new Home Page text?

[Walter Bender]

I just sent Christian slight changes to Sean's rewrite. I'll be
looking at the rest of the pages over the next 24 hours as well. Sean,
would you have time to do the same?

-walter


On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 2:28 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> 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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>>
>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org