[IAEP] Kickoff meeting: Sugar Labs Marketing Team

[Bill Kerr]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 7:26 AM, Greg Dekoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com> wrote:

>
> Hello all.  Reposting my blog entry from the other day.  If you care about
> marketing, please read it, and then respond to my Request For Meeting,
> below.  :)
>
> ===
>
> In their excellent book The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman and Rod
> Beckstrom make the compelling case that, in large decentralized
> organizations, the values *are* the organization. Which means that, if you
> are looking to build a large decentralized organization, you must take
> great care to articulate these values clearly. You must know what you're
> about, and know it so well that you can communicate it with utter clarity
> to anyone you ever meet.
>
> This elevator pitch is therefore the first, and most important, task of
> the Sugar Labs Marketing Team. We've got a lot of ideas for this message.
> We had a design thinking session Friday morning, in which it became clear
> that two messages resonate most strongly about Sugar: the Collaboration
> message (which I interpret to mean "having kids use computers to
> collaborate easily by default is a great thing"), and the Community
> message (which I interpret to mean "anyone can help make Sugar happen,
> which is a great thing").



hi greg,

Collaboration plus Community, as explained here, strikes me as necessary but
not sufficient, too harmonious and lacking the spirit of creative
destruction

It reminds me a bit of web2.0 marketing which has had a little success but
has also been critiqued along the lines that connected community leaves a
lot of important questions unanswered and possibly obscures the questions

Some things being left out here are:

Constructionism - it's hard to be clear about it but is that a good reason
to leave it out, I thought people here might be critical of marketing that
oversimplified and lost meaning in the process

Linux - MS has peaked and the long decline has started, a strong case can be
made that the youth need linux for their future

Ultra mobile computers plus Sugar - this liberates computers from
restrictive computer labs and creates the possibility of a leap in learning
through immersion - computer labs are one of the big things holding back
development

Were these issues discussed as part of the session mentioned above?

I know that the work of "figuring out messaging" may seem dull. But it's
> important work, because it is the basis of all other work: positioning to
> partners, teachers, developers, volunteers of all kinds. For instance:
> there are now laws in the EU that mandate students to prevent portfolios
> to demonstrate progress. Not test scores -- portfolios. Similar
> legislation will soon be proposed to the US Congress. As it happens,
> Sugar's Journal functionality would be an ideal base for building digital
> portfolios -- better than any other base, anywhere, ever. We may have one
> chance to talk to a congressman in order to get Sugar funded... and it
> could be anybody in the Sugar community making that pitch. We need to make
> sure that pitch is right.
>
> If you want to help us, you can start by joining the conversation. We can
> certainly use the help, especially if you are a teacher or a school
> administrator. In an effort like this, every person counts.
>
> ===
>
> So now it's time to figure out when the Marketing Team meets.
>
> Who's on the marketing team?  Absolutely anybody who cares about the Sugar
> story and how best to tell it.
>
> When shall we meet?  I would like to propose:
>
> EVERY TUESDAY ON IRC AT 1600 UTC.
>
> For your local time:
>
>
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=11&day=25&year=2008&hour=16&min=0&sec=0&p1=0
>
> Since most of our contributors are in North America, South America and
> Europe, I'm shooting for meeting times that will mostly work for those
> folks.  It is perilously difficult to find a time that works for
> everybody.  That's the nature of global meetings.


Adelaide, Australia Wed 2:30 am, not good for me since working Thursday
mornings

I could make it to IRC I think for monday 1600 or friday 1600 - haven't used
IRC before but its on my list



> If I get enough +1s, I will select this meeting time as a weekly meeting
> time, and we will hold our first meeting on Tuesday, December 2nd.  Feel
> free to submit alternate proposals for times.
>
> --g
> _______________________________________________
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>
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