[ubuntu-marketing] Announcing Ubuntu Gutsy translations opening
Hey guys, Here's an interesting opportunity to flex your marketing muscles :) Today, we've announce the opening of Gutsy translations in Launchpad. I've posted to various lists and popped a story on The Fridge. This opening is slightly different because it is much earlier in the development cycle than for previous releases. Previously, Launchpad had to go offline to import the translation strings for a new Ubuntu release. Following some great work from the Launchpad Translations guys, the import can now happen while Launchpad remains online. So, this means the import can happen whenever the Ubuntu team are ready for it to go ahead. It's a pretty straightforward internal announcement, really. But I think there's scope to give it a bit more of a push, if we can find the right way to do it, because it now means Ubuntu translators should have much longer to work on each release. What would you guys recommend, if anything? -- Matthew Revell - talk to me about Launchpad Join us in #launchpad on irc.freenode.net -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Replace the UWN with something a little more Social?
Hey Adam, On Thu, 2007-03-01 at 14:17 -0500, Adam wrote: We were just talking about this in IRC and I was advised (sarcastically) to bring my idea forward on the mailing list. The UWN has stagnated and frankly the form in which it was presented is an out-dated model. I think it would be a shame to lose UWN because we feel its delivery method isn't fashionable. If we feel its content can be better handled, say as ad-hoc posts, then that's certainly a good discussion to have. I want to propose we move to a more social solution, that allows for more community involvement. A forum post weekly would be sufficient, but I'm more in favor of a blog-style solution. I'm not sure what you mean by a more social solution. UWN is edited on a wiki - the most collaborative way possible, without getting into real time collaborative editing. I think replacing UWN by email with a forum post would be a mistake. UWN is currently pushed to people, a forum post requires people to go find it. The benefits of the blog style solution are obvious: * The news is delivered as it happens, in an editorial format that is interesting to users. * Users are able to comment and give feed back on individual editorials * Users are able to add to the editorial themselves through a comment solution. * RSS allows this news letter to be delivered directly to anyone who has subscribed to it. I think this is more an argument to rethink The Fridge, than to ditch UWN. I've been out of touch lately, but I'm willing to bet there'd be a fair bit of support for integrating The Fridge fully with the marketing team. That way, The Fridge isn't at the mercy of an exclusive coterie of editors. UWN, however it's delivered, can still have a place, I think. Some people may not want to track a blog but enjoy receiving a weekly digest. It's good to work out why UWN exists and who its for. I feel that ideal sites for this would be wordpress or Blogger.com (blogger may be easier to set up). What do you guys think? As others have said, we don't need another site. Let's make the most of what we have. Let's have a debate about what the Fridge is for, what UWN is for and how we should move them forward. I've been concentrating on Launchpad for the past few months, so I've neglected the Fridge lately. It's an important barometer of the Ubuntu community, though, and we shouldn't let it go through these active-fallow cycles. So, if the marketing team does take over the Fridge, we'd need to work out how to decide who gets to be an editor, etc and what content we want it to have. Once that's sorted, it's just a matter of switching discussion to this list, rather than the close fridge-devel list. Any thoughts? -- Matthew Revell - talk to me about Launchpad mrevell in #launchpad, irc.freenode.net -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Tesco supermarket software
Apologies for my absence recently. Day job has been mad busy. I'm getting ready to leave my current job, so should be back here regularly soon. Tesco - major UK/European supermarket - is rebadging software from Formjet (http://www.formjet.co.uk/500-products.htm). BBC has a story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5396488.stm Quite apart from questions of whether people will buy this, rather than carry on pirating MS Office, perhaps there's an opportunity for Ubuntu and OpenOffice with other supermarkets. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Communicating Ubuntu
Hi guys, I've started writing up some thoughts on how we can improve Ubuntu's communications. I'd really appreciate your thoughts, either through comments on the blog post or here on the list. http://www.understated.co.uk/blog/2006/communicating-ubuntu-part-1-who/ Cheers! -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Fedora marketing team chatting about Fedora, Ubuntu and Apple
The Fedora marketing team have been chatting, recently, about their thoughts on the positioning of Ubuntu and Fedora. https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2006-August/msg00057.html -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] High Profile Switcher..Almost
On 18/08/06, Jan Claeys [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I spoke to Cory Doctorow, a few weeks back, to ask if he'd do audio and text interviews with us, for a possible switcher campaign (SU thing, perhaps). He was well up for it but did ask that I get back in touch in September. I'd prefer non-techie high-profile users, e.g. well-known artists... Great! I look forward to seeing your contributions :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Ubuntu Weekly News - Issue 10
Hi all, I'm working Ubuntu Weekly News issue 10. However, my Dad's been taken ill, so I'm going to struggle to complete it on my own. This is actually a pretty cool opportunity for people to get involved. Take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue10 and feel free to start filling it out. Here are some ideas for what you could do: - Write up a feature of the week. - Contribute community news. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] High Profile Switcher..Almost
On 11/08/06, John Little [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mr. Engadget Almost Loves Ubuntu I spoke to Cory Doctorow, a few weeks back, to ask if he'd do audio and text interviews with us, for a possible switcher campaign (SU thing, perhaps). He was well up for it but did ask that I get back in touch in September. I've created a wiki page for us to log high-profile switchers, for possible interview when we're ready for them: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/Switchers Of course, this could cross-over into case studies but for SpreadUbuntu (or whatever), I think we'd be going for the wow factor, a little more. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Community metrics - how OpenSolaris does it
On 11/08/06, Rich Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Each month, the OpenSolaris project's marketing guy (Patrick Finch) posts a page of stats. They show what's going on in the OpenSolaris world and how people come across OpenSolaris. When you say ..some of this data, you mean pick his brain for ideas? No, I mean that it would be helpful if we could get similar data but for Ubuntu. We can already get some of the info| but there's quite a bit that would require, I imagine, input from Matthew Nuzum (Canonical's Web Master). -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Community metrics - how OpenSolaris does it
On 11/08/06, john levin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Do you have a link for that page? I just looked over opensolaris.org, but couldn't find it. Sorry, I thought I'd included that in my original mail. Here it is: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/marketing/metrics/latest/ -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Contribute doc and the Marketing team page
On 14/08/06, Andreas Lloyd [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To solve this, I have made a TeamPageTemplate [2] in the Ubuntu Wiki to offer a common structure for team wiki pages to make it easy for new contributors to get an overview of the information that they will need to get involved. I have to say, I like the way our team page on the wiki has a Find us section right up front. Ubuntu wiki pages don't make it that easy, that I can see, to have anything other than a linear layout. So, we need the first item to be for new people, and how they can find where we are, I think. I hope you are willing to adopt this structure for the marketing page. I don't think we're that far off now. I'd be reluctant to see the contact info drop down the page. Thanks for the input :) I would also like you to have a look at the ContributeToUbuntu section on the Marketing section [4] so that you can make sure that it properly reflects how you want people to get involved. Will do. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Community metrics - how OpenSolaris does it
On 16/08/06, john levin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 1: Most of this data seems eminently automatable, so it might not be that much work. Yeah, and I think some of it will already be available. Matthew Nuzum - are you reading? If so, what sort of stats can we get for the Ubntu websites, downloads from the websites, etc? Also, just making stats available will be an incentive for someone to mash them up in new and interesting ways. True. If there were no effort involved in their compilation, I'd say that we'd definitely want the stats. I'm gonna ask Patrick from OpenSolaris how he compiles his material, to see if we can pick up some tips. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing Team from a Newcomer's Perspective
Hi Dave, On 14/08/06, Dave Sullivan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Being a newcomer to the Marketing Team, Welcome to the team! I would love to help out, but again, I just feel slightly intimidated. Thanks for raising that. I'm personally disappointed that you feel intimidated, as a new person to the team. Feel free to join us on irc or mail me personally if you have any questions. It seems like there's so many sub-projects going and very little communication or organization between them. Actually, we have a few active projects. You can find out more at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam I can see that, by looking at this mailing list and some parts of the wiki, it does appear that a bomb has gone off in a mad factory. Take a look at the project list and see if you can dive into one of those. Within time, the posts about *doing* things will outweigh the I think, therefore I market stuff that's getting a bit tiring now. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] if you want an objective for the marketing team this should be it
On 13/08/06, Corey Burger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So please, I need help with the following wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EdgyKnot2 What goes on this? Anything that has changed since Dapper. This includes new GNOME, tomboy and f-spot on the desktop, etc. Any chance of a description of how people find out what has changed since Dapper? -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The Fridge needs you!
On 13/08/06, Jan Vancura [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In fact, I'm thinking that perhaps both the magazine and spreadubuntu could be integrated into the fridge itself. I think our grass-roots advocacy website should remain as that, and not become confused with the Fridge. The Fridge is a great way to get content out to a wide range of people. SpreadUbuntu would, in my view, be aiming for different people - i.e. keen Ubuntu advocates - and would be equipping people in that task. I think it merits a separate entity. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Community metrics - how OpenSolaris does it
Each month, the OpenSolaris project's marketing guy (Patrick Finch) posts a page of stats. They show what's going on in the OpenSolaris world and how people come across OpenSolaris. Now, OpenSolaris has the advantage that Sun pays a number of people, including Patrick, to work either full time or part time on the project's marketing. However, I'm pretty certain we could get at least some of this data for Ubuntu. Question is: do we want it and, if so, how would we use it? -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Case studies page now online
Hey guys, The My Story page is now online. This is a great opportunity for us to gather case studies, short or long, of Ubuntu's use in organisations. If you know someone who is using Ubuntu - or one of its derivatives - in a business, school, government or other organisation, visit the My Story page. It's not really for stories of personal use, from what I can tell. Perhaps we could contact our Loco Teams to see if they can help us dig up some good stories. http://www.ubuntu.com/mystory -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Bar charts required for Fridge
Hi guys, Any of you fancy helping out with a Fridge story? Here are the details: Possible Fridge story: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1202417,00.html has some great data about Ubuntu and security (it would be great to see some of that data in a bar chart if that's possible!). If someone wants to create some bar charts, and/or other graphics to accompany the story, please get in touch. We're looking for someone with a designer's eye and who can turn something round fairly quickly. Cheers! -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Launchpad team memberships fixed
Based on recent discussions on this list, I have: 1. changed Marketing Team LaunchPad memberships to never expire 2. re-instated anyone whose membership recently expired. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Launchpad team memberships fixed
On 02/08/06, Vid Ayer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 8/2/06, Matthew Revell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Based on recent discussions on this list, I have: 1. changed Marketing Team LaunchPad memberships to never expire hmm.. only 23 memberships will never expire whilst 31 still have expiration dates Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant to say that in future, new memberships are set not to expire. Unfortunatel, I haven't got time to go through each membership now, but I get an email each time one expires. I'll renew them as they expire. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] User surveys for gathering data
On 31/07/06, Melissa Draper [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've composed a wiki page to document the gathering of User data and enable interested people to collaborate on the process. The wiki page is located at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/SurveyQuestionIdeas Superb, thanks. I've added a couple of bits, specifically: - We need to be careful to separate the ideas of customer from user. - One of our tasks is decide which groups we can best target our efforts at. Today's pretty busy for me but I've got some ideas for other things to add, too. Thanks again :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Ubuntu Magazine market research
On 29/07/06, Vid Ayer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Should the Magazine strictly cater to new users only ? Maybe we could also include varied content for other not-so-new-to-Ubuntu readers viz. our *current Ubuntu-user* base. This will ensure a larger readership. Diluting a publication's focus doesn't ensure a larger readership. Magazines, in particular, are quite specific in who they target. Creating an Ubuntu Magazine that tries to be everything to everyone would, I believe, result in something that doesn't really appeal to anyone. Let's look at how the project is progressing. I may have missed something, but I haven't seen anyone say that they'll write for it. I've seen lots of discussion about mock-ups and the table of contents, but no actual content. Surely the last thing the magazine needs is an even wider target readership. It seems people don't have time to deal with its current focus, let alone something wider. Matt East has posted in this thread saying that he believes the magazine overlaps with Ubuntu Weekly News and that efforts would be better directed there. Unless someone can demonstrate that an Ubuntu Magazine would cater for a distinct and proven need, I agree with Matt that it would be better for the team and Ubuntu generally if people helped out with UWN instead. When I was at uni, a tv production lecturer told the class that we should never have precious darlings. Nasty phrase, but it refered to sequences in a film that we really loved, or had put a lot of effort into. If one of these sequences detracted from the film, we should swallow our pride and ditch it. If Ubuntu Magazine overlaps with existing projects, let's swallow our pride and join forces. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Ubuntu Magazine market research
Hi guys, Unfortunately, as you know, I was unable to attend recent team meetings due to LugRadio Live and other commitments. So, I'm a touch late in commenting, but I'd like to nonetheless :) I'm currently reading through all the materials that have been generated, such as the project charter. Rather than write one huge email, I'll send a mail to the list when I come across something that I feel requires comment. The magazine project charter says: Lacking marketing research data documenting the need for such a publication, it is assumed the readership is there and a quality publication will be an asset to the Community. and: At the moment there is no market research giving direction to the project. It is assumed readers will connect to the Magazine forum to offer comments and suggestions and this will become the market research data to give direction to future editions of the magazine. We can get round this lack of research fairly easily. By going through a little extra effort now, we can avoid completely missing the mark later on. From everything I've read, the intention appears to be to provide a magazine for people new to Ubuntu. The Ubuntu community has plenty of contact with new users. My suggestion is that we get in touch with LoCo teams and the New User Network (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewUserNetwork) to ask for their help. There are a few problems with this: * We can't have a representative sample - we don't know our marketplace well enough. * Our sample would be what's called a convenience sample - i.e. we'd speak to the people that we can. * Qualitative data isn't particularly reliable with a convenience sample. However, I think that in this case, some research is better than none. I also reckon we'll get some good qualitative data - i.e. opinions, where people tell us what they think, rather than respond to a multiple choice question. In fact, just asking potential readers what they think of certain proposals, may well be the most valuable aspect. I have little market research experience. I do have a few books, though :) Tim Morris, who recently identified himself on the list as a market research professional, may be able to offer some very useful help here. Let me know what you think. If you're up for it, in particular the guys working on the magazine already, then I'll stick a page on the wiki and start contacting the relevant teams. I really believe we need this, if the magazine is going to work. As a high visibility project, we need to make the magazine as best as it can be. We also need to ensure that we take the right decisions for the right reasons. For example, some would consider creating a PDF magazine somewhat eccentric. Some idea of what the potential readers think of that would be incredibly valuable. Give me your thoughts :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Melissa Gets the Gold Star, The Rest of Us ... Applaud
On 28/07/06, John Baer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And that is answering the very basic question who is our customer! Without wishing to devalue Mellisa's contribution, I don't see how the Ubuntu Counter tells us who our customer is. I think the only data that we could use is the location that the users can enter. Why is this so very important? We finally have market research data and it changes everything! Again, without wishing to devalue Mellisa's work, I don't see where the market research data is coming from or how it changes anything. Sorry to be negative in the face of your clear enthusiasm! Melissa I don't know your intent for doing this but may I suggest to the Team that Melissa's effort be expanded into a project simply called Product Registration. Now, some kind of product registration project might be quite interesting, but it's one that could only work if we were to get buy-in from the rest of the community. The only way it would be of any real use is if the user got bugged once to fill it out when they first install Ubuntu. That's a big step to take, so we need a lot of careful thought. If I get agreement, I will begin crafting the necessary paperwork (Specs). Interested to know what paperwork you feel is necessary. Again, I don't want to be negative in the face of your enthusiasm, but let's talk about this sort of stuff - it's important. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The Ubuntu Counter Project
Hi Melissa, On 27/07/06, Melissa Draper [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It took off. Like a rocket, I may add. In the past 8 days there have been almost 7 unique visitors. Some figures from awstats follow: Congrats! I do not yet know what potential the site holds in terms of long-term statistics, I suppose it depends on what you think you can get away with. I.e. how much information you can ask new users for before they decide it's too difficult to sign-up. Anyway, I hope you find the stats useful. One thing that I'd suggest is to remove the image verification, as it makes it impossible for partially-sighted/blind people to use (and so the stats stand no change of being representative, apart from any other considerations). -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The Ubuntu Counter Project
On 28/07/06, Melissa Draper [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sorry Matthew, I suck at mailing lists. Don't worry, it takes a while to get used to :) Criticism is entirely welcome. With every initiative there are skeptics, cest la vie. I'm not skeptical of the counter project - I think it's cool - I just didn't understand John's assertion that it suddenly gave us the market research data we need. Were the customer base not the intended audience once? Does this not show the choices and preference of that audience? Unless I've missed something, the counter project gives us: - location - version information - number of computers running Ubuntu. Combined with the lack of verification of that data (I *assume* you're not checking IP addresses, for example, to confirm the location entered) , I don't understand how this is the market research panoply that John suggested. BTW - let me emphasise, this is not a criticism of your project, just a query of John's declaration that all our market research needs were now solved. The counter wasn't initially intended to be what it has become That's interesting. What did you intend and what has it become? Let me just say it again: I'm not criticising your project, just the idea that it solves our market research needs. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Fridge question
Hi John, On 28/07/06, john levin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quick question about the Fridge: where should we send suggestions for content? I'm especially thinking about dates for the calendar, of which [EMAIL PROTECTED] is open to anyone to post to, at the moment, and will get to all the Fridge editors. Thanks to huge amounts of spam, I'm not sure how long that will be open for. So, take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Fridge Cheers :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Suggestion for the Magazine name Poll
On 28/07/06, Vid Ayer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Added, Ubuntu Vani . Vani means Voice in Hindi and since Ubuntu is for humans it can be loosely translated as Humans/Peoples Voice. How do you pronounce vani? Is it with a short or long a? Van to rhyme with man or car? Nice suggestion. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Words in marketing or it is just a word isnt it
Hi Paul, On 28/07/06, Paul O'Malley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So to hammer my point with a very big blunt hammer ask yourself this is the mission to: a) Create confusion in the minds of your victims. b) Create clarity in the minds of your readers. Can you give examples of these? I'm finding it difficult to see your point. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Announcing the Unified Ubuntu Branding Project
Hi John, On 27/07/06, John Baer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am requesting Team members perform an honest review of the materials Delighted to. As this is such a big proposal, I'm going to be fairly critical. Please don't take it personally, but we need rigorous discussion. First off, it's great to see this sort of considered thought put into a project. I think you raise some important points. I'll take it section by section. Project purpose I know Corey has mentioned this, but I also feel you haven't identified a problem that will be solved by your proposals. I mean, yeah, there are several different project names and associated brands, but is that a problem? Importantly, I think we need to be careful with tone of voice in this sort of document. A sentence such as, All current and future products distributed by the Ubuntu Community will adhere to this standard, really isn't going to go down well. We're not in a position to either make demands or enforce them. It's clear you feel passionately about what you're proposing but it's worth remembering that it is only a proposal. In a volunteer community, such as this, we need to carefully advocate points of view to one another and to other parts of the Ubuntu world. Of course, nothing with naming etc will happen without the buy-in of the trademark owner - Canonical. Project and community goals I'm interested to know where you've drawn the community goals from. Also, although it's laudable to want Ubuntu and its derivatives to be presented without prejudice, I can't see there's any problem with that at present. Project scope - Again, I'm impressed by and like the structure of the document. I think the assumptions you're making are pretty big. We can't assume acceptance of a proposal, such as this, because the internal marketing required to gain acceptance of such a big change has to be a big part of the proposal. Constraints I agree with. In particular, the lack of marketing plan is important here. Developing a branding strategy without a marketing strategy to inform it is, I think, doing things in the wrong order. Many of the goals, objectives and assumptions that you have based on your own feelings should be drawn from the marketing strategy. The momentum of the status quo may well be strong enough to make the proposal unviable. People know Ubuntu. Those people who need to also know the derivatives. I can not underscore the importance of this effort as it affects the entire Community. I think you should though, as you feel so strongly about it and what you're proposing is absolutely enormous. Certainly beyond the scope of this infant team. I really am heartened to see this sort of structured proposal. I'd love to see the discussions on this list answer many of the questions thrown up by the structure you've used. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Re: Fridge story development on the wiki
On 27/07/06, Matthew Revell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you're interested in getting involved, please feel free to add a story to the wiki and then link it from the list of stories. Sorry. I got this bit wrong. Add your story to a new page under /Fridge/ and the FrigeContent page will automatically list it. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] The Fridge needs you!
Hello all, I've just joined the team of editors at The Fridge (fridge.ubuntu.com). Daniel Robitaille and Jorge O Castro have been asked to take The Fridge in hand and open it up to the community! Who could be better than the Ubuntu Marketing team? For now, it's business as usual. However, the future of The Fridge is in the community's hands. Reply to this thread if you're interested in getting involved! Also, it might be interesting to discuss what The Fridge's purpose should be and how it fits in with plans for Ubuntu Magazine. Look forward to hearing from you. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Re: MT goals, {was} Ubuntu Stickers
On 16/07/06, Matthew East [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't think there is anywhere near enough coherence about this so far to form the basis of a marketing team budget for bounties or such. Sorry to come to this late, but I have to speak up on this. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of us gathering money for, and then setting, bounties. Bounties sometimes work with code requirements. That doesn't mean we should immediately transplant the idea to marketing. We need to consider what works for this stage of our team's development and for the activites we deal in. If we have to resort to financial incentives for something as vaguely defined as best marketing idea then we're clearly doing a poor job of seeking input. At the weekend, I heard Mark S talk give his talk N Big Challenges, in which he looks at thirteen challenges facing free software. In it, he mentioned that he likes action. However, if you look at the work that went into the Ubuntu project even before anyone outside of the small pre-launch team had heard of it, it's clear he likes action from a well-planned base. We're not short of enthusiasm, in this team. We are, though, short on experience. From what I've read, this list has two or maybe three people who have any marketing experience. That's not a problem long-term, but it does mean that we risk losing our way with some form of pseudo-marketing. If we're going to do our best for the Ubuntu project, we need to get out and seek advice from people who do have experience. That way, we can avoid making obvious mistakes and perhaps pick up some tips. As a new community, we also lack the cohesion and experience that more established teams have. That will come in time, but I'd personally love to see fewer posts along the lines of, I've done this and more posts like, I'm planning this, what do you think? Now that LugRadio Live is out of the way, I have far more time to give to the marketing team. Sorry for my absence in recent days. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Taking a break
On 07/07/06, Sara Vasquez [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am letting you all know that I am taking a week off vacation so I will not be available Have a great holiday! I hopwe that whe I come back Iwe can have a meeting. How does Jyuly th 17th sounds. What time is best? If it's going to be the same people from general team meetings, then we can use the availability table on the MarketingTeam/meetings page. If not, we can make a copy for the magazine meetings. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Repository for Marketing Team works
On 05/07/06, Robert McWilliam [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 1. Somewhere to put works in progress: This would store text for SU, articles for the magazine etc before they go live. Version control would be good to simplify collaboration. I really think we should go with Launchpad and Bzr, mainly because it integrates us with the way the whole Ubuntu project is moving forward. Jenda has concerns, though, that we won't be able to provide HTTP links to files in the repository. I *think* the Bzr guys are looking to address that. In the mean time, let's use the wiki for that sort of thing. We shouldn't dismiss Bzr for missing a feature, the benefits of which we can get in other ways (e.g. the wiki). 2. A webserver to host SU: because Spread Ubuntu is still in the design stages we don't know much details about what we're going to need here, we're really just looking for what the options are. We've been offered space on the Doc Team server. I don't see that there is any debate here. The closer we are to the Doc Team, the better, because we can learn a hell of a lot from them and I think it's really important to use official Canonical resources where possible. The Doc Team server is provided and hosted by Canonical. Look at where using the third-party UbuntuPeople.com forums got the Marketing Team. On a whim, a no longer active member was able to pull months of work off the internet, with no warning and no accountability. If we use the Doc Team server for our web-based activitiy, we have an extremely reliable presence and we bring ourselves closer to Canonical and the rest of the Ubuntu community. We should not be marching out and doing our own thing here just because we're not patient enough to fully consider what we need. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Ubuntu in the media
On 04/07/06, Vid Ayer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The fridge, http://fridge.ubuntu.com/ , has an In the press section. Maybe this can be co-ordinated with them. Who are we posting these links for? Ourselves? The Ubuntu community? Non-Ubunteros who are window shopping? If it's the first two, then let's stick with the Fridge and bear in mind that not everyone is aware of the Fridge. If it's the latter, then SU should have a relevant page. It would help if the Fridge had an easier way for people to submit links to press articles. I'm pretty certain jdub (who runs the Fridge) is looking into that. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] GoUbuntu
Hey guys, Have you seen GoUbuntu? Sounds like it's very similar to SpreadUbuntu. They're planning to launch in the next few days. Their blog is at: http://goubuntu.blogspot.com/ -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] GoUbuntu
On 04/07/06, Jan Vancura [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm still waiting for a sensible response from them - they have, however, attacked the #ubuntu-marketing channel and maybe some other channels. I've just been reading the rather strange logs; what odd behavious. They do, however, have an awesome logo. I assume you're joking, yeah? :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Getting Involved
Hey Robert, On 01/07/06, Robert McWilliam [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have seen a few people asking what they can do to help the marketing team recently, so I made a wiki page with an answer: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/GetInvolved That's cool, nice one. I think we need some kind of here's where to start info on the main MarketingTeam page too. I have a link in it for making specs for new ideas in launchpad: at the moment this links to adding a new spec for the ubuntu distribution. I haven't used Blueprint yet, so I dunno what the best way to work is. I imagine we should discuss on this ML before we create specs. Might help us to avoid duplication, poorly defined specs, etc. I reckon Blueprint would be of most use when we've got as little noise as possible. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing strategy [WAS, Contact point for Ubuntu Marketing team]
On 01/07/06, Vid Ayer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: potential scope in getting Corporate clients to actually pay for Canonical/Ubuntu customised software services or generate revenue based on long term-contracts, 24/7 support, etc At this point, it would be interesting to know how the Marketing team hopes to achieve this goal. I'd say it's important to remember that Canonical and Ubuntu are two different things. Ubuntu is a project and community based around providing a free, Linux-based operating system. Canonical is that project's sponsor and main champion. It's true that the two are linked but, in terms of corporate-level services, I think we should look to communicate the full ecosystem of support etc. Canonical is quite keen to push that too, so again there is plenty of crossover, but unless Canonical specifically want us to get involved, I don't think our job is to promote Canonical's paid-for services. I want Canonical's paid-for services to succeed, but we're not in a position to market them: we don't know their strategy, the scope of what they can provide, etc. However, we can take advantage of them by using them as a selling point when targetting corporates, if we chose to go down that route. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing strategy
Hi Beth, On 03/07/06, Beth Koenig [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Key is to keep it simple. If you can walk into a senior center and have them understand your web page that is the best indicator that it is understandable to the general population. I think this is a trap we can fall into: i.e. assuming too much about the people we're talking to. In most cases, we shouldn't aim to speak to the general population, because that is far too varied an audience. If we can be more specific about who we're talking to, the way to speak to them will become clear. The main problem with tech people is that they think like tech people. I wouldn't say that's a problem - that's why we like tech people :) In seriousness, though, it's our job to act as the interface between the tech people that make Ubuntu and the rest of the world. Try to think 4th to 5th grade as that is the average reading level of adults in the USA. Again, I'd say this is a dangerous route to follow. For the most general of situations, yeah, it's probably applicable. If we're talking to the IT Manager of a medium-sized business, though, we need to speak her/his language - use the references they're familiar with, the vocabularly they use. If we're talking to America fourth graders, then write for them. The average reading level for the Deaf / Deaf-Blind population that I work with is 3rd grade. That's the sort of information we need to gather on our targets. Of course, there'll be circumstances where we need to very general in our approach, but if we're gonna connect with people, we need to start targetting as soon possible. So, SpreadUbuntu.com's home page could be relatively generic, but we might want to encourage different audiences into different parts of the site, so we can talk to them in the right manner. Of course, we could decide that all of SpreadUbuntu.com is for one target group. Let me know what you guys think, feed back is good and the only way we are going to get things done. Thanks for getting this discussion under way. How we talk to people is just as important as what we say. The thing we need to understand first is who we're talking to. So, we need to come up with some ideas for working out: - who in the world might use or does use Ubuntu and what groups they divide into - which of those groups we can most effectively target. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Contact point for Ubuntu Marketing team
Hi guys, In the IRC meeting, the issue of who should be our team contact point was raised. Jenda is performing that role at the moment, but it's something we need to agree as a team. The role isn't really a team leader but really just a voice to the outside world (although, there's nothing to stop anyone talking to anyone, of course). If you have a nomination for this role, let's chat about it here and then we can decide in the next IRC meeting. I suggest Jenda, as he's doing it already :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Re: Contact point for Ubuntu Marketing team
Hi Matthew, On 30/06/06, Matthew East [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sorry if I have missed a trick - I've just started reading this list, but what are the reasons for having a contact point? I think it's important to get those clear, because not all teams require leaders or contacts, We didn't discuss that in the meeting and I haven't seen any discussion of it on the list, so I assume that it hasn't been discussed. As I'm new to the way Ubuntu teams are organised, I have to admit that, when the issue was raised, I assumed that teams had a contact point by default. Any reduction in bureaucracy and unnecessary hierarchy is welcome. However, I do wonder if a contact point, or contact points, would be useful within time. For example, if a third-party organisation were looking for a press release or some data on Ubuntu, I think it would be beneficial to have one email address that they could use to contact the team, assuming we ever took on that sort of role for the project. For new people to the team, it might be nice to have easy-to-contact people who can answer questions, and have other contact, that people may not feel comfortable putting on the public mailing list etc. it will affect the way that the duties of the person who takes on the role are defined. How does it work in the Documentation Team? Looking at your wiki pages, it appears that you don't have one person who takes a team leader or similar role. Thanks for raising this. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Re: Contact point for Ubuntu Marketing team
On 30/06/06, Matthew East [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree, but I tend to think that [EMAIL PROTECTED] would do the job well, certainly at the beginning. Then perhaps if the need arises, it can be discussed, rather than doing things the other way round. Makes sense. On the other hand, the team might easily feel that a contact person could be helpful from the beginning, I don't know. Let's see how this thread develops. What do people think? -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Knowing why we're doing what we're doing
Hi Karl, On 29/06/06, Karl Goetz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: * Ubuntu to be the operating system for 10% of all web-servers, as measured by NetCraft, by 1 September 2008. From a personal standpoint I'm not sure why we want this objective. That objective was just an example picked from the air :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing Team Meeting Summary
Hi Robert, On 29/06/06, Robert McWilliam [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The first mention I saw on the list of the idea of deleting people was the sumary from the meeting, and then action was taken without waiting to see if there were any objections from people on the list. Not everybody can make it to meetings in IRC That's a very good point. We should throughly discuss decisions on the mailing list before meetings, allowing people who can't make it to the meeting to put forward their view. If we're having fortnightly meetings then, at the very least, we should perhaps agree the agenda on the list the week before, so all the issues get some chance of discussion here. As I understood it, we agreed to prune the wiki member list, as it's superceded by Launchpad, and then contact each person removed from the wiki member list to let them know about the Launchpad team. That just seemed to make practical sense to me, as the wiki pages are/were out of date, plus Launchpad is the best way to handle members. The discussion in this thread seems to be about people being removed from the Launchpad team - I didn't think that was what we agreed in the meeting. If that's what happened, then let's look upon this as a learning experience, pointing to a need for improved communication. I apologise for everything that I've sent to this list attacking people who are trying to get things done, but I think we have to be very careful that it is the right things are done, and that we dont exclude anyone from the descision making process because they were unable to get on IRC at a certain time. Now that the marketing team has moved back to the mailing list and we're planning to have regular IRC meetings, I think it'll take a short while for things like this to settle down. To sort this particular issue out, I'd say we need to: * Discuss things on the mailing list to give everyone ample time to discuss things before anyone takes action. * Ensure we can still remain sufficiently nimble to deal with things quickly. * Avoid prescriptive language, which irritates people and is not appropriate for a community such as this. All common sense really, but the team has a new momentum and some new people, such as myself, so it's natural there'll be a short period of working things out. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing Team Meeting Summary
On 29/06/06, Matt Galvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It will certainly be nice to include info about what the Marketing Team is up to each week, especially when there is significant progress such as when SpreadUbuntu launches and such. I'm sure we can thrash something out each week on the list or the wiki. I noticed that, in #ubuntu-meeting before the marketing meeting, someone looked at the day's schedule and said, Marketing team? New to me! or similar. Extra exposure in UWN will help greatly. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing Team Members
On 29/06/06, Jan Vancura [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jun 28 21:27:44 jendaAnd does everyone agree with removing the wiki member list? Jun 28 21:27:50 dotwafflewhat are the issues with the memberlist at the moment? Dud members? Jun 28 21:27:53 matthewrevelljenda: Yes Jun 28 21:27:56 jendaI'll contact all the people on it and ask them to join LP Jun 28 21:28:04 bimberijenda: yes, go with Launchpad Jun 28 21:28:07 jendadotwaffle: 70 of them Jun 28 21:28:16 dotwafflejenda: I see. Ok. Jun 28 21:28:18 jendaOK, any objections? Jun 28 21:28:19 mindspinyup launchpad Jun 28 21:28:26 matthewrevelljenda: no Jun 28 21:28:34 *jenda is waiting for a yes ;) Jun 28 21:28:37 jendaOK Jun 28 21:28:40 nixternalwhoa Jun 28 21:28:40 jendasettled. I'm sorry to labour the point, but I can't see the part where we agreed to prune the Launchpad list. All we agreed, as I see it, is to prune the wiki list and you kindly stepped up to contact the people on the wiki list to let them know we're using Launchpad for the membership list. Anyway, unless someone wants to point that I've been an idiot and missed something, I'll leave it there :) As I said previously, I think this is just the growing pains while we all settle into getting to know one another, etc. Cheers! -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Re: Launchpad bug tracking to track marketing issues
On 29/06/06, Matthew Revell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anyone have a view on using Launchpad's bug tracking to track the issues that the Marketing Team deals with? Jsgotangco highlighted, on #ubuntu-meeting, that bug tracking isn't the best tool to use in Launchpad for this. He suggested specifications, instead. Appears to be what we're looking. Forgive my ignorance of Launchpad :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Pruning the list and better communication (was Marketing Team Meeting Summary)
Hi Jason, On 29/06/06, Jason Macklin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I discovered Ubuntu about a year ago and really fell for it enough that I wanted to play a larger part in spreading the word. Excellent :) I think that's how we all feel. If this sort of thinking continues I will certainly be less inclined to participate and would even consider letting my account lapse so that I wouldn't need to go through the trouble of disassociating myself from this effort. I'm sorry that you feel that strongly and I hope that we can show you that the last thing we want to do is alienate people. The first I'd like to say is that the Marketing Team has only recently become revived, as far as I'm aware. There are new people, such as myself, and there are people from the previous incarnation of the team, who are all working out how they work best together. Previously, the team used a third-party forum more than this mailing list. So, perhaps there hasn't been a culture of discussing things on the list. Hopefully, now that we're all using the list, that will change now. From what I understand, the thinking was that it would be helpful to start with a clean sheet of people who are interested *now*, rather than those that signed up for older incarnations of the team. Arguments for and against have been discussed here, but I think the main lesson that has been learnt is that we need to discuss such things on this mailing list, before making decisions in the live IRC meetings. As I understand, other Ubuntu teams tend to make decisions in live IRC meetings, following debate beforehand. Ubuntu people tend to fall in love with Ubuntu. I haven't seen this kind of widespread enthusiasm about another distro. It'd be great if we could harness that and it would be a real shame if we lost people because of some teething troubles while we work out how to work together. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Knowing why we're doing what we're doing
Howdy chaps, I'm relatively new to the Marketing Team and, with the demise of the UbuntuPeople.com forums, I don't know if this has been discussed previously. During our chats on the IRC channel, it's clear there are two or three projects, within the team, that have some momentum: - SpreadUbuntu - Ubuntu Magazine - and I'm pretty keen on a press/media relations team, within the wider team. There's a lot of enthusiasm and energy bubbling around the IRC channel at the moment and I'm eagerly awaiting our meeting later today. I'm no marketing expert but I have a little professional and academic experience. When I first started to study marketing, I began to realise what a varied and disciplined subject it is. The most successful marketing is justified by how it relates to the organisation's objectives. Everyone I've spoken to has a strong idea of why they want to be involved in a particular project. However, I think we can give our efforts a much greater chance of success if we make sure we know why we're doing what we're doing. In marketing, and project management generally, people talk about SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound) objectives. An example might be: * Ubuntu to be the operating system for 10% of all web-servers, as measured by NetCraft, by 1 September 2008. It's certainly specific, it's measurable by objective means, we'll assume that we've decided it's achievable based on resources etc, and we'll assume that it's relevant to overall strategy. The date is very important, as it makes planning possible. I believe that it would be helpful if we could decide upon some marketing objectives for Ubuntu before we start to discuss the specifics of individual projects. We're in an unusual position, in that Ubuntu is a volunteer project led by a strong commercial sponsor. As a volunteer community, we need to collectively agree on objectives and then win round those people who contribute to the marketing effort. With a commercial sponsor, we need to ensure that they're fully involved in deciding upon the team's objectives. Usually, marketing objectives would be designed to fulfil corporate objectives. We *could* take bug #1 to be our sole corporate objective, but this is the sort of thing we need to discuss as a team, with the wider community and with Canonical. I'm not suggesting we should try to tell people what they should be doing. I do, however, believe that we can be far more effective if concentrate our efforts on trying to achieve an agreed set of objectives. So, we need to advocate working together to fulfil the objectives. For example, if the Ubuntu Magazine team believe the best way they can help Ubuntu is through a magazine, then we all find a way in which that magazine can help fulfil the objectives we've agreed. In a traditional situation, it'd be the other way round: i.e. the objectives would be set, then you'd find ways to fulfil them. However, this is not a traditional situation :) This isn't meant to be a heavy corporate indoctrination session :) There's a lot we can learn from marketing, though, that can help us to be more effective. I want Ubuntu to succeed for many reasons, not least of all because I believe it's one of the most effective ways we have to spread free software. I reckon marketing techniques will enable us to be more effective. I know it's tempting to dive in and get to work, but I think it'll be worthwhile taking a step back and deciding on some SMART objectives, before we look at the specifics of individual projects. Gnome is a free software project with an excellent marketing team. Dave Neary has some thoughts about all of this on his blog: http://blogs.gnome.org/portal/bolsh/ and Gnome journal has some good stuff too: http://gnomejournal.org/article/26/marketing-gnome http://gnomejournal.org/article/39/marketing-gnome-part-two-segmentation-targeting-and-positioning I've also written some thoughts on this: http://www.understated.co.uk/writing/marketing-open-source/ I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
[ubuntu-marketing] Media Relations team on Launchpad
Hi guys, As everything seems to be going well for the Marketing team, I propose we close the Media Relations team on Launchpad. I didn't quite understand the distinction between teams and team projects when I opened it. Cheers. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Knowing why we're doing what we're doing
On 28/06/06, Jan Vancura [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't want to say that we do all the things that help spread Ubuntu that no one else picks up... but, basically, yes :) That's a nice overview. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound) objectives. I can't agree on this one. It reminds me of planned economy, with which we in the eastern half of the old world have bad experience ツ. I'm more in favour of a free, supply and demand regulated economy model within the team. My feeling is that free market capitalist economies probably couldn't function as well as they do unless the businesses within them planned properly to meet the needs of the market. Setting SMART objectives is part of that planning process. As I understand it, you're saying you want the marketing team to meet the needs that are present. That's what I'm saying too. To better meet those needs, we should be prepared to debate what we believe the needs are. Setting objectives for the team just means that we're agreeing on what the needs are and agreeing some ways to measure our success. We shouldn't confuse planning, which can make us more effective, with centrally planned economies. The objective is simple, gaining a 50% user share - from there, the battle is fair. That's not an objective, it's an aim, an eventual goal. As a side issue, is that an aim that you've set? Bug #1, which we've been referring to, seeks a world where: A majority of the PC's for sale should include only free software like Ubuntu. I've not seen a 50% share mentioned elsewhere. There's no problem with people having individual aims for the project, but as a team we need to debate and agree on this sort of thing. It isn't as simple as saying, 50% user share and taking that as a given from that point on. Back to aims and objectives. As you say, we need to be focused as we have limited resources. Let's say we take Bug #1's eventual aim of a majority of PC sold with free software only, as our overall goal. Or we could take a 50% share as an overall goal. Either way, we need to break that down into manageable chunks; neither are trivial goals. Those become the objectives for Ubuntu as a project. As a marketing team, we're not really in a position to agree objectives for the entire project. However, we could agree objectives (or stages of the process) that we, Canonical and other interested members of the community are happy with. Then, we agree the different marketing activities we need to undertake to achieve those. And so on, until we have mangeable chunks of work. The difference between that and a planned economy is that: a) we maintain an entrepreneurial attitude within the team that enables anyone to decide they want to become involved, come forward with ideas, suggest that our objectives are rubbish, or whatever b) we set realistic metrics by which we can test whether or not we're activing effectively c) we start out, and continue, by finding out what is needed, and understand that we'll almost certainly have to change that as we go along. It's not about control, it's about getting as much bang for our buck as possible. If it were about control, then I'd suggest that we set immutable goals and plan down to every last bit of activity. What I'm actually suggesting is that we understand what is required of us, agree it and then do our best to fulfil it. I've not replied to the other parts of your message just yet as I really want to debate this point. To me, it's essential to the efficacy of our team. Also, I hope you appreciate that this is all written in a spirit of friendliness and debate, rather than confrontation :-) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing Team Meetings
On 27/06/06, Jan Vancura [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Upon seeming general consensus, we have decided to have Marketing Team Meetings every two weeks or as often as is necessary, to keep all parts of the Team in touch. Regular meetings certainly work well for other Ubuntu teams and I think they would help us to get some structure to what we're doing. It may also help heal any forums v mailing list rifts. The first meeting will be tomorrow at 19:00 UTC, I'm slightly concerned that we haven't given everyone enough opportunity to add themselves to the table. I'm certain there'll be people on this list who would like to attend the meeting but who weren't in #ubuntu-marketing yesterday, when all this was discussed. You can view what I have put up as an ajenda, and add what ever you have in mind. The Team is open, as always, and so is the meeting. Does anyone have logging in place already? -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Marketing Team Meetings
On 27/06/06, Jane Silber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There is an ubuntulog program which logs all Ubuntu related channels. I just requested that it be added to #ubuntu-marketing. Excellent, thanks. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Media Relations team
Hi Matt, On 26/06/06, Matt Galvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Since the UWN is something people are already beginning to look to for up-to-the-week accurate information about what is going on in and around the Ubuntu community I think there are certainly many areas where marketing team materials can be used in the UWN. Definitely. I reckon there are three very broad targets for a Media Relations team's work: * Internal community media - UWN, the Fridge. * External IT press - Linux-specific and general * External general press - business magazines, local press, etc. I think there is a lot of room for the UWN and the Marketing Team to work together. Absolutely. Do you have any thoughts about how the UWN and the development release tours would fit in with the goals of the marketing team? Do we have objectives, goals and a strategy that are agreed both by the Marketing team and Canonical? There's some stuff on the wiki page, but I'm not sure where they were agreed upon or by whom. I'm trying to work it out from the wiki page's history at the moment. -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
