[SoaS] [Marketing] Activities and Features for SoaS V4

[Martin Dengler]

Hi John,

On Mon, Jun 07, 2010 at 06:33:04PM -0400, John Tierney wrote:
> > > We must always remember the Key contributor we are trying to get on
> > > board is the Elementary Teacher and Students.
> > 
> > ..."Key contributor" to SoaS?  Or to Activity authorship?  Please
> > don't mix the two up - they're quite different.  And please don't mix
> > up creation of the SoaS product (.iso) - the process I think you want
> > to map out - with contribution to the SoaS project.  One is a part of
> > the other, and - as evidenced by the liveliness of the SoaS mailing
> > list - one needn't understand how the .iso is created to contribute.
> > But to understand how the .iso is created one needs a heck of a lot
> > more information than the SoaS release schedule.  Please be precise
> > about to what you want to attract contributions via these visuals.
> 
> This seems to be a perfect example. A sketch of how these are different and
> separated would be helpful. What may seem very evident to you and the
> expertise you have may be very different from me or an Elementary
> Teacher.

I hope you find someone who has the time and knowledge to put
something like this together.  You and I agree that it would be good
to have.  The point of my mail was to explain why I don't think it's a
good use of developer (or my) time, as there are more important things
for educators to understand than how the .iso is made.

As someone who does know how the .iso is made and has been involved in
scheduling limited resources of a small pilot project, I think I have
both the technical skills and the domain knowledge to advise on the
priority.  We're all volunteers and free advice is worth every penny,
so of course you can ignore the advice and keep seeking people that
will do this documentation.  I hope you find someone.  I'm not
optimistic - note that nobody else has even bothered to respond to
you.

If I asked for something and someone who knew how to do it told me a)
I was close to figuring it out; b) it wasn't a good way for them to
spend their time; and c) nobody else even replied to me, I would
decide how important it was to me and either a) finish figuring it
out; or b) try to find something better to ask for.

> Understanding that we need additional volunteers in all areas

Exactly.  Am I'm telling you this area is less important than others.
You have a different opinion:

> Visuals that help explain our Processes and Needs would be helpful
> when I go talk to Dean Of Computer Science, Dean of School of
> Education, and Dean of Business School looking for their Professors,
> Graduate and Undergraduate Students to join the Sugar Labs
> Community.

And that's fine.  Go ahead.  We're volunteers, and we're not pressed
to resolve our differences.  I really hope you get your visuals!

> From what you have written you seem to have a complete handle on these relationships 
> and I ask if you might be willing to share that through a sketch.

I am willing but I can't do everything.  If it's worth doing it's
worth doing well, and I don't have the time to discover enough about
your audience to make a presentation meaningful, verify all my
informal understandings, include references to canonical wiki pages
and sources of further information / study, and all the other things
that are needed to do it properly..  I think we have plenty of
half-completed information out there and I don't want to add to.

> If you believe that this type of collaboration is not worth your
> time then all I can say is I respect your opinion and your stance.

I do believe that.  If it sounds harsh, at least you're getting some
response.  There are many things we all have that we could do.  I wish
you luck - and I wasn't kidding when I said you're close, keep going!

> Thanks for Your Comments!
> 
> John Tierney

Martin
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