The Fedora Community Operations (CommOps) Initiative, formally titled “Community Ops 2024 Reboot,” ran from late 2023 to December 2024, aiming to bolster community support within the Fedora Project. This initiative demonstrated a strong interest within the Fedora contributor community to engage not only in operational tasks but also in exploring Fedora’s data and understanding community trends. While the “Community Ops 2024 Reboot” didn’t generate a massive amount of immediate change, it successfully re-established community operations as a key area of focus within the Fedora Project. This post summarizes the key achievements and areas for growth.

Leveraging Fedora Infrastructure: Paving the Way for Data Exploration

The “Community Ops 2024 Reboot” initiative effectively utilized Fedora Infrastructure, gaining access to crucial resources like the PostgreSQL database for Datanommer and deploying a Business Intelligence (BI) platform on AWS Cloud. Critically, the initiative also focused on refining the process for community members to work with public Fedora data. Currently, this process is often opaque, difficult, and time-consuming. While the modernization work is ongoing, the initiative laid the groundwork for creating common, accessible pathways that any contributor can follow in the future. This effort aims to democratize access to Fedora data, fostering more data experiments and deeper insights into our contributor community.

Process Improvement: A Mixed Bag

Process improvement efforts under the “Community Ops 2024 Reboot” saw both successes and challenges. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for virtual Fedora events was developed, aiming to streamline event organization. However, implementation revealed unforeseen complexities, including significant manual effort and reliance on the Fedora Community Architect. This was reflected in the contrasting outcomes of the Fedora Linux Release Parties for versions 40 and 41. While the former was successfully executed, the latter faced last-minute challenges that impacted smooth execution. Although documentation for the Join SIG process and contributor recognition efforts through Community Blog series and Fedora Badges were planned, they were not completed within the initiative’s timeframe. This was not due to a lack of importance, but rather because the team prioritized establishing an onboarding pipeline for CommOps members and defining the team’s scope and purpose, given the available community contributors.

Community Social Analysis: Laying the Foundation

Despite limited resources, the “Community Ops 2024 Reboot” team made progress in Community Social Analysis. Initial governance needs were defined, and key metrics were documented to facilitate discussions and establish common terminology. This work lays the groundwork for standardized data governance within Fedora. A Pandas-based analysis solution for the Fedora Message Bus was deployed, providing some initial insights. However, this solution lacked repeatability and equitable access, highlighting the need for more robust and scalable data tools in the future.

Key Outcomes and Deliverables

The “Community Ops 2024 Reboot” initiative achieved several significant milestones, while also identifying areas for future development:

Process Improvement

• Developed and partially implemented a new SOP for virtual Fedora events.
• Improved documentation for newcomer onboarding and updated CommOps processes in repositories.
• Successfully executed the Fedora Linux 40 Release Party; experienced challenges with the Fedora Linux 41 Release Party.

Community Social Analysis

• Defined initial governance needs and documented basic metrics.
• Deployed a Pandas-based analysis solution for Message Bus data.
• Created a preliminary data dictionary and established a foundation for future data infrastructure.

Engagement and Recognition

• Fostered community engagement by creating dedicated spaces and facilitating regular meetings.

Reporting and Communication

• Provided periodic updates to the Fedora Council (though less frequently than initially planned).
• Prepared a final initiative report outlining successes, challenges, and recommendations.

Looking Ahead

The “Community Ops 2024 Reboot” initiative has provided valuable insights into how to better support the Fedora community.

The work done on process improvement, while facing some obstacles, has led to more defined release party structures, including issue templates and some established processes. However, it’s clear that reducing reliance on key individuals is crucial for scalability.

In Community Social Analysis, the initiative identified critical data points for measuring user engagement by topic, aligning with the Fedora 2028 Strategy’s goal of doubling contributors. The team also successfully launched community engagement efforts by creating dedicated spaces and facilitating regular meetings. The critical groundwork laid for easier access to Fedora data will empower more community members to explore and understand our project.

The next steps involve building on these achievements, addressing the identified challenges, and continuing to empower the Fedora community. Thank you to all the CommOps members for their contributions to this important initiative!