It’s really excited. And I am back to work now.
I got an awesome Flock although it was not good from start because of an issue in my flight ticket which delayed me a day to meet fantastic friends in Fedora community.
Because my flight was delayed, my talk was delayed too but it was still in a good time, in the morning of 2nd day. There were many participations and they contributed more to my topic “Improving Mentors program”. In general, I would like to create a basic set of guidelines for mentors to work with their candidates. Although mentoring strategies are different among regions and even among mentors, I still believe there are some basic stuffs which every mentors need/should do for their candidates from beginning.
I had made some notes here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Tuanta/Mentor_Guidelines_Draft and hope other mentors to contribute more before, during as well as after Flock.
Honestly, there were not many contributions before Flock. During my talk at Flock, I got some value ideas and comments. They took me to a new (not really new) direction that we should have specific guidelines for each regions since knowledge and experience of candidates are not equal among regions. Additionally, there may be more specific ones per country or mentor but they should be managed separately.
Other talks brought to participants a lot of value information and updates. Flock also made a good chance for people to meet and do other activities like key signing party, discuss some hot topics face to face, etc. I also loved joined dinners where I could drink beer, make friends and chat with other nice people in Fedora community. It would be much easier for me to work with other members after face-to-face meetings, especially for my work in FAmSCo and Server WG teams.
Frankly speaking, I prefer topics related to governance and community than technical ones. Most of technical ones could be easily accessible over the Internet while people-related ones are more complicated and should be discussed in person. However, I were still appreciated all people who contributed their time to make Fedora as well as this Flock succeed.
This would be another unforgettable event for us and I hope I can work and contribute to Fedora more and more.
IMHO, in the future, we should have more volunteers to support people to arrange their flights, accommodation, visa application etc. to avoid any potential issues. I am, of course, ready to join into that team.
Also, before and during the Flock, there were some discussions about subsidy’s criteria. In the future, I think, beside having accepted talks, people should show their more interests in other talks and activities in Flock. And to save money for supporting more people come, Flock could provide partially fund support instead of almost fully support as present. People may ask for support for flight, accommodation or both but it would effect to acceptance possibility of their requests. IMO, supporting for flight is enough, people can group up themselves to look for suitable hotels (it also would be better for collaboration).