On Sun, 2007-09-09 at 15:58 +1200, Graham Lauder wrote: > It seems we were caught out a bit by SUN's generosity. For instance Aug 31 > is > the end of my financial year so I wasn't able to participate in the initial > stages of the discussion. I think that probably holds true for a number of > other people who have things outside the project that demand their attention > and so can't contribute immediately. This is something that those who are > gathering a salary from their OOo / Sun activities need to take into account. > > Many of us would absolutely love to be able focus 100% of our energies on > OOo, but for obvious reasons that's not always possible. > > A couple of suggestions for next time: > More time please, the longer the better, but at least four weeks, six would > be > better.
I think more, eg 3-6 months. I have several deadlines this month so while I can do some things that I can either delegate or coordinate, if it requires a lot of physical time I just can't do it. For example there is no real time to coordinate anything for software freedom day as its only a few days away but if we had decided to do that 6 months ago I could probably have mobilised groups like OSC, SFUK, LuGS and ODF to do something specific in the UK. To co-ordinate large numbers of people is not necessarily massively time consuming but requires quite a long lead in time for the message to get round and consensus on decision making to happen. > Have an RFP (Request for Proposals) process, Instead of having a mish mash of > ideas coming from all directions. +1 > > > For a worldwide campaign > > > tho' it would be a rather expensive way of getting to people and > > > definitely > > > limits the numbers that you can interface with. > > > > I think the real merit is also to initiate programs that we can later > > efficiently exploit. > > First then we need to define _how_ we're going to exploit this later. We > can't be expected to go after a moving target. > > What are these programmes and how can we efficiently exploit them later. > That's the question. 80% online ads 20% merchandise isn't a plan > Without a plan with a distinct objective then we are better to say to SUN > "Save your money for later and we'll come up with something really good > instead of something thrown together at the last moment." Depends on how Sun budgets though and whose pot the money is coming from. Could be an under-spend they lose if not spent by a certain date. There should be ways round that though eg invoice from a stakeholder. In principle though having an advertising and promotion plan and then looking for sustainable ways of supporting it seems to be sensible. > I would rather that we come up with definite plans to pitch, with concrete > goals , budgets and campaign strategies as well as a benchmarks to measure > the effectiveness of said campaign. And a strategy for making it sustainable rather than just a one off. > > > CDs are reasonably cheap but even then we're probably looking at > > > around US40c > > > ea for 20,000 including pressing, printing and freight. Assuming > > > local > > > packaging of course. Getting them packaged in a sleeve at source > > > considerably increases freight costs. It's better local in any case > > > because > > > they can then be printed with more relevant local info. > > > > Yes. That's always been my impression. Also, a cdrom is ephemeral. > > So is a usb drive. It will end up at the botom of a drawer because the > software on it will get superceded and the drive will be too small very > quickly but admittedly possibly not as fast as a cdrom. I'm waiting for > the day when we'll be able to embed OOo onto a credit card sized usb readable > device. Not that far away! I'm not sure about CDS or USBs. Its so easy to download and install stuff from the internet and most people we would target ie schools in Western economies have fast broadband. USB "giveaways" would probably be more useful in places where there is not so much broadband and the value of a USB flash drive is relatively higher. A better alternative in the west would be to get volunteers to sell USB drives for a small profit and send that back in to the centre to provide a sustainable sales budget. > > > As far as T-Shirts are concerned, there is a local guy who has a > > > machine that > > > will produce 600 t-shirts an hour with a two colour print. I'll > > > check to see > > > what he charges. > > > > Great! Again, for local things, like t-shirts, cdroms, etc., it's > > important to have models available and contacts too, so that we can > > get these out to meritorious events, give them as gifts, say, or even > > make them available for purchase (yes, you read that right) from OOo > > or a designated site. > > Heh, Not surprisingly you'll get no argument from me on that one! :) > I'd like to see every MarCon in the world running an ooogear.co.xx site in > their local area. That is a good idea. Could be a little competition to see who could raise the most money from sales. Give them a prize if they raise more than a certain amount etc. Provide incentives and look to lever the available resources. > As to T-shirts, I haven't pushed them in our local market because you really > need to have a specific target audience to get the numbers that warrant > spending the cash. T-shirts are a giveaway item and I don't have the cash to > spend on such a bulk order. I do however have contacts in India who can do > the bulk stuff cheaper than locally but orders have to be >2000 odd to make > it worthwhile for freight. Shared between Marcons, that number would not be enough and Sun's funding would easily cover it. If it failed to raise money the T-shirts could always be given away so its a low risk strategy with some chance of becoming sustainable. My son runs a local music venue and bands sell T-shirts, sweat shirts etc at a premium so they can make $10 an item. People buy them because they support the bands - even ones that are not very well-known. At the right events eg Lug Radio Live, Linux expos etc these shirts would sell to supporters of free software. "Wear OOo with pride" "Proud to support software freedom - OOo" etc. There are 10s of thousands of potential customers and volunteers who would sell them but you have to appeal to their emotions and make them feel they are doing their bit. You want to help? Great, sell 10 T-shirts for us. Its simple and predictable commitment. Actually it occurs to me that the Enterprise INGOT requires students to raise money for a good cause and since they are learning about open systems, some might use an OOo T-shirt business as a project do that. Its a simple way for kids to join and contribute to the community and the qualification requires them to raise money for a good cause. We already have 10,000 students registered and we are growing all the time so probably getting some to do this would be possible. The Enterprise INGOTs have only just been agreed with the regulators so it will probably take a few months but that gives us some time. > On ooogear I stick to embroidered gear and pens because my contacts are more > SMEs than any other For the University Campaign I was planning, screen > printed t-shirts would be much more appropriate. That was the Google:OOo > campaign idea that met with a deafening silence back in Feb. :) > > (NB: Both John and Bernhard have my Polo Shirts that they were supposed to > have before last conference but they got stuck in German Customs. Heh! and I > outfitted the others in the OOo team at LCA 07, Jon Coombes and Jim Watson. > Heh not bad since I had to guess their sizes before I left NZ) > > >For instance, someone downloads OOo and sees > > not only where to get updates, extensions, ancillary apps, support, > > but also lots of fun and totally tangible things. > > +1 in spades, plus local contacts. It is most important in the SME/SOHO space > for people to be able to pick up the phone and speak to someone. Maybe better to concentrate on shows and events. I have been offered stand space for free at a number of venues to promote OOo but I have no source of merchandise and no mechanism for knowing if my time is going to be usefully employed so I no longer take it up. I don't think there is a shortage of possible venues for promotion, it just requires some central support and volunteers willing to give up a day. NEA cost me about $5000 to attend and was not something I would personally repeat but it did prove you can sell OOo CDs to people who had never even heard of it and in fact selling for $1 was as successful as giving it away. So selling T-shirts at free software shows should raise further funds as well as getting the message out. Ian -- New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications www.theINGOTs.org You have received this email from the following company: The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
