[Marketing] SoaS Strawberry release debrief - marketing

Caroline Meeks caroline at solutiongrove.com
Mon Jun 29 09:56:48 EDT 2009


Sounds good. I am on board with 2 releases.

I did see at least one teacher blog in my alerts this time.

My schedule is nuts this week so I don't think it makes sense to try to find
a time I can make a meeting.

Thanks!
Caroline

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't mind rescheduling the marketing meeting if that is helpful.
> I'd like the two of you present to discuss debrief and next PR step.
>
> We're fine for GCompris and Activities portal - we had decided to lump
> them all in together in the Strawberry press release as mentions not
> as featured releases. My chief concern is getting something out during
> NECC. The Nexcopy site is up but needs work (bad logo etc), if it can
> be bent into shape quickly I think we should go for a release
> Wednesday the last day of NECC. I have added a number of NECC
> attending contacts to our list. Alternatively, we could hold off,
> although I'd be very pleased if at least some education bloggers
> picked us up before July.
>
> I'm not worried about getting too much coverage :-) we've been very
> clear that classroom-ready is still in progress. But I completely
> agree that content is the step which will raise our visibility; the
> graf in the PR about the Activities was picked up in many articles -
> the fact that SoaS has everything, OS/system/Activities/storage.
>
> the idea of the flurry (well, 2 releases :-) is to encourage media
> outlets/bloggers who passed us over at the first release to sit up and
> notice with the second. Anyone who does a news search will see right
> away that we are news.
>
> thanks
>
> Sean
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Caroline
> Meeks<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > First the bad news. Walter and I will be at the Lilla Fredrick tomorrow
> at
> > 11am and can't make the marketing meeting.
> >
> > Things went amazingly well with the last press release.  I would have
> been
> > impressed if all 3 had resulted in this.
> >
> > I am also getting worried that we aren't ready to make too big a splash
> > yet.  I think we should announce the nexcopy site and partnership for
> sure.
> > But I wonder if we should wait on GCompris + Activity portal.  I worry
> > teachers who use the backend will be disappointed.  Also I just wonder if
> we
> > want to dial it back a bit for a few months.
> >
> > I also think we are coming close to a far more impressive content story.
> > EBooks are moving right along. Teachermate is very impressive set of
> > content.  Being able to write about all 3 together would be very solid.
> >
> > I also think the Activity Portal is moving a great direction. People are
> > starting to make video's write down classroom ideas. We need to get these
> > into/linked to the Activity Portal in a nice way.  Being able to watch
> the
> > video embedded in the download page would be very cool.
> >
> > The other side is of course everything always gets better and GCompris +
> AP
> > is already awesome!  But my gut is saying we should wait till its
> > overwhelmingly impressive or it will be a disappointment vs what they
> just
> > saw with Sugar Strawberry.
> >
> > Just putting that out there to see whether it resonates with other people
> > I'm a long ways from sure.
> >
> > +1 to working on getting into the education magazines in major
> langugages.
> > This seems like a longer term project of gettng a feature lenght article.
> > Might be something Caryl can help us with.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Caroline
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 6:25 AM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Actually, based on the half a dozen teachers (identifying themselves
> >> as such) who came by the booth at LinuxTag - three of whom said they
> >> came to LinuxTag specifically to talk to us (!) and who have little
> >> technical expertise, in one case I booted Strawberry right on her
> >> laptop to show her how to do it - they are really, really interested
> >> in the idea of 1) recycling aged equipment sitting around or donated
> >> by students' parents 2) allowing kids to take their sticks home and
> >> show parents what they are doing in class.
> >>
> >> One teacher said she works with learning-impaired children and felt
> >> the simplicity and "gentleness" of the Sugar interface would be very
> >> helpful.
> >>
> >> The teachers were intrigued by the XO and the netbooks too and were
> >> all disappointed that XOs are not readily available. By the way,
> >> airport security was so intrigued by the little machines I almost
> >> missed my flight out as they looked at each one ("Can I have one for
> >> my kid?").
> >>
> >> The BBC covered us from the angle that we can run in unexpected
> >> places: old hardware, netbooks, Intel Classmates. True, that's a
> >> technical analysis, but teachers know about older equipment gathering
> >> dust.
> >>
> >> My personal hunch is that one well-written article in a major
> >> educator-targeted print publication will put us on the map overnight.
> >> With the caveat that such publications are country-specific, far more
> >> so than tech publications, so it may be more accurate to say that we
> >> should look at targetting one flagship publication for each widely
> >> spoken language in a shortlist: English, Spanish, French, German,
> >> Portugese?
> >>
> >> thanks
> >>
> >> Sean
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 5:09 PM, David Farning<dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
> >> wrote:
> >> > On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 9:24 AM, Sean DALY<sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >> these are good reflections I'll write up an in-depth debrief when I
> get
> >> >> home.
> >> >>
> >> >> but a launch cannot be limited to the marketing team, everyone has to
> >> >> pull together
> >> >>
> >> >> There are a number of things we tried for this release which
> >> >> multiplied our impact and whch we can use again.
> >> >>
> >> >> we are shifting perceptions, but in tech where the naysyers are. We
> >> >> are not reaching educators yet (at least not publicly, the press
> >> >> release went to ed depts & ministries worldwide)
> >> >
> >> > I was thinking about this in terms of something you said about not
> >> > doing a press release about SugarCamp Paris.
> >> >
> >> > I believe that you said something to the effect that no one care about
> >> > what we are doing.  What they care about is what we are accomplishing.
> >> >   You said it much eloquently, but that was the take way for me.
> >> >
> >> > It struck me that when viewed on a continuum,  the SoaS release is an
> >> > big accomplishment to tech leaning people but just a statement of what
> >> > we are doing to teachers.
> >> >
> >> > Sorry is this was obvious to everyone else.
> >> >
> >> > david
> >> >
> >> >> thanks
> >> >>
> >> >> Sean
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Caroline
> >> >> Meeks<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> >> >>> Things to do differently next time.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Make sure we have the Mac vdi ready to go and tested before we do
> PR.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Would it help to send an advanced copy to OLPC? It seems likely they
> >> >>> will be
> >> >>> called for comment on any major press announcement.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Are there lessons we should learn from the comments? I thought the
> >> >>> discussions about boot helpers were actually good. People got
> confused
> >> >>> and
> >> >>> others told them about the boot-helper CD.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Some people spend so much time connected to the internet that they
> can
> >> >>> not
> >> >>> imagine that everyone doesn't have 24-7 broadband.  We might want to
> >> >>> bring
> >> >>> that point out a bit more in the future. Explaining that kids in the
> >> >>> inner
> >> >>> city and rural areas do not have access to internet at home
> >> >>> necessarily and
> >> >>> that school internet access is often not sufficient to allow the
> >> >>> entire
> >> >>> school to use the internet intensely.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> I don't feel like we are turning out eyeballs into action as
> >> >>> efficiently as
> >> >>> we could.  Or to frame that more positively, we have succeed quite
> >> >>> well with
> >> >>> our mission of letting the world know Sugar Labs is alive and
> kicking
> >> >>> and
> >> >>> separate from OLPC.  Our next step is to use our PR to grow the
> Sugar
> >> >>> ecosystem.  How do we need to adjust our message and follow up
> towards
> >> >>> this
> >> >>> new goal?
> >> >>>
> >> >>> I don't have the answers.  But one though is when we write the next
> >> >>> Press
> >> >>> Release lets ask ourselves the question, who do we want to take what
> >> >>> action
> >> >>> as a result of this press release.  Then lets try to follow the path
> >> >>> they
> >> >>> would need to take to get to that action, looking for road blocks.
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 1:09 AM, David Farning
> >> >>> <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
> >> >>> wrote:
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Hey all,
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Nice work on the SoaS Strawberry release.  Overall, it went very
> >> >>>> well.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> The message that Sugar Labs is more than OLPC was conveyed clearly.
> >> >>>> By spreading the risk and cost of developments across several
> >> >>>> products
> >> >>>> or projects, we can greatly diminish the risk to any individual
> >> >>>> partner project.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> A couple of thoughts for the next release.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> 1.  Try to keep the marketing traffic to the marketing list.  This
> is
> >> >>>> not that marketing traffic is not important or interesting.
>  Rather,
> >> >>>> all of us have a limited amount of time.  We need to enable
> >> >>>> participants to easily and readily chose what bits of the project
> >> >>>> that
> >> >>>> have time to learn about and keep in their minds.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> 2.  Get on the develop team early about setting a road map so we
> can
> >> >>>> keep the public messages clear and consistent.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> thanks and good work
> >> >>>> david
> >> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >> >>>> Marketing mailing list
> >> >>>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >> >>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>> --
> >> >>> Caroline Meeks
> >> >>> Solution Grove
> >> >>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
> >> >>>
> >> >>> 617-500-3488 - Office
> >> >>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
> >> >>>
> >> >>> _______________________________________________
> >> >>> Marketing mailing list
> >> >>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >> >>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>
> >> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Caroline Meeks
> > Solution Grove
> > Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
> >
> > 617-500-3488 - Office
> > 505-213-3268 - Fax
> >
>



-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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