Hi,
Obviously, Louis is not the only one to travel here ;-) I thought I
would post something on the 4th National conference of OpenOffice.org
in Italy.
This year the conference was taking place in Bolzano, a very nice city
lost in the Alps south of Tyrol. It was a charming place, the kind
that transforms you in a cookie monster as there is so much to eat and
the place looks so comfortable and welcoming. But I digress.
This year's convention was divided into two. The morning was the time
for a general track while the afternoon allowed for more technical
presentations. In my view as a guest, I have to say that I am
impressed by how well the Italian project manages itself, its growth
and its public image in Italy. I am also impressed by the actual
numbers, and I'll get down to this below. Let me thank everybody at
PLIO, especially Davide Dozza and Italo Vignoli. Italo is incidently
running a PR agency, and this is where things become very interesting.
The Italian native-language project has been embarking a few years ago
into a sustained and deeply thoughtout of its communication strategy.
The objective was obvious: spread the word about OOo, and in turn,
grow OOo's market share.
It seems this strategy has been working beyond expectations. The core
of this strategy, as I came to realize it, relies on a constant
communication an connection with the press and the media in general.
It requires know-how, time and dedication. It also requires some good
contacts and a real network of journalists. They have slowly but
surely been building the image and the reputation of the PLIO and
through the association the image of OpenOffice.org. Today, even
Microsoft is making sure to be careful with them, and has even sent
two of its representatives to the conference. PLIO strategy has also
been to go out in the open and to talk to the media and real people.
This is in my view key to their success: they went out of what is
traditionally conceived as "the community" and communicated with the
broader public and the IT world.
The numbers speak for themselves: I don't recall the exact numbers;
but if you think that there has been around 5 million PCs sold this
year in Italy, then you can match that number with around 4 million
downloads of OpenOffice.org in the same time. Of course, those numbers
aren't necessarily connected has insisted Italo; but as I said
afterwards, those downloads have to go somewhere. We witness the same
trend in Italy and elsewhere; it is now time, I think, that we focus
on spreading the word about it.
Italo, Davide, feel free to fill in the blanks about the conference.
Best,
Charles-H. Schulz.
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