[IAEP] [Olpc-open] G1G1 (was Re: [Community-news] OLPC News (2008-09-29))

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 1:12 PM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yikes.  Undersaturated billboard markets...  I wonder how such things
> impact the desire to 'launch' new announcements.
>
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 8:21 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
>> FWIW, I saw a billboard in the Indianapolis airport this weekend
>> advertising last year's G1G1 program!!
>
>
> Ed, you're right that there isn't much visibility yet on the net.  We
> should do better (and earlier!) this year, and target more focused
> communities of interest.  I'm sure that the PR group will deal with
> things like billboards and print/radio/tv media, but there are
> hundreds of thousands of people already deeply engaged in missions
> aligned with ours whom we can reach more directly.
>
> You might add to the lists here:
>   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community_media
>
> Especially groups of interested people  (like the readers of
> boingboing and slashdot, which generally pick up OLPC news, but also
> specific mailing lists that only hear fringes of information about the
> project, like environment and sustainable dev groups, retired
> grandparents, &c).
>
>
> Last year we didn't draft much in the way of specific language for
> different audiences, but we should.   Notes I send to my family about
> the program are very different from the more generic emails that go
> out.
>
> SJ
>

Marketing largely happens through two channels: Mass media and
Word-of-mouth. Billboards, TV etc are mass media while talking to your
friends, or SJ's family is word-of-mouth. Lately, the network effect
has added to the power of word-of-mouth, hence the concepts of viral
marketing, etc.

One of the most interesting word-of-mouth channels has been the people
who come by your table at a cafe or bookstore or the airport when you
use your XO, or pretend to use it :-)  Obviously, these parties are
interested. So, an elevator pitch + pointing them in the right
direction should do the trick. I used to carry small slips of paper
with URLs and other information (sort of like a business card) last
year during G1G1. I'm thinking of doing actual business card size
templates with G1G1v2 information and some URLs + a line where I can
write down my e-mail address or phone as necessary (maybe a
double-sided business card). These are cheap to print and impressive
to hand out. Perhaps we can do "officially blessed" designs early on
this year.

Of course posters etc. at your neighborhood stores and malls are also
helpful. We did these last year. http://opensource.sfsu.edu/node/426

I even renamed my hotspot SSID to laptopgiving.org for a couple of
months in the hopes that my neighbors would pick up on the hint :-)

SJ - any specific mailing list to join for marketing efforts?

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/


> Ed writes:
>
>> This is the first time I have heard that G1G1 will start up again on
>> Nov 17. As far as I can tell, nobody in the outside world has picked
>> up on this yet.
>>
>> I s this a leak? Is it true? Has there been any outside announcement?
>> Since it doesn't show up in Internet news searches, I am certain that
>> there was no press release. Should I Slashdot this?
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