Fedora has been running IRC classes for some time in the #fedora-classroom channel on IRC Freenode. Classes are scheduled for this weekend, and they’re at a convenient time for people in the APAC (Asia/Pacific) region to hold informative sessions with Fedora contributors.
The classroom “days” for both Saturday and Sunday run from about 0400-0900 UTC, which for example in Beijing is 12:00noon to 5:00pm, and for Brisbane is 2:00pm to 7:00pm. That leaves plenty of time for other weekend activities. I’d like to encourage you to look at the Classroom page on the wiki and sign up to teach a topic near and dear to your heart.
The topics can be as simple or specific as you like. Want to teach people how to use PackageKit or yum to update their systems or find software? How about showing people ways to keep their life organized using free software tools found in Fedora? Or demonstrating how easy it is to translate software?
All these topics make it easier for people to use Fedora, and then hopefully get involved in the Project. When people learn new skills or accumulate knowledge, they feel more confident. It makes them better and more informed advocates for free software, and more self-assured in promoting it to the people in whose lives it can make such a big difference. In short, you can use the classroom as a way to contribute, and that in turn makes it possible for others to do the same.
The classroom does travel around the timezones from month to month, and I also see that in March it will be running from about 1800-2300 UTC, or at a good time for much of the USA and even Europe (depending on your personal schedule). I’m going to sign up for a class in March right now, as a matter of fact.
Also remember that the logs for classrooms are posted, so the audience you reach by teaching there isn’t limited to just the people that show up at that time. Other people regularly look at the logs later and can learn from the sessions after the fact. So you can keep spreading knowledge essentially for free (in the beer/resources sense) after you’ve finished and left the keyboard!
Wherever we are in the world, we have the opportunity to spread Fedora knowledge through the Fedora Classroom in the next month or so — let’s each grab it!