new Home Page text?

[David Farning]

Please let me know, if and when you want me to push changes to www-testing.sl.o.

I will be offline most of the week, but I think I will be able to:
1.  Create git repo for the landing page. I think the convention is
slo-www at git.sugarlabs.org.
2.  Give Christian push access to sunjammer.

david

2009/2/28 Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com>:
> Thanks for this Walter
>
> The key word for me in your message is "invitation"... the goal of the
> static site has to be not only to explain the Sugar project, but to
> invite parents and teachers to try it. In a certain sense, if we can
> get prospective deployers to install and try Sugar and have positive
> experiences with kids, the platform itself will be the invitation to
> go further and deploy for active use.
>
> What usually works for a site like this is:
> 1) A big friendly logo, with slogan summing up the project in several words.
> 2) A big fat button for 1-click download, often dynamically adjusted
> to the client platform when technically feasible.
> 3) A few concise phrases communicating the benefits, often indicating
> the benefits exclusive to the project.
> 4) Easy-to-find links to more in-depth information, about us,
> alternate downloads, wiki, support, contact, etc.
>
> What may be different about our site is that the kid-to-grownup ratio
> may be higher... so presenting more like a book does makes sense I
> think
>
> From a marketing standpoint, where is Sugar in relation to the above?
> 1) The logo work is ready (yay!) and the work of building up the
> brand's values is before us.
> 2) We're not yet able to offer 1-click download with ease-of-use
> simple enough for most people :-(
> 3) However, we *can* work up the few concise phrases showing how
> special Sugar is, and which will lead into the site. I think the
> static homepage works as it is, but could be even more effective with
> fewer phrases. Some switching around may be better (This is where your
> suggestions come in, see below). A key component is the call to
> action, (which really is just a call to click further into the site
> and ultimately tru Sugar).
> 4) And, navigation just needs some improvement to link to the existing
> content in particular the rich wiki.
>
>
> I like the "Sugar Learning Platform" phrase, but I still think we need
> to do star marketing on the Activities. (Capitalizing the word is one
> way to confer that special status; there will surely be other ways.)
> Sugar's Activities will sell the platform, in my view.
>
>
> If I could take inspiration from what you wrote... trying to be
> concise, inviting, factual yet optimistic, with call to action:
>
> ***************************
> The award-winning Sugar Learning Platform promotes collaborative
> learning through Activities which encourage critical thinking, the
> heart of a quality education.
>
> Designed from the ground up especially for children, Sugar and its
> Activities offer a real alternative to traditional office-metaphor
> business software.
>
> Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every
> child with equal opportunity for a quality education and is used every
> school day by almost one million children in over 40 countries.
>
> Originally developed for the One Laptop Per Child XO-1 netbook, Sugar
> now runs on most computers. Try it with a child today - it's free!
> ***************************
>
> Is something like this what we want, instead of the existing homepage text?
>
> As an idea, text like the above on the homepage... and the exisiting
> homepage text folded into the about/overview page?
>
> In my view, this choice is not critical (yet) but it would be great if
> the site could be live for the 0.84 launch when we will likely have
> higher-than-usual educator visits with our planned PR push.
>
> thanks
>
> Sean
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
>> In keeping with some of your thoughts about reworking the home page, I
>> hobbled together some new text--hopefully not all meaningless jargon.
>> Hey marketing team, we could use some feedback.
>>
>> ---
>>
>> The Sugar Learning Platform promotes collaborative learning through
>> rich-media expression. It is an alternative to the ubiquitous
>> "desktop" metaphor that has dominated computing since the 1970s. (We
>> are motivated in part by the observation that children are not office
>> workers and nothing in their future will resemble office work from
>> 30-years ago.) Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to
>> provide every child with the opportunity for a quality education—it is
>> currently used by almost one-million children worldwide.
>>
>> Many schools have invested in computers for their classrooms and an
>> increasing number of households also have computers, but to date the
>> impact of this investment on our children's learning has been
>> marginal. With the Sugar Learning Platform, we can recoup that
>> investment by engaging children in the "hard fun" of critical
>> thinking, which is at the heart of a quality education. Originally
>> developed for the One Laptop per Child XO-1 netbook, Sugar is now runs
>> on most computers.
>>
>> [some statement to invite them in to the site to learn more?]
>>
>> ---
>>
>>
>> -walter
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> _______________________________________________
>> Marketing mailing list
>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>
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