Akashdeep Dhar
Akashdeep Dhar is a senior software engineer in the Red Hat Community Linux Engineering team, working on researching and developing applications running on Fedora Infrastructure, and has served twice in Fedora Council, once as an initiative lead for a community revamp and once as an elected representative.
@t0xic0der:fedora.im
Sessions
Mentorship has always been a big part of what makes Fedora special. This year, we’re adding something new to the Fedora Mentor Summit: a casual lunch matching session where mentors and mentees can meet face-to-face, share stories, swap ideas, and connect over common goals.
Here’s how it works:
* We’ve already paired folks based on the Fedora Discussion thread.
* If you didn’t sign up ahead of time - no worries! Stop by and we’ll find you a spot based on the groups we’ve already put together.
* Need a conversation starter? We’ll have a few prompts ready to help break the ice.
* Take a group selfie during lunch and you’ll earn a Fedora Badge as a fun keepsake. 🐧
No formal structure - just good food and good conversation with someone else who cares about growing the Fedora community.
Given how expansive the Fedora Project community is—with its subprojects and SIGs—many newcomers struggle to find an area to contribute.
The Join SIG was set up several years ago to help newcomers gain a foothold and become part of Fedora. Over the years, we've tried many methods to increase our retention rates. Most recently, we've used a people-centric "Welcome to Fedora" process.
Our main goal has been to try to help newcomers get to know the people of Fedora by easing them into a friendly space before having them jump into tickets or tasks.
We think that we can retain more people with Fedora-wide co-operation. We hope that you will agree that everyone in the Fedora community has a role to play with the Welcome Wagon.
In this talk, we will start a conversation about how we can better retain the many new friends who come to Fedora through Join SIG.
To prepare for the talk, you may wish to peruse https://pagure.io/fedora-join/WelcomeToFedora
Introduction
SyncStar lets users create bootable USB storage devices with the operating system of their choice. This application is intended to be deployed on kiosk devices and electronic signage where conference guests and booth visitors can avail themselves of its services. This self-service system allows booth visitors in free and open-source software conferences to consider using a GNU/Linux Distribution by creating a bootable USB storage device there in the booth, thus helping increase the adoption of GNU/Linux distributions as SyncStar supports multiple free and open-source software GNU/Linux distributions.
Inspiration
SyncStar was inspired by the original Fedorator project, a kiosk device for writing Fedora Linux Live Images onto USB drives, designed for conference booths. While it sparked interest among attendees, its adoption stalled with the pause in in-person events due to COVID-19. The semiconductor shortage also increased the cost of Raspberry Pi and peripherals, limiting project usability as these were used in building the service hardware. Additionally, the limited 3D printer access raised entry barriers for booth organizers, making it challenging for local conferences to promote Fedora Linux easily.
At Flock To Fedora 2025, join us for an insightful exploration of Fedora Project’s participation in Google Summer of Code 2025 with an emphasis on the essential roles of mentors and organization administrators. This talk will delve into the unique challenges and rewarding experiences associated with guiding emerging talent through two innovative projects: the "AI-Powered Log Triage and Security Alert Aggregator", and a novel service designed to streamline the introduction of new projects to Fedora Project. Hear interns progress stories and view snippets from the impactful work undertaken by Google Summer of Code 2025 interns. First half the presentation underscores how dedicated organization administrators and mentors help build a robust mentoring experience.
Alongside showcasing the GSoC and Outreachy contributions to Fedora Project, we will share the deeper reflection on mentorship from a challenging experience by Aurelien Bompard and Akashdeep Dhar's participation as mentors in Outreachy. In the previous year, they proposed a Fedora Infrastructure project and began mentoring the applicants with Tomas Hrcka's and Michal Konecny's support. Unfortunately, the contribution phase did not go as planned and we ended up discontinuing the internship early than intended. Here we will share our experiences from mentoring in the Fedora Infrastructure team - highlighting both the positive moments, arising issues and lessons learnt. Whether you are a current or aspiring mentor or mentee in the free and open-source software community, you can be sure to obtain valuable insights to help strengthen mentorship practices.