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

[Sean DALY]

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 9:30 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Effective marketing is targeted. Last year's typical G1G1 donor was
>> probably a generous IT type with a positive viewpoint concerning Free
>> software, curious about Sugar and perhaps even willing to be an
>> ambassador of the OLPC project. This market doesn't need a marketing
>> message; they are ready to donate and merely eager for practical
>> information (cost, available by Christmas or not, available outside
>> the USA, if so with localized keyboards or not, at same price or not,
>> ...). All that market needs is a press release today answering those
>> questions, and a press conference on November 17th, both of which
>> would probably get very complete media coverage. A three-minute film
>> demonstrating the laptop, showing OLPC people working on it,
>> mentioning and showing places around the world it is in use,
>> enumerating challenges, and finally asking for a donation in time for
>> the holidays, could be posted to YouTube during the press conference
>> (and an MPEG-2 broadcast version offered to the media for download).
>> Even a homey home video would be fine, perhaps even preferable.
>> Imagine G1G1 donors posting video responses.... The challenge this
>> time is fulfillment, but that seems well in hand with the Amazon
>> partnership. The most effective merchandising could be what Apple has
>> done for decades: a few decals/stickers slipped in the box before
>> shipment -- easily designed and printed with negligeable
>> picking/packing and shipment cost.
>
> +1
>
> This just came to me while sitting in traffic - a stylized bumper
> sticker: "My other XO is in Mongolia" (or Rwanda, Haiti, etc.
> Randomize the stickers or give them a few to choose from:-)) We have a
> lot of creativity on these lists. Let it rip!
>
>> Massive buzz could be generated by
>> another technique Apple has used for years: the education discount.
>> Offer the pair at $375 for educators and university students, and $425
>> for others. Imagine thousands of educators holding an XO in their
>> hands, the community feedback potential.
>
> This brings the overhead of verifying whose an educator etc. Apple
> already has this in place. How do we handle it?
>


My understanding is that Apple uses the honor system, skipping the
administrative cost. Why not just add a data entry field for the
education discount: School Name?

Also, an excellent opportunity to link to the Give Many program.

Sean



>> Seen from the outside, the far more important target market that may
>> need work is governments and education ministers. That group doesn't
>> need merchandising, they need reassurance that they will be
>> accompanied, that risks can be foreseen and contained, that there is
>> indeed a correlation between learning via an interface optimized for
>> children and later aptitude with office productivity software. IT
>> vendors invest fortunes in such "decision-maker" marketing, and
>> perhaps the best approach there is to find a small (or not), talented
>> ad agency willing to work pro bono for the exposure, experience, and
>> good citizen credentials.
>>
>> I would venture that the less said about the XO-2 at this time, the
>> better. I believe the priority should be to combat the perception that
>> OLPC has fallen short and discussing the future version might merely
>> confuse everyone, in particular leading to speculation that something
>> is not right with the XO-1. What G1G1 can do is remind everyone that
>> hundreds of thousands of OLPC XO-1s have shipped and are shipping, and
>> are serving children from Birmingham to Kigali.
>>
>
> +1
>
> The shipment numbers are impressive, and must be highlighted as much
> as possible. Everyone I've spoken to at first thinks of this as a
> faltered project, but then they hear the numbers and their eyes light
> up. Numbers assure that the project is alive and kicking.
>
> 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/
>
>
>> I am not sure I can offer any useful assistance, but I do have
>> expertise in transcoding video formats, it seems there was a DVD
>> produced last year which may just need to be transcoded to web
>> formats?
>>
>> Sean.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 1:09 AM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
>>> On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 3:42 PM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Update: Some of the computer press has picked up the story.
>>>>
>>>> But we could be all over the Mainstream Media, including having
>>>> Nicholas, Walter, Alan and others on all the talk shows. If they are
>>>> willing. Are any of you? This is the one time of year when ordering
>>>> something you can't get is a positive. We should aim for something
>>>> ridiculous, like a million units. (Although we shouldn't say that to
>>>> the media in so many words.) And then we should provide daily tracking
>>>> of order numbers and of production lead times, to encourage yet more
>>>> people to order as early as possible.
>>>>
>>>> We should be playing up the connection with the 40th anniversary of
>>>> the Dynabook idea, and of Doug Engelbart's Mother of All Demos. I have
>>>> been in contact with him and his people, and I know that they are keen
>>>> on that. We should be doing T-shirts, mugs, stickers, replica mice,
>>>> and all the rest of the merchandising, and getting several books
>>>> published. Why anybody at OLPC would want to waste the best marketing
>>>> time in the year is utterly beyond me.
>>>>
>>>> If you don't think my opinion counts, ask Amazon.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I agree with Ed Cherlin in that if G1G1v2 begins in 5 weeks, now is
>>> the time to get the campaign going. Five weeks isn't a lot of time.
>>> What I'd look for in the efforts this year is something a bit more
>>> orchestrated. Materials (posters, cards, stickers, shirts, etc) all
>>> coming across with a consistency in branding, image, look-n-feel, etc.
>>> If we do merchandise from somebody like Cafepress, we don't have to
>>> get into the business of printing, cutting etc.
>>>
>>> I cannot setup shop at Cafepress because the logos involved aren't my
>>> copyright, but if someone from OLPC initiates, I'd be glad to help.
>>>
>>> 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/
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 4:50 PM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 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.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is 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?
>>>>>
>>>>> This is a Hell of a way to run a global non-profit. We have one of the
>>>>> world's biggest brands, and we do nothing with it. We could be The
>>>>> Must-Have Gift for this Holiday season without any advertising
>>>>> expense, if we would just let the media have the story. Even with the
>>>>> manufacturing delays that we can predict. That's one of the draws for
>>>>> the Must-Have Gift of the year. Cabbage Patch died the moment you
>>>>> could get one off the shelf.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a great deal more I could say about this and other management
>>>>> issues, but this is not the place for it. If you want to hear any of
>>>>> it, you know where to find me.
>>>>>
>>>>> But!! I have a better idea. Who wants to fork the PR program, and help
>>>>> write an Open Source press release? We'll have to reverse engineer
>>>>> most of the content, but I have confidence in our community's
>>>>> abilities.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>>>> Community News
>>>>>> A weekly update of One Laptop per Child September 29, 2008
>>>>>
>>>>>> Our appearance outside the Marriott attracted a lot of people to out
>>>>>> tables; some of them were as far as from Finland; many of them knew
>>>>>> about "those laptops for children" and were asking about the ways to
>>>>>> acquire the laptops (we even got questions: are you selling the
>>>>>> machines?). So, in addition to conducting our scheduled testing, we also
>>>>>> served as "unofficial" OLPC marketing representatives, steering people
>>>>>
>>>>>> to the Nov 17 opening of the G1G1 event through amazon.com. The time we
>>>>>
>>>>>> were outside wasn't even the peak lunch time for people to fill that
>>>>>> square; just imagine the level of attention, if we were there at the
>>>>>> lunch time!
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Don't panic.--HHGTTG, Douglas Adams
>>>>> fivethirtyeight.com, 3bluedudes.com Obama still moving ahead in EC!
>>>>> http://www.obamapedia.org/ Join us!
>>>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai For the children
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Don't panic.--HHGTTG, Douglas Adams
>>>> fivethirtyeight.com, 3bluedudes.com Obama still moving ahead in EC!
>>>> http://www.obamapedia.org/ Join us!
>>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai For the children
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