With Tosin Doreen – Fedora Community Blog
Article co-authored by Chris Idoko and Jona Azizaj
Today marks Day 6 and the last day of Fedora Week of Diversity (FWD) 2024! This exciting week-long celebration has been dedicated to honoring the diverse voices, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that enrich our vibrant Fedora community. Throughout Fedora Week of Diversity 2024, the DEI Team showcased the incredible stories and journeys of our members through engaging interviews and captivating social media spotlights.
Today’s Contributor Story comes from: Tosin Doreen
What’s your Fedora story? Take us back to your beginnings with Fedora!
My name is Tosin, and I am a product manager, managing a couple of products. I transitioned to product management about two years ago, but before that, I was actually a Chef… I still am anyway. Fun fact: I went to culinary school and was ready to pursue that as a career. However, in 2022, I decided to transition to product management. By the beginning of 2023, I started my new role as a Product Manager.
My journey with Fedora began when I saw a post from a friend on social media about Outreachy, which I became curious about. Outreachy offers remote paid internships, and since all my jobs are remote, I decided to try it out since I was already familiar with working remotely. I was completely new to open source, but the idea of working on an open source project caught my interest, I applied last year but didn’t get in. I tried again this year and was successful.
During the contribution phase, I had to pick a project, and among all the options, the Fedora project resonated most with my skill set. Although I’m not a graphic designer, I saw opportunities in documentation, which is a large part of what I do as a Product Manager. It was something I was very familiar with and confident in. Additionally, other aspects of the project matched my skill set and would allow me to thrive.
That’s how I discovered and got involved with the Fedora Project. Since then, I’ve been engaged with Fedora, getting acquainted with the community and contributing from the contribution phase onward.
Fedora’s appeal and your contribution style: Tell us both!
I already do a lot of documentation work, which I enjoy. I’m not a writer, but when it comes to user guides and product documentation, which help people navigate their way through something or understand a product better, I enjoy that process
When I saw documentation listed as a skill set for the Fedora Project, I knew there would be something to learn, like using Markdown and AsciiDoc formats. During the contribution phase, I picked up how to write using these languages, and I found it very interesting because it’s not just about writing but also about writing to fit the specifications of the site. I find that very interesting.
Personally, what drives me to contribute is the desire to be part of something that works and adds value. I enjoy being part of a moving machine, whether it’s a product or a process, and contributing to its success. That’s basically what drives me.
Fedora day-to-day: A walk-through of your Fedora involvement
My typical day involves a lot of writing. I just started last week, so I’m still in the process of getting to know people and familiarizing myself with the platforms. It takes more than a week to know everything, but using the contribution phase as a reference, I spent a lot of time researching platform usage, like Pretalx, and doing various admin setups.
I’ve been involved in writing documentation and event planning for Flock. These were tasks done in March, and they have been part of my long-term projects with Fedora. So, my typical day mostly involves writing, whether it’s technical writing or blog writing, as those two are different. I’m still trying to learn more about them because I’m more of a formal writer. Writing for a blog has a different tone than a user guide or a product requirement document, so finding that balance is something I’m still learning.
For now, my days involve going through tasks that are primarily writing-related. I will also be exploring another platform soon, LimeSurvey. I’m new to LimeSurvey and have a session with Justin to navigate through it. So, that’s what my days have been like so far. As time goes on, I will be involved in other events with more defined tasks.
Image by Emma Kidney. CC BY-SA 4.0.