself as an 'openSUSE Ambassador' at that time, don't you think the audience might have easily considered me a kind of representative of openSUSE project ?
Maybe, but 1) where's the harm in that? And 2) what makes you think they didn't consider you a representative of the project anyway?
For example, at the openSUSE booth in local events, I was often asked by visitors, "Which desktop environment do you - openSUSE - recommend, KDE or GNOME ?" As you know, officially we have to answer "Since the choice is highly personal, we don't give a recommendation."[1] But on a personal basis, I'd recommend KDE because I myself used to KDE more than GNOME so that I can answer much more about KDE than GNOME. If I were an Ambassador, even if I answer carefully "Well, as openSUSE project, we don't give a recommendation, but I personally use KDE", the visitors tend to take that openSUSE recommends KDE. [1] http://en.opensuse.org/Installation/11.1_DVD_Install
If you're concerned about whether you're official or not, I'd suggest thinking as if you *are an official spokesperson and being precise and accurate in what you say, and *never try to answer a question that you're not qualified to speak about. (And when I say "you" I mean everybody reading the list, not just Satoru.)
In above case, how should I answer to the visitors, if I were an Ambassador ?
If we expect Ambassadors to be representatives somehow, we need to do screening for that. For example:
It's not a bad idea to "screen" new ambassadors and help mentor them. We need more people do to this, though. Are you volunteering? :-)
As you know, all Ambassadors are *new* at the moment. :-) So I think the more important thing right now is, discussing and brainstorming what are needed for this program hereafter. I hope all Ambassadors will engage in the discussions. In other words, IMHO, Ambassadors are automatically *screened* by whether they would actively join such discussions and brainstormings or not. ;-)
You have some good ideas, so I hope you'll sign up and continue to be involved, and help manage the project.
When I read about the 'Ambassador(Spokesperson) program' for the first time, I considered Ambassadors some *responsible* persons in their region, even if they are by no means 'official'. As I mentioned in my previous post, we, Non-English-Speakers, need some *responsible* contacts whom we can easily ask questions in our native languages. In addition, I wish the Ambassador program will help sharing our knowledge, ideas, experiences, know-hows, issues and concerns for promoting and introducing openSUSE. I'd like to expect feedbacks from Ambassadors about their local events and local communities, instead of just hearing their request "Please send me DVDs and some stuffs for our local event". Are there any questions (except for technical issues) you are asked during the local events or on the mailing list or forum in your languages but couldn't answer ? If there are some and you would feed back, we can share the issue and probably make FAQ for those. For example, I was often asked at the openSUSE booth in our local events, "What are the difference between openSUSE and SLE ?", "Can I run Windows on openSUSE with Xen virtual machine ? Is it supported as well as SLE?", "Can I use {device name or application name here} with openSUSE ?", "Where is the most useful information source for openSUSE in {your language here} ?", and so on. If we collect such questions and answers, don't you think we can make the leaflet for FAQ that can be distributed at the events ? In order to improve the Ambassador program and not to make it a mere facade, yes, I'd like to help, if there are anything I can do. :-)
As with any open source project - those that do the work help define the processes and set the standards. I'd love to see the ambassadors become as self-organized as the Weekly News team.
I totally agree with you at this point. :-) So, why don't we start by discussing and brainstorming what are needed to make this program more effective ? Best, -- _/_/ Satoru Matsumoto - openSUSE Member - Japan _/_/ _/_/ Marketing/Weekly News/openFATE Screening Team _/_/ _/_/ mail: helios_reds_at_gmx.net / irc: HeliosReds _/_/ _/_/ http://blog.geeko.jp/author/heliosreds _/_/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org