[Marketing] SoaS Strawberry release debrief - marketing

[David Farning]

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 8:05 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.

I'll try to tune in.
david

> 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.

I am totally on board with implementation.

> 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
>>
>