Announcement for the OOo Marketing Discussion Mailinglist on copy: The Swiss OpenOffice.org Association
Hello allIt is time to introduce myself and our community to the list: My name is Daniel Stoni, I'm 42 years old and living with my family in Kaltbrunn, Switzerland. I joined the world of free/libre and open source software two years ago as IT consultant, activist, networker and engineer after having spent 12 years at IBM as software specialist, project manager, manager of software technical support and sales leader.
In Switzerland, we have a lively ecosystem of communities, a kind of central brain called /ch/open and about 400 companies delivering all kind of services with/around free software. Yet, we had to realize that particular efforts are required to further gain acceptance by end users for free desktop applications. And we learned about the contributions wanted and resources required to further build, develop, maintain tools for end user's environments.
A small group of enthusiasts met in Summer 2009 and decided to build a local community for OpenOffice.org. We joined this mailinglist and Florian's marketing calls occasionally in order to get accustomed to the way of communication and to get familiar with current topics. We had a lot of talks and studied the local situation. It soon became clear, that in order to meet user's expectations and company requirements, in order to involve current market players and to acquire substance to be invested in marketing and development of OpenOffice.org, we needed a business model and some legal foundation.
It is my pleasure now to announce our community, called OpenOffice.org Switzerland Association, and about the status of its activities: Since, we wrote our constitution, obtained formal/legal status of an association, worked on a business and coverage model, organized our back office, built the website, sketched a short term marketing plan, joined several events and initiated some networking and marketing activites. There was a press release in July. We now have about 20 members (7 companies) and we are preparing a direct mailing to be sent to about 250 companies (either using the product or delivering services for OpenOffice.org). A follow-up is scheduled within 3-4 weeks before we launch another press release to invite 'everyone'. We are currently finalizing instructions for and duties of active members (employee style contributors and open source companies), polish the workflow and implement tools necessary for membership/relationship management.
We will keep you informed as things develop.The home of the association is http://www.ooorg.ch - which currently is in german only, I'm afraid.
People interested in talks about ooorg.ch may meet us at the FrosCamp 2010, http://www.froscamp.ch (in Zurich, same location as FUDCon EMEA 2010) on Sept 17/18, at the opensourcetreffen.de in München on Sept 24 or at the ubucon.de in Leipzig on Oct 15-17. Chances are to meet us also at the oookwv.de in München on Nov 16/17.
Looking forward to collaborate with you and sharing experience and lessons learned.
Kind regards, Daniel Stoni President of OpenOffice.org Switzerland Association
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