[Marketing] press release opportunity...

[David Farning]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 6:23 AM, Sean DALY<sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree with you David, an excellent analysis.
>
> Walter - beyond my personal belief in the worth of software freedom
> :-) being part of the FOSS ecosystem is a key differentiator for us
> and i agree that should be part of the message.

I consider the fact that Sugar Lab provides an open source,
collaboratively developed platform which is not under the control of a
single company or SABDFL is a critical need that Sugar Labs meets.

david

> Sean
>
>
>
> On 7/30/09, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 4:36 AM, Sean DALY<sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > OK but I will need to think a little bit about this (and for the
>>  > moment no internet access in the house, truck unloaded yesterday & we
>>  > are in boxes, internet will take a couple of weeks at least)
>>  >
>>  > I have promised Tomeu to assist in recruitment but this is a tricky
>>  > one... the "magic" if I may say so is to find an "angle" that is
>>  > newsworthy... that will bubble to the top choices a journalist or
>>  > blogger will choose to write about. Unfortunately, "we need help" or
>>  > "we are succeeding an ambitious technical challenge", etc. are not
>>  > newsworthy in and of themselves. So we need to find a link, a "hook"
>>  > to generate newsworthiness. My instinct is to springboard from Sugar
>>  > on a Stick which has already captured the imagination of many writers
>>  > and bloggers.
>>  >
>>  > Marketing, advertising, even recruitment springs first from emotional
>>  > response, then reasoned analysis. If you listen to Red Hat's CEO in
>>  > the BBC link I sent two days ago you will hear him try to motivate
>>  > potential recruits in terms of social responsibility and making the
>>  > world a better place. I think all of us are deeply motivated by the
>>  > desire to educate children.
>>
>>
>> I have come to the same conclusion.
>>
>>  I have been uneasy about our shopping list of needs approach to
>>  engaging new contributors.  Every open source article about attracting
>>  and engaging contributors talk about providing a easily accessible
>>  list of activities for contributors to get started.  Yet, when ever I
>>  read those lists (and our lists) I end up saying 'Why should I help
>>  with this.'
>>
>>  Further research on non-profit and my own personal experience has lead
>>  me to the conclusion that people help social benefit organizations,
>>  such as Sugar Labs, because we 'meet needs' not because we 'have
>>  needs.'  As an example, I don't donate to Wisconsin Public Radio
>>  because they run those annoying 'please help us' campaigns every
>>  couple of months.  Instead, I believe that Wisconsin Public Radio is
>>  providing a valuable service, thereby meeting a valuable community
>>  need.
>>
>>  I think this was why the SoaS release made such a splash in the tech
>>  community.  It was widely perceived as 'meeting the need' that Sugar
>>  be available without purchasing an XO during their limited periods of
>>  G1G1 availability.  The 'value' of freeing Sugar appeals to certain
>>  people.
>>
>>  OLPC in general is such a compelling project because it aims to 'meet
>>  the needs' of students in developing nation by leverage technology.
>>  The 'value' of education and the 'usefulness' of technology resonate
>>  _very_ strongly with many people.
>>
>>  Overall, the message can take the form of:
>>  1.  Here is the need we aim to meet -
>>  2. Here is our track record on making progress towards meeting that need -
>>  3. Here is how you can help us meet that need -
>>
>>
>>  david
>>
>>
>>  > Perhaps, Slashdot-style, we can announce a technical challenge with a
>>  > deadline (cf. JFK man on the moon). For example: "Sugar on a Stick is
>>  > a liveUSB system and is based on liveCD solutions which impose certain
>>  > limitations on writable media; one of the consequences is a higher
>>  > failure rate for USB sticks than optical media. We want Sugar on a
>>  > Stick to be absolutely reliable for children and their teachers; who
>>  > can help us design and implement an improved liveUSB architecture by
>>  > May 2010, to prepare Sugar on a Stick for wide deployment by the
>>  > beginning of the school year?"
>>  >
>>  > This is only an idea, but the brainstorming aspect of it - we want to
>>  > do something which has never been done before - could raise awareness
>>  > among sharp geeks who could bring their experience to the project. It
>>  > would position ourselves as being at the leading edge of innovation,
>>  > bringing high tech on a $5 stick to kids. We could imagine a "contest"
>>  > with the only prize being the implementation of the best idea; but a
>>  > wiki page where we invite geeks to propose their best take on the
>>  > subject could build traffic amongst prequalified developers.
>>  >
>>  > This is a double-edged sword, because there are some pundits who love
>>  > to diss Sugar and OLPC by implying that Python is a silly choice, or
>>  > OLPC "failed" by doing X and not doing Y or Z. But we could maybe
>>  > minimize mindless trashing by asking the community for the best ideas.
>>  >
>>  > This might work best as a blog post not a press release... although if
>>  > we raise the bar of the challenge high enough, some tech writers might
>>  > want to write about it if it is a press release too.
>>  >
>>  > We absolutely have to improve the Getting Involved page as part of our
>>  > recruitment too, I had had some suggestions a couple of months back
>>  > but no time for me to find those today :-(
>>  >
>>  > I will think about this some more, feedback appreciated thanks
>>  >
>>  > Sean
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 4:01 AM, Walter Bender<walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  >> I will spare you the discussion details, but an idea that emerged from
>>  >> IRC would be PR around our technical challenges in order to recruit
>>  >> more interest. We could get Tomeu, et al. to draft some descriptive
>>  >> text and you could work your magic???
>>  >>
>>  >> -walter
>>  >>
>>
>> > _______________________________________________
>>  > Marketing mailing list
>>  > Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>  > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>  >
>>
>