Hi, I'm new to bizdev, but I'd like to add my comments and make some suggestions. I hope I don't step on any toes.
I think the primary mission of bizdev should be: "To support and accelerate the growth of OO related companies by providing an array of targeted services and resources." This parallels the mission of most business incubators. Specifically I think the most important services are/should be: 1) The Business Directory This Project can become something very useful, to the people looking for OO services and to the businesses listed in the directory. But the information is useless unless it is organized and accurate. I think that we should raise the barrier to being added to the list slightly, so that we can be sure that the consultants listed are serious about supporting OO. I think every consultant listed should provide the name of the company, full address, phone, and a link to their website. The link should point to a page that details the kind of OO services they provide and link back to the directory. This proves the individual is serious and also provides an easy way to validate the list. If the site is down the company is probably no longer in business. If we simply have a disorganized wiki with no barrier to entry and no validation it becomes useless to prospective clients which in turn makes it useless to the companies listed. The business directory as it stands, is written by consultants, for consultants. A potential client is not going to enjoy parsing CPSHILT. It needs to be formatted with it's prospective audience in mind. Also we need to consider how this audeince locates this list in the first place... google? openoffice.org? ask on the mailing lists? 2) A Community for Consultants This can be provided with a mailing list, forum, or any number of technical implementations, but growing an active community isn't so simple. We need to find ways to reward participation. We also need a core team, to help the community build steam. 3) Featured Business I think we need to highlight one exceptional business on a regular basis (weekly/monthly). A short article, pictures, a little technical information, how to solve a specific problem, advice on dealing with clients , etc. The featured business would supply most of the content. This creates positive exposure for the featured business and provides incentive to create content. The content provides information for new businesses, and stimulates activity and dialogue in the community. I suggest working on these three, as this projects core missions, until it is successful enough to take on others. I also think this group should stay seperate from marketing, although we should move projects like whitepapers etc, to marketing, and concentrate on business community development. Whitepapers and such cross over, but I think should fall under the mission of marketing. Does anyone agree? Is there enough of a community out there now to make this work? If not can we recruit anybody? -- Best regards, Sherman Boyd --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
