 I was homeschooled as a kid. And then I went into public school and I was like 11 or 12. But when I was homeschooled, oh, hi Ashley. When I was homeschooled, my parents actually invested in a lot until my personal interest. So I found out really young that I was an artist. I just kind of just knew I just started drawing and I was like, yeah, this is for me. This is something I wanna do. So my parents invested in that and that was something I'm very privileged to have them do to pay attention to that and give me that opportunity. So from a really young age I knew I was an artist and I was practicing my art, taking art classes through high school. And I decided that being an illustrator was not marketable at the age of 17 because we all make great decisions at the age of 17. And then I was gonna go to school for photography and then I was gonna go for something called visual media which was photography and graphic design. So I applied to RIT for that position or that course of study and I got in which was awesome. So RIT is Rochester Institute of Technology and that is how I came to Rochester actually. I grew up in New Jersey. So I came to RIT and it was 2006 and I very soon found out that I was not a photographer and that I had, I don't know, just made this decision that seemed like a good one but it's based off of, I'm not even sure what. So I decided to focus on making as much art as I could. So I worked with my counselor, my guiding counselor at that time and I fit in all these fine art classes. So it's calligraphy, I did type-based design, I did air brushing and sculpture and painting and all these different fine art classes, really whatever I could get my hands on just love fine art. And as I was finishing up my studies, I actually ran into something called the FOSSbox at RIT. So the FOSSbox is a group at the university that's kind of like a social group but it's all around free and open source software and it's giving people opportunities, there are students opportunities to get connected to the open source world. And beyond that, there's actually a minor at Rochester Institute of Technology on open source. I think I believe it is the first minor in open source. So that was something that Fedora was actually involved in. So super, super cool. And that is my first like formal introduction to open source, but like I didn't realize before that I had a computer from high school it was so old, but it was all I had and my roommate in college was like, oh, I'll put a bungee on it. And I was like, what's this? I don't understand. But like I don't have money to buy another computer. So like, yes, please put a bungee on it, right? So I can just write my papers and stuff. So I also had a bunch of, so I didn't know that I was running free software when I ran into the FossBox at RIT. And it was actually through my connections there that I saw an opportunity for an outreach internship. So the internship was for Fedora Badges and the mentor was Marin Zafi, or Ms. Mo, as a lot of people know her. I dipped my toe in and I introduced myself in channels and stuff like that. And I have to say, based on my experience now that there's a lot more exposure on that program. I think there were less applicants when I was doing my thing, but I applied and I got the internship. I was so excited. At that time I was like freelancing and like it was right when I was finishing school I was like freelancing and like doing retail work and like trying to be an artist or something. So I got this internship, I was thrilled because I was actually like making money and because I was getting a chance to do graphic design. And at that time, like I didn't, I had taken a couple of graphic design classes but I didn't think I was necessarily be able to go down that path. And I ended up having an amazing three months. I worked my butt off. I made like 80 badges. I made a style guide. I made posters. I made resources for newcomers. I ended up making a workshop later on. So the internship was just awesome. Really enjoyed the work that I did. And I could see it all going up onto the website. So it was like pretty cool. But I was really just communicating with my mentor mainly and a little bit with the design team and that was about it. So I was still poking around there because I had free time. And then Mizmo actually contacted me and she said, hey, there's this conference going on. It's called Flock and it's for Fedora contributors. This is a perfect thing for you to do. And I was like, okay. And she's like, you should submit a talk for it. And I was like, it's in another country. I can't afford to go there for artists. She's like, no, no, no, no. If you get accepted, they'll fund you. And I was like, mind blown, like what? They're gonna pay for me to go to Europe? Okay, I'll try for this. So yeah, I submitted a session and it was accepted. I was just like once again, mind blown. So I'm like about to get onto a plane to go to Europe for like, just leaving college very recently kind of slightly unsure of life. And definitely not the most confident person at that time. And I went and I did it. And I gave a presentation to a room of like 50 people I did not know. And it was scary as heck. How am I just gonna say it like that? I felt like I was gonna puke a hundred times over. It was really nerve wracking for me. I mean, the whole thing was and like going there on my own was crazy too. But I met so many awesome people and everyone knew who I was. Like I came on Zoom. The scene was like, hey, I'm Rick Attenor. Although I do have the other side of this story but the positive side was that people knew the work that I had done because badges was like kind of new and everyone was super excited about it. I literally just made like 80 new badges or something like that. So people were working on earning them and I don't think they like knew who I was necessarily. But I met all of them and they were so excited about the work and I immediately met, I don't know if immediately is the right word. I forget exactly, but I met a group of people that were like, yeah, we're gonna go out dancing. Right? And I was like, I wanna do that. That sounds awesome. Yeah, I'm on board for that. And yeah, and I ended, they like convinced me or didn't even have to convince me to go out with them and we went out into town and I made friendship. I started friendships that I still have down that night. So we ended up being like the unofficial block party goer group and we like go out to discos and to karaoke and stuff like that. So anyway, I just made a really amazing group of friends right away. On the other hand, this was like six or seven years ago now at this point 2014. And it was like, I would say it was a slightly different time in Fedora. Like when I went to block, it was like 180 people and there was maybe like 10 women there. I think there was maybe some more ladies that had actually come with partners. But it was like a real error extremely of minority in that situation. And it was very uncomfortable for me. Like already having come from going through all these nerves about traveling across the world on my own to present all these people I don't know and all of this stuff, like on top of that, there was like, no, not really many women there. It was overwhelming, you know? And especially because I'm a designer and I was going to this tech conference and every like circle that I walked into is like a conversation I didn't understand anything. I didn't understand everything, anything that they were talking about like barely. But I proceeded to introduce myself. And then people like, oh, badges. So we get on the topic of badges. So I did get a little bit of like, are you here with somebody stuff? Or like I'm, I present femme as a feminine person. And I love wearing dresses and accessorizing. And I think that there's a trend, but probably in older generations for women to kind of assimilate in a, like what they're wearing kind of way, like they'll also wear T-shirts and jeans. And I'm just seeing that based on my experience at that conference, that that was what I was seeing. And I was like the only person there wearing a dress. So it was just, I felt really out of place. But I was simultaneously experiencing these great feeling, like these great connections and these experiences of friendship and also validation for the work that I have done and completed during my internship. There's like a lot of like conflicting stuff going on. I also like went out with a group of people and I was chatting with somebody I'd met at the conference and we were often like aside. Like it was a huge place, right? For stories or something like that. And there was all these little nooks and crannies to chat. So I was off chatting with somebody and I came back and somebody told me that they were making jokes about me being with this person who happened to be a man. And honestly, I felt sick about that because you're going to judge me and make fun of me for talking to nine, like this is a 95% majority of this conference. And like I'm getting shamed for talking to a man. Like, so it just doesn't make any sense when you think about it like that. So like these are the kinds of things and I don't think people even think about it as a big deal, you know? Like sometimes it's kind of just like making an off-handed joke. And they're not thinking about how this is already an uncomfortable situation for me that I'm consciously putting like continual courage into to make it and to feel confident and like not lose my shit. Sorry. To not lose myself or just run into a hole or something like that. So I was having these like conflicting kinds of experiences and it was tough. For I had brought like a nice dress to wear to the special event. So I brought like an even nicer dress, right? And I look for it and on the top deck you had to like walk in between all the tables or walking down and just like having people just like staring at me like, who is this person? I just didn't really fit the way that I looked and it was just very, it was something that was very obvious to me. Just by the way that I was treated. I don't think that I was malicious. I don't find it to be that way. I think it is more of a, of this person is unknown to us and that's a little scary in a way because I was different, right? So let's move on. I made it, I had mostly a positive time. I'm still here guys, so don't worry. So I continued on. I continue to contribute to Fedora. Mismo continued to include me and stuff that was happening on the design team. She actually flew me out to Boston on time to help her hack on a website and to just catch up on badges and stuff and it was a, it was a totally great time. She and I planned a design team hack fest together. I think it was called the FAD. You know, it was multiple days. It's one of our funny acronyms. So yeah, I continued on. And then I remember we had, it was a hack fest I think in Boston for the design team. And I had some idea for badges and I was talking to Mismo about it and I was like, I wanna do this. I'm thinking about changing the way we run this aspect. I honestly don't remember what it was. She was like, why are you asking me? I was like, well, because I don't know why I'm asking you because you're the design team lead. That's why I'm asking you. And she's like, you don't have to ask me. You run that project. And I was like, what? And she's like, yeah, you run that project. And I was like, I do run that project. Actually, yeah, I do run that project because at that time I was triaging tickets, making designs, giving improvement, like helping people with improvements, helping come up with concepts for art, just doing all kinds of various things for badges. And I was like, yeah, I'm running that. So I think that moment was like a good realization moment for me that like, if you're doing the thing in Fedora, like you're doing the thing and you can make decisions about your project as long as you're making them with, the proper amounts of consideration. So that means including stakeholders or people who might care about the changes you're gonna make. So at that time I think I did check in with the badges team and everyone's on board, but anyway, I had like ownership of this team and it really empowered me. I felt like I was doing something important. I felt like I was doing something kind of cool and off beat, I guess, like not the common thing. So it was like interesting to me, some kind of appeal in that. And then I continued on. I did workshops at the different flocks. I think I attended, I have attended every single flocks since Prague. That was 2014. And then the last one, I did a hack fest to try to, I was in Budapest, a hack fest to try to help the badges. At that point, it was like that older program, sorry, older application. And it was like running Python 2 when it was about to fall over. And so like we got to do something. Like we need an intern. We're like, how are we gonna get an intern? And we didn't know, we didn't really know, but we did some planning. We did some writing of problems down and use cases. And we had Renata there actually doing some usability stuff for the website. So it was a really cool hack fest. And it was like the first one that I ran. So that was cool. It was like a session, it was half a day, but I still, oh cool, I ran a hack fest. And yeah, and that was 2019. So meanwhile, if you haven't been to flock before, I will explain to you, like at the end of the conference, we kind of have like a wrap up session and they give people a chance to come up to the podium and say what, they're talk about their flock experience, right? So I don't know how it happened the first time, but at the end of the conference in this wrap up session, I was like the only design team member there. So like Matthew Miller just like looked like, just like turned around in the crowd and like looked at me and was like, you. Right, so yeah, so he was like, you can go up there. And I was like, oh crap, but Matthew, little did you know I was super hungover. And I did not want to say anything, but I did anyway. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, I did have things to say and that was the point I was gonna come to, right? So it happened once and then like the next year it happened again. And like the third year I was like, okay, I'm just gonna expect this. But it was because I do have things to say and I do have opinions. And I think it comes from a part of who I am as a nurturing person is a person who wants to bring joy into other people's lives. I found leading that the badges team that I was able to do that for people. People found happiness and fulfillment out of their work on that team. And the mentorship that I was doing there even in the small capacities or bits that I was doing it, I found to be extremely satisfied beyond that. When I was at the conferences in person with all the other contributors, I started to realize that I was kind of like a magnet for other women to come hang out with. And I think a part of it is because I have a welcoming nature and I'm just, I'm like, yeah, let's hang out. I'm down, let's do this, you know, more of a merrier. So I realized that it was kind of happening. And then I realized that I could like just encourage that a little bit. So I started going out of my way to introduce myself to new women that I saw at the conferences. Very specifically, like I would go with that in mind. Like anyone who I see who I've never seen their face and they're a woman, I'm going to introduce myself no matter how awkward I feel. Or like, how much I don't want to do this, I am going to do this. Because it was really hard for me to feel welcome. And I wanted to make sure that other people felt welcome. I think that was part of it as well. So I had things to say and I was doing this work and meanwhile in my own like work life, I was becoming a purchasing agent and learning how to manage all aspects of purchasing. There's a lot to it, but it has to do mostly with forecasting and different kinds of purchase orders, bids, et cetera. It's just, it's kind of boring. But I learned like a lot of admin stuff and I learned how to manage and navigate like office environments like writing emails and like beyond that, I was taught how to negotiate and how to kind of win over people a little bit, right? When it comes to negotiation and purchasing actually, there's quite a bit of people skills and negotiation skills that you need to have. So they were helping me with my admin stuff but they're also helping me with like my EQ. So between all of these different things, I kind of at one point realized like I want to work for Fedora. I didn't know how I was gonna do it. I just said, I'm gonna work for Fedora. So I started applying for jobs and this is the third job I applied for. I applied for this in like, I wanna say June or April of like the 2019, yeah, something like that. And I applied and I didn't hear back for months and I was like, okay, I guess that's it. But then I got the kind of me again in October and it happened like all suddenly I had to do a bunch of interviews and then I was hired as Fedora's community action and impact coordinator. This was a huge accomplishment for me personally. I broke into a field that I never thought I would be in ever. I am a fine artist. At my core, I identify as a fine artist and I'm here doing this thing and I absolutely love it. Absolutely. I'm getting like slightly emotional but yeah, it's a huge thing for me. Somehow I managed to get into this. I jumped over into this field but I think there's a few things that made it happen. I was determined. I was determined to stay committed to something and stay committed to something and I did. And I realized that the relationships that I had in the community meant something to more than just me. Like it meant something to the other people obviously but it was a network that I had built within the Fedora community and that meant something and I felt dedicated to that. And I also felt dedicated to the work that I did in badges and proud of that work for sure. So what has it been like since I became FK? I think it would have been so much different if COVID had not happened. Let's be real. Can I tell you guys, I had bought a wall calendar and I had written out like all the different trips I was gonna take. I had like San Francisco, I had Portland, Oregon and I was gonna go to Texas. I had a trip plan to Raleigh. I had my house plan to go to Ireland and back to the Czech Republic. And I was considering a trip to India. So I have to say that my first year as FK was not actually what I expected. I expected, yep, I was supposed to go to France too. The first year of being at FK has not been what I expected and I'm okay with it. I think it's given us a really interesting opportunity. So you know when you are, let's recall 100 years ago back in summer of 2019, when we were traveling constantly and things were like really, really busy and life was constantly on the go and you were like, oh my gosh, when can things stop and I just wanna break and things to pause. You ever have that feeling? I mean, I have had that feeling. I'm sure some of us have. This is kind of like a weird chance to have that pause. So I'm like trying to make the best of it. Like what are those things that I've always been like, well, I want the time to do this thing or I want the time to do that thing but I'm never home long enough to get into this or that or blah, blah, blah, blah. I really had this weird chance to take a pause and I'm gonna say some moments I'm like completely at peace with it and some moments I'm climbing up the wall. So it's a toss up on how effective that line of thinking is. There have been challenges. First, I'm gonna talk a little bit about the joys. So this event is a joy for me. You guys, I'm connecting with all of you one by one over the last three days has been awesome. I didn't expect to host the conference quite the way that I did but I think it was perfect for this and I think that it was fulfilling for me to be able to connect with each one of you personally and talk with you and chat with you and see where you're at with your life. Just really, really awesome. Like coming out of this weekend, each day I've just felt my heart is full and I want to take you all out to dinner and celebrate the work that we do. Cause we're pretty badass. So this is one of the things that has been the most fulfilling. Nest with Fedora, super fulfilling. Just gonna say that what made it the best was the people. We got into the platform and people were chit chatting with their personality and kind of letting it all hang out and that was what made it great. I put a lot of work into it though and that's also what made it great. I really put a lot of work into that event. So seeing people react to it the way that they did was awesome. And I put together the swag thing like I coordinated all the swag and bought the things in time and nature was all in the right place and dealt with people's addresses. Oh my gosh, so many personal emails back and forth about phone numbers. Wait, I need your area, your country code to get these swag out to people. But like seeing the tweets of the people just absolutely loving it. I, my heart wasn't so full. I was so happy that I had brought that joy to those people. Really, that's like, those are some of the most fulfilling things. The ambassador slash community outreach revamp. I'm super proud of that. I wrote that proposal based off of like a bunch of thinking that I did on that. It was funny too, because when I first got into the position Matthew and Ben made me a document that was things for Marine document. And like at the bottom, it was like, probably don't do anything with the ambassadors for a while. And it was funny because only like four or five months in, of course, like I'm working on ambassadors. But I think it was because Justin wrote something on the ambassador like ticket and that conversation was started again. The conversation was set up again. And you know what I said? I have the resources to make this happen. And that's what I did. So I'm super proud of that. I wrote that. We've gotten so much feedback. We've gotten a ton of involvement. And if people wanted to drop some stuff in the chat, yes, I agree. If someone wanted to drop like a link for the community outreach stuff in the chat, that would be awesome. So yeah, that's been a super success for me. There's been cons, not getting to travel. That's kind of really, really sucked. And I know everyone's in it with me on that. I have a reform ahead and food to eat. And I'm very thankful for being safe right now during this time. COVID has created an interesting thing happening in this world. And I just got to share quickly, like this has been the most challenging part of the FK role has been code of conduct. And from what I can understand, in previous years, we've only had one or two incidents a year since COVID began in March. We've had like 15 incidents. So one incident is like pretty emotionally taxing. And it's really on myself and Matthew to handle these incidents. So just even one can be like a thought depending on what it is. Each thing is different. And then when they're getting opened like one every week, it's like when, when will this end? And I think that I came to a couple of conclusions. Like COVID has put people on edge and people are not in their usual routines. So they're quicker to react emotionally. People who regularly have some behavioral things, maybe they're a little bit hard to work with, kind of lose their, lose control of their emotions more often. Another part of being FK is getting personal messages from people. In some ways, people see me as a community, a symbol of like community. And so therefore they like, oh, this community person, I have a thought about the Fedora community. So therefore I will message her and tell her my thought about the Fedora community. And it's like, that's great. I'm just trying to do my job and live my life. And you are giving me a laundry list of gripes that you have about how things are run. And I might not actually have any control over how that's handled. So that's one thing. Another thing is something that's kind of hard to admit and say, but there's some people who kind of are not great people. Or because of their circumstance, that's how they, that's who they, right? So there are people who message me with things that are not nice. So right. So like I would say that the hardest part about being FK is dealing with this stuff. And I'd say that it's mainly because of COVID. If we hadn't been all thrown into this thing together, I don't think it would have gone this way at all. So that's just a really interesting thing. And I'm still doing some processing on it. And how I dealt with it all was I took some time off. I stepped back a little bit and I worked on my boundaries. Then I said, what do I need to do to take care of myself? Let's set up some boundaries and roles to make this a bit better. So yeah, that's been like kind of my past year, the pros and cons. And I would say I'm starting to feel comfortable in the role and I'm starting to feel like people are also getting excited about the work that I'm doing. And I sense, I don't know why I'm thinking that. Maybe I'm just hopeful thinking, but I feel like people are very active right now. And it's really exciting for me to see people just working on all these different projects. I mean, I've seen people in the chat room is more active than ever. And I don't know, I wanna think part of it because I'm here with a lot of energy and excitement for Fedora. And yeah, I think that's, I think that's my, my women in tech story and I'm, I actually took me 40 minutes to tell. I think that might have been the longest presentation. Thank you guys for sitting that one out. Matthew, if you wanna join, you're welcome to come up here. And if people have some questions, feel free to drop them in the chat. Maybe Matthew has a few questions he wants to, he's gotta get on the right computer. Cool. In the meantime, give me one second. All right, I'm right back. All right, who has questions? Okay, hold on one sec. Who? Talking for 40 minutes. Okay, since you started as the app cake, what has been your biggest surprise so far after working in the community for years? Oh my gosh, you guys are gonna love this. So I feel like this is kind of a touchy subject, but we're gonna go there and we're gonna go there with genuine honesty. So like before I became the app cake part of the Fedora community, I remember things that happened that were maybe like questionable. Like we didn't understand why like Red Hat did this thing or like Red Hat made this decision or like why this thing was happening or why this change was happening or et cetera, et cetera. And like maybe there was some kind of like, I mean, hate to use the word conspiracy, but like, like conspiracy is like about maybe what Red Hat's agenda is. So I think like going behind the curtain of Red Hat, I'm gonna tell you like there's nothing. I was surprised at how like, hey Matthew, I was surprised that how there really wasn't a clear structure of like Red Hat wants this XYZ thing for Fedora. And cause like I think that that was kind of a, that's a perception that might be out in the community, but it's not really quite like that. And I'm actually doing some digging on trying to understand how priorities come to Fedora because that's something as a contributor, I always wondered about like just different methods. Like how do they all funnel into Fedora? So anyway, that was like my biggest surprise that it's not very well laid out in the background and it's really driven by me and Matthew and Ben and we're the ones doing it for real. And with you guys, with your help. So anyway, Matthew, did you have any questions for me? Yeah, I was kind of thinking about your conference experience and obviously having more representations in the community kind of helps make that better. It makes it easier to fit in if you know, you aren't the only woman or if you aren't the only person who's not dressed like a 1990s college student. Yes. If you'll seen. But like, what can we do at our conferences, events and just day to day in Fedora to make it more comfortable and to make it safe so those kinds of experiences don't happen to people. So I want to say one thing. I think we're beyond that cringe worthy of a moment because at like flock in Budapest, there was like, I'd say over 30 women there and there were plenty of women wearing dresses. So I think that that it's actually become a little bit more easy for that expression to happen already. And I think that representation is one of the biggest things. So I think having events like this, like I was thinking about the Fedora women's days that I've been at before. And it was like a small group at a local place. I actually am really loving this. Like the fact that we're able, like, cause there's so, there's few women contributors who are like core contributors. So it's really good for us to connect with each other like this and we live all over the world. So I think like continuing to have a global network for women to get connected into for Fedorans. I think that's great. And being able to see each other face to face like this and being able to connect and be like, oh, I now know you versus just through IRC or a chat room. Yeah, that's always valuable for everybody. Maria's got a question in the... Do you want to read it just for the video? I will. Yeah. Masha asks, do you have any tips on how to overcome the need to constantly check in with everyone on the work that I'm doing? Wait, I don't understand the question. The work that who's like checking in about your own work or checking in about work that other people are doing that's related to the work you're doing or like basically check in like... Okay, I got it. I understand. So I think the idea, I think the question is asking like, how can I feel confident in just doing the work without getting it reviewed constantly or like all the time? So I'd say a couple of things. So like when it comes to designing badges, it's about finding the resources. So we have a style guide for the badges and it's about studying that and learning that. So instead of asking for like each individual, like, oh, I just changed this one thing in the badge or just changed this one thing that, modeling your design after the aesthetic of fedoras design or specifically badges. So I can speak from that angle. And I'm kind of curious maybe Matthew can talk a little bit actually from like the development or engineering side of that. I don't know if he's paying attention. Oh, network problems, shoot. It seems to have cleared up. It was you were in slow motion like a robot. So that was... Yeah, I guess one thing in fedora in general, which I'd like to encourage and it's hard to do, but you shouldn't need to ask permission to do things that can always be changed later. Like if you've got a design or something that you feel good about, say here it is. Or if you have, this is just like, people doing packaging in fedora do this. If you're the owner of the package, you make an update and there it goes. And you want to make sure that it doesn't affect other people, but as long as it's your area, you do it and then you work with other people around it, but you don't need to ask permission for it, just go for it. And then if there's something that needs to be adjusted about something, it can always be tweaked later, but the default should be you're empowered to do it, which I know that's a hard to build up a feeling to do that. It is not just me. Yeah, all right. It wouldn't be like a presentation without that, so. Would you like to repeat? I think I was saying something like, yes, I agree. Hmm, very good. So wise. Right, right, so very, very wise. But yeah, any other questions from the chat or from Matthew? Otherwise, if not, I'll do my little scripty thing. Cool. All right. All right, here we go. You got a question. Oh. Here it came one, it started the question, it was, do you feel that the badges and in suspense have changed the community spirit? Absolutely, absolutely. Now, I have to say I was not in the community before badges existed. So maybe Matthew might even be a better person to comment on this, but I'm gonna say that it seems integral in our culture. People talk about it constantly, constantly. So I think it brings a very lighthearted and fun side to our community and the work that we do that, I don't wanna say necessarily dry because most people find it really fun. But to an extent, it's not very shiny, right? So I think making a shiny thing to go with that effort that you've made is really an important thing. And to add to that, I think it's one of the most important parts of community management and community health is recognition, recognizing people for the work that they've done. So I do think that badge, oh yeah, Matthew, you should comment too because you were here before. Yeah, I think it did, it kind of something that kind of fit into the culture we had and people have that little like, a little bit of, there's some competitive spirit in getting the top badges, but a friendly competition. People were happy to compete over something meaningless, I think, right? And that kind of is the fun of it. The meaning comes from itself, not from it being an actual recognized prize or something like that. It's that people are happy to compete over that. And I think kind of the sense of whimsy in the badges with your animals and the different, also the taxonomy of which animals go to which badges, stuff like that. I don't know, that's awesome. And yeah, so I think, I don't know if it quite, I don't think it like by itself or like reinvented the culture, but it reinforced a lot of the positive things we've really, we have. And I think people really enjoy it. And I think continue to be a tool, I'm really excited for some other future things where we have like, badges to help new contributors earn these series of five badges as a new contributor. And then you're a, whatever, Fedora level one, something. You get set and you earn badges for your badges. That's what you gotta do. So badges is actually in the process of being updated and moving to Badger. So I'm hoping within the next six months, we're gonna see something new. We're gonna see hopefully a website that's working. Did you know that the way to manually assign award, manually award a badge and know that it works is if you get an error? Yes, yeah, yeah, I do that all the time. Oh yes, 500 error. Cool, the badge has been assigned. If you don't get an error, then it's, it hasn't gone through. So there's some things need to be worked on, but I... No, I'm just pointing out because it's funny because like we'll do just the work around. It's like, oh yeah, great, perfect, working. No bother, no bother here at all. Okay, so I'm gonna read my... Let me drop off the video here for you to do that. No, you don't have to. You can just chill because we're gonna edit the video. And then afterwards, I just wanna do some closing remarks and say anything you might wanna say. So here I go quickly, but you might wanna mute yourself. All right. Okay. Hi, my name is Marie. I am from the US. I am a woman and I speak English. We are from different countries. We speak different languages. We are of different cultures, but Fedora unites us with open source. We are Fedora. Woo-hoo! Nice. Okay. Okay, so that actually is based off of our Buddha past video. I am so excited to see the content that we make from this weekend's sessions. Like I have a ton of ideas and I just can't wait to unroll them also. I hope I can get with a small team together to do this. I already had a couple of people messaging me about it though. So we're good. I found all the talks, I didn't make it to all of them, but I plan to watch videos of the ones I didn't make it to. I found all the ones I saw so inspiring and just made me feel great about community and about Fedora, even when their problems exposed, I think just shows a lot of positivity and a lot of strength that we all have and that all of you bring to Fedora, all of you, Marie, all the other women, non-binary people and then on the chat here as well, I appreciate all of the men who showed up to be in the audience and be part of this. That's, it's important part of being an ally and being inclusive. So again, yeah, so much thanks to everybody. Cool. So my remarks are more extended. I don't know, Matthew. You're welcome to stay on the... No, no, it's your show. You should have the extended remarks. Okay. You want me to stay on or should I drop off? You're welcome to stay on because I think you'll have comments on what I'm about to say too. So I kind of wanted to like, as the three days have happened, I've been taking notes slash just thinking and pondering on what everyone hasn't been sharing. So I wanted to just talk about a few of the like, I don't know, general overall lessons that we can like take from these stories and share with other women, nine binary people and men in our life as a way to bring positivity into our world even more, right? So here we go. These are some of the things that I really noticed in each one of the sessions. Taking the leap, taking the leap, not being afraid to do the thing, realizing that courage does not mean the absence of fear. It means overcoming that fear. So I think that that was something that was like pretty much in every single session. They were like, this happened, but I just did it anyway. I just kept doing it. And I took that chance and I did that thing. Next, don't be afraid to ask questions. I know sometimes it's hard to ask if you can empty room questions or whatever. I get that. So maybe you find a sideway and then you talk with somebody just like, hey, I'm working on this thing. Can I private message you? And they'd be like, sure, most likely. And then you can ask that question that you might feel a little self-conscious about privately. Just one way to handle something like that. But don't be afraid to ask those questions because that's the only way you're gonna learn. Seek out mentorship in some way or another. Basically, every one of these people has had a personal connection with someone in Fedora and that is how they found their way here. And I think this is relevant for like most community type work or just life in general, you know? I think in Fedora, the way to do that would be to find people who are doing similar to like your niche thing. Like say like coding in Python. So you go to the Python SIGs or you're really into typography. So you go start hanging out with the designers. And you just start making friends and talking about common interests. And then once you start to- Spot SIG too, if you're specifically into typography. That's true. And once you start talking with these people that have similar interests as you, then you can start being like, hey, I have this question. I was just wondering how this thing works. And that's when you get the links and the explanations and et cetera, et cetera. So sometimes when we don't necessarily know how to ask the question or maybe we're not sure, you might lead it up with some footwork, right? Another thing that I've been thinking about during this whole time is like most of the stories, the success of the stories was women drawing on personal strength. And I just, I think we just need to like point that out and celebrate that. Everyone was said, I am going to do this. I want this. I knew I wanted this. I heard it in every single one. And you guys made it happen. So I just think that's so impressive and so inspiring. And it makes me feel blessed to be amongst you all. Beyond that, I consider like everyone here to be my friend. And I think that like we are going to be the best support for each other, like D and I and Fedora Women's Day and you know, not Fedora and I'm burning folks series. It's not about excluding men. It's absolutely not. We, I have so many men in my life that I love. I have so many coworkers that are men that I enjoy working with. It's not about exclusion of men. It's allowing us to forge stronger connections because this is a hard place to be as a minority group. This is for us to be able to support each other and hear these stories and draw strength upon them, send them to other women in our life when they're up on YouTube and say, hey, I heard the story and it reminded me of you. So I really, I think we're the best support network for each other. And like I said, we welcome men too. It's just about connecting with each other because there's so few of us. And I think it's important and making that group and building that culture amongst ourselves as women too as being supportive. Because I think we all know like the queen bee thing and we kind of all come up against that if you're a woman, you know what I'm talking about. Like kind of women who put down other women kind of thing. So we need to build a culture where we're supporting each other and lifting each other up. That's another big part of it. So I just wanted to point that out that the strength that we have, the mentorship that we have, all these different connections, it's the person power that's making women in Fedora really great. So yeah, those are my thoughts about the conference. It's been awesome, Matthew. I don't know if you have anything to say after that. Yeah, I think that was very well said. I don't have a lot to add to that. I can talk more about our confidence and being insecure and those kind of themes. I think those are, so like that's true for men as well but I think it's a thing that particularly we're in your minority group and particularly just a lot in the way that women often present, it makes it a step harder to both, again, there's two things. First of all, the like, I'm not sure I'm qualified for this but I'm gonna go for it anyways. Like don't wait till your qualifications are lined up. I said this in a chat earlier but there's a study on this and men are much more likely to apply for jobs that they don't think they're qualified for and then assume that they'll be able to get it and grow into it than women are. And that is a lot of a lot of agenda and balance comes down to kind of that. Being able to go for something, where you might not be qualified, it also ends up with a lot of people unqualified in their positions but that's a different problem. But just like go for it and you have the ability to learn, you have the ability to grow and also the people who are making the decisions for is this the right job for me? Also, if it is a good job, they should be able to appreciate that you can have the ability to grow and you might not have 100% of the things they're looking for but that you have the potential to get them. So that's super important. And the other thing about questions is also a confidence thing. I think Marie made a good point of you can ask questions on a side channel where it's not embarrassing, find a friend and ask them questions but it's also super awesome to ask questions that you might think make you sound stupid. Like you don't have to pretend that you know the answer to things. And if you can ask a dumb question it may actually be the case that lots of other people have that same dumb question and you're doing two things. Oh, you're doing three things. You're getting an answer. You're showing that it's okay to ask questions and you're showing other people that it's safe to do this. That's yeah. Wait, there's a third. I support. I had a third one. I'm not good at counting but... I support option two but I also think it's just speaking to this crowd specifically. I think it's important to give people like the permission like within our culture that this is an okay thing to do because it's not easy. And I think people need to access this information and someone to talk to in different manners. So that's just, that's my reason for promoting it. Definitely. You're confident enough to ask the question in the channel, go for it. I mean, there's welcoming people there too, definitely. And if you are, oh, I know here, these are my three things. You get the question answered, you get it answered for other people and you show people that it's okay to ask questions there that I summarized it in three. But I also want to make it really clear. Anybody listening to this, anybody like if you want to ask me a question in a side channel like a private message or whatever, I am happy to do that and I will never think the less of you or for asking a question about something that, you know, you might think ought to be obvious, but there's so much that ought to be obvious that just plain isn't, that it's probably not you. It's probably that it's something that needs to be explained more clearly. And I'm happy to do that for things that I know or to find someone who knows the answer for things that I don't. Plus plus is for you in the channel here. And Alberto says I love this talk. Yeah, and pastors, you know, you kind of were talking about confidence in the stuff and pastors and you're most definitely a common topic. I think a lot of people deal with this. I've definitely dealt with it too. And it's, this is a topic that we can be open about with each other. And I think that's cool. So, you know, when those feelings come, talk to somebody about it. Cool. Well, I've been talking for like an hour. I think I'm good. I think I'm good. Time to go get some tea. Yeah, I think and just relax. Like this has been a really nice weekend. It was a different pace than next. And it was very personal. I really enjoyed that. So yeah, cool. Thank you everyone for coming and taking time out to do this, to do this with us. And hopefully we can just learn and improve for next year. I'm gonna get out a survey for people so we can hopefully make some improvements. And yeah, that's all I got. Yeah, very well. Thank you so much, Marie. Everybody give Maria a gigantic thank you for all the organizing she did for this. Organizing. Organizing, yes. Yes. Yes, bye, bye. Thank you and goodbye everybody. I'm just enjoying these comments. So I'll just stick it for one second. But bye. All of my wonderful friends. I miss you guys. I wish I could give you big hugs. Miss you all. I miss you too. Very welcome. Thank you everybody. And I will see you online.