What are Community Initiatives?
Fedora Community Intitiatives (formerly "Objectives") contain projects which do not fall neatly into the biannual Fedora Linux release cycle. Typically they require longer to complete; 12-18 or even up to 24 months, and are not limited to engineering projects. The Project necessarily has oversight of more than purely the engineering of Fedora. Other key concerns are aspects such as administration; documentations; outreach; motivation; communications; budgets and best practice. Within the Project these are grouped under a heading of Mindshare The Council looks to achieve a balance between engineering projects and those aligned with Mindshare.
The primary role of the Fedora Council is to identify the short-, medium-, and long-term goals of the Fedora community and to organize and enable the project to best achieve them. Anyone can propose a Community Initiative to the Council. To be accepted it should align with Fedora’s mission statement and long-term goals.
Each Community Initiative has a designated Community Initiative Lead. This Lead sits on the Council for the duration of the Initiative and is responsible for coordinating efforts to reach the Community Initiative’s goals, as well as evaluating and reporting on progress. The Initiative Lead works regularly with all relevant groups in Fedora to ensure that progress is made.
Proposing a Community Initiative
To propose a Community Initiative to the Council, the Lead should first discuss on the #council tag on Fedora Discussion. Next, if well-received, file a ticket. Of course, people need to be ready to do the actual work required — a Community Initiative with no passionate bottom-liners won’t get far.
To succeed, Community Initiatives ideally require a leadership team with division of responsibility. For example separating roles of project leadership, engineering, marketing and documentation, depending on the size and scope of the Initiative. The Council can assist a proposer in finding the right people to work on the project if required.
Community Initiatives will be assigned an Executive Sponsor from amongst the existing Council members, to assist with raising and maintaining the visibility of the Initiative in the community.
How are Community Initiatives Finalized?
At the end of the expected duration of the Initiative (as specified at the proposal / acceptance stage), the Council will assess the progress of the Initiative. If the all of the aims, or all of the most significant of them have been achieved the Initiative will be terminated. If the aims are close to complete and further work will substantially increase the impact it may be allowed to continue for a further agreed period, after which it will be terminated. Initiatives will not be allowed to run indefinitely.
Current 12-18 Month Community Initiatives
This section documents the current Initiatives we, the Council, have accepted for implementation in alignment with the medium-term goals of the Project, (as explained in the Council Charter).
History
Historically, Community Initiatives were known as Objectives. This transition was made in February 2023 following in-person discussion by the Fedora Council in our 2023 Council hackfest in Frankfurt, Germany. We agreed to convert "Objectives" into "Community Initiatives", which the Council felt was easier to understand and communicate the roles of these efforts in Fedora. There is no functional change to Objectives; it is just a semantic change.
Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›