What does it take to lead a popular open source Linux distribution? Ask Jared Smith, the new project leader at Fedora, and he’ll tell you that the focus needs to be on the community.
It’s about more than just “bits and bytes,” Smith explains. In an interview, Smith shares his vision for the Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Linux project, and explains what lessons he brings with him from his work at Digium, the leading commercial vendor backing the open source Asterisk Internet telephony technology. CIO Update has the story.
The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Linux community is an open source development effort that includes a diverse set of participants. At the top of the organizational chart for Fedora is the position of Fedora Project Leader, the person tasked with overseeing the general direction and operations of the Fedora project.
In July, Jared Smith took up the position of Fedora Project Leader, replacing the outgoing Paul Frields. Among Smith’s first jobs is to guide the development and release of the upcoming Fedora 14 Linux distribution, set for general availability in November. Building the Fedora Linux distribution is one of Smith’s key responsibilities as Fedora Project Leader, but it involves more than just pure code.