[Marketing] [SoaS] SoaS 3 (Mirabelle) release 5/25 & publicity/recruitment plans

[Martin Dengler]

On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 08:56:27PM +0200, Sean DALY wrote:
> Our problem is the incoherence between the two previous versions of
> SoaS and this one

"Versions" between which there is "incoherence"?  You're talking
software to developers, and your marketing is showing.

> and the incoherence with our marketing strategy

Ah - you mean "you're not listening to me".  It's so much easier to
work with when you just say it.

> which is to promote a rich ecosystem of Activities for which Sugar is
> the support.

A "rich ecosystem of Activities"!?  How can you have anything
figuratively like an "ecosystem" of just activities?!  What precisely
is the target audience for that marketing message besides developers
who want to save an endangered Activity before the Fedora poachers
sell it for its valuable coding style?

> We need to reach developers where they are which is why I've
> suggested we advertise for volunteer developers

Oh so it's developers who can't install Adblock or don't ignore
adverts they see on the web?

> And we need to reach educators.

Ah...the target audience is non-developer educators...

> The installation and unfamiliarity barriers of Sugar remain too
> formidable. That's why it's so important to have a SoaS Creation
> Kit.

...who don't know how to install linux but could use a way to install
linux without knowing how to do so?  I see why we need some serious
marketing.

> But, we're bumping up against Fedora limitations there.

Did you just say it's a Fedora limitation that educators don't know
how to install linux?  Or that the Fedora limitation is that educators
don't know how to drive Sugar?

The limitation is that we have too many people that don't know how to
install OSes or develop a new UI trying to fool other people that
don't know how either into thinking it's easy and quick and like
paying Steve Jobs all their money to use the AppStore, but that this
time they can download an instant, better school.  Re-read the first
paragraph of the SoaS Strawberry press release if you think I'm being
harsh.

Let the distributors and their coterie figure out how to make it easy
to install linux and stop criticising their progress with
generalities.

Take their advice on the technical installation issues rather than
encouraging a gaggle of half-baked installation processes or
"solutions".

Use the eager but non-OS/UI-savvy people to badger the developers of
the "rich ecosystem of Activities" to:

- decide which of five or so current activities with "Read" in their
title will actually be the supported default for reading text or pdf
or ebook files; and

- make a working, collaborating Write; and

- make a usable, supported Record.

I know you and others have done a lot for SL and that's great.  But SL
has bigger marketing "coherence opportunities" than somebody wanting
to make a new version of SoaS without marketing's approval.

> Sean

Martin
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