60: Changing of the Guard, the New Fedora Community Architect

Fedora Project — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 06:00:00 -0500

Fedora has a job whose entire purpose is the health of the community around the distribution, and this month a new person took it over. So we got both of them on at once.

Justin Wheeler has held the Fedora Community Architect seat since 2022 and is moving into a new role as AI Alignment Community Architect. Shaun McCance is stepping into the Fedora role while staying on as CentOS Community Architect. Noah is out this episode, so Eric hosts solo.

We get into:

Where the role came from, why Robyn Bergeron pushed for it in 2015, and how it went from community outreach and impact lead to Fedora Community Architect in January 2023
What actually lands on the desk: a Council seat, the Mindshare Committee, the Code of Conduct Committee, budget stewardship, and Flock
How Mindshare funding works for ambassadors, local organizers, and anyone who just needs a box of stickers and will write an event report
Justin's new AI Alignment role, why he wrote his own job description, and why he thinks community consent on AI has to be earned rather than assumed
This Week in Fedora, and the argument that started when a bot began ingesting messages from a public but non-indexed Matrix room
What Shaun brings from CentOS and from years as GNOME Foundation treasurer, and what he finds daunting about Fedora's breadth
Why one shared budget spreadsheet is not a merger, and what stays separate on purpose
Where to find both projects: CentOS Connect January 28 and 29 in Brussels, DevConf US September 24 and 25 in Boston, Texas Linux Fest in November, and All Things Open

There is a written companion post at https://itguyeric.com/blog/fedora-ep60-changing-of-the-guard/

Special Guests: Justin Wheeler and Shaun McCance.

Links:

Fedora Project Podcast - Episodes Tagged with “Interview”

60: Changing of the Guard, the New Fedora Community Architect