On Fri, 2007-10-12 at 18:50 -0700, NoOp wrote: > That said, the largest stumbling block to OOo's lack of market share > isn't price, file compatibility, or other issues raised in the article. > Instead it's the continued lack of a proper support staff and ease of > upgrades/updates.
Yes, if the components could be downloaded separately in < 20 meg each with automatic updates to new versions a lot more people would use it. Key people are aware of it. Unfortunately its a very big job to change things. 0) They don't know it exists or if they do they don't really know how powerful it is and anyway their friend gives them a pirate copy of MS Office. > 1) They've used it all of their school lives and it's generally > installed already on their computer, > > 2) the school only supports MS & doesn't want to deal with OOo because > MS is what their techs know, Which is why you need a strategy based on education professional knowledge, not selling head to head against MS. Make it part of the curriculum and give educational reasons to use the software that rumps the mechanistic use of one application. http://theingots.org/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=136 http://theingots.org/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=33 > 3) when they do use OOo there is no formal tech support (even with > StarOffice this is a problem) and the website is mind-boggling in trying > to find help even for experienced users. Hence they may resort to the > users mail list who's responses are from other users & a few steady user > volunteers like myself, Quite a few of us have spent time supporting the users list. Its a valuable job but there are also many other ways of deploying time and best matching it to expertise. > 4) they simply don't have time, nor wish to deal with alternatives. They > may try it once or twice, but the bottom line is if an 18-21 year old in > college is working on something, they simply don't want to deal with an > alternative, be it free or otherwise. They want something that is the > norm, that their school & professors require, that they don't have to > send an email to a users mail list to get help if the install craps out, > and just works. After all, many of them were sent off to college with a > new laptop in the last minute 'send the kid to school' rush, and in most > cases that laptop included MS Office. If not they can get the student > version for about $59 USD from MS. So why bother? > > *So why bother?* > > Perhaps OOo should revive the education & library projects that seem to > have been dropped by the wayside. Anyone here visited the Libraries and > Public Administrations Project lately? I used to lead the education project. To revive it you need people with the expertise and contacts in those worlds willing to put time and effort into it. They are hardly likely to do that when instead of helping them, obstacles and discouragement are the reward. > http://marketing.openoffice.org/pa/ > > or how about: > > http://marketing.openoffice.org/education/schools/ > > or > > http://marketing.openoffice.org/education/schools/univs/index.html > > how about: > > http://education.openoffice.org/ > > Can anyone make sense of any of those web pages (other than they are > basically stale and serve no purpose any longer?)? Ever thought about why? Hint: Read your post that implies those that made some effort to try and get better effect from the resources being made available are a bunch of nutters. > Here, try this: > > http://marketing.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=libraries > > If OOo want to fix the Marketshare issue mentioned in the article, then > OOo marketing need to forgo the silly 'give a OOo t-shirt to a poor kid' > thought and go back into mainstream library and education markets. If > kids grow up with OOo in the classroom they *will* use it into their > college years. So what do *you* suggest should be done? I have spent 4 years setting up a UK government accredited awarding body with open systems qualifications and a strategy to get them into schools around the world which appears to be working. Its not a quick fix, its a 10 year strategy. The company is now sustainable from its income with projects in South Africa funded by Shuttleworth and others with partners across Europe. We will produce an ever-increasing range of free learning resources from this income and extend the valued qualifications backed by the British Government (and other governments in due course) to sustain development. All this despite rather than because of people like you telling me I'm some sort of nutter or worse. > Ironically, Sun with StarOffice has made *no* dent in the > education/library markets despite the fact that SO is basically *free* > to students and educational institutions. Mainly because Sun are just as clueless about marketing to schools as most others who haven't been in that culture professionally. Its specialist stuff, just as writing code for OOo is specialist stuff. I probably no more about writing code that Sun engineers know about marketing to schools. Its horses for courses. Now I'm off to do something a bit more productive. 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]
