Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
About timezone, I'm from France and leaving in the UK for 2 more weeks. So I'm GMT +1 till the 10th of June, and GMT+2 after that. Using IRC isn't a problem. About the leadership of the team, yes we need to set one up, and we need to do it fast. I sadly don't have much time to give to the team but I'd still like to put my professional insight in the leading part. If there is any need, let me know. The main proposed core fits me anyway, you got my vote. Jonathan -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On 29/05/08 08:06, John Botscharow wrote: I'm on Central Daylight Time UTC-5 I was afraid someone was going to suggest IRC LOL. I have never used IRC. I do have Pifgin installed - will that work or do I need something else? And how do I set up an IRC account? Do I need a mic or is text talking? Sorry for being such a newbie, but I did warn you guys LOL Yes, pidgin will work. No, you won't need an account. The HowTo is here: 1. Install Pidgin (Applications - Add/Remove... - Search - Pidgin - Tick Box, Click Apply 2. Launch Applications - Internet - Pidgin 3. The irc server is irc.freenode.net, the screen name is anything - short is good, no spaces, no duplicates. Room name is #ubuntu-marketing 4. You should see two windows, one with buddies and one with the chat. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
Thanks, Onno Will set it up later, after some sleep. I have pidgin already installed for my yahoo im account, so kust have to try the server. Will let you know how it works out. On Thu, 2008-05-29 at 19:30 +0800, Onno Benschop wrote: On 29/05/08 08:06, John Botscharow wrote: I'm on Central Daylight Time UTC-5 I was afraid someone was going to suggest IRC LOL. I have never used IRC. I do have Pifgin installed - will that work or do I need something else? And how do I set up an IRC account? Do I need a mic or is text talking? Sorry for being such a newbie, but I did warn you guys LOL Yes, pidgin will work. No, you won't need an account. The HowTo is here: 1. Install Pidgin (Applications - Add/Remove... - Search - Pidgin - Tick Box, Click Apply 2. Launch Applications - Internet - Pidgin 3. The irc server is irc.freenode.net, the screen name is anything - short is good, no spaces, no duplicates. Room name is #ubuntu-marketing 4. You should see two windows, one with buddies and one with the chat. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team (Mike Feravolo)
1) Ambassadors - People with connections in their local communities that could get marketing materials out there and let people know about Ubuntu. Yes, but they definitely have to work both way : sending needs from their LoCo to marketing team, and sending marketing team feedback to their LoCo. 2) Marketing - People that mass produce the marketing material and distribute it to the Ambassadors and the current LoCo team structure. They also setup and a maintain the channels of communication between the other two We are actually working on the organization of this part. See defining who we are from John Botscharow and the following replies. 3) Graphic Design / Copy Writing - People that have the ability to create the marketing materials and people that can write the copy that goes with the graphics. The team already exist, and I think they would love helping out for a marketing issue. See Ubuntu Artworks. Jonathan -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team (Mike Feravolo)
On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 1:52 PM, Mike Feravolo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello: I have been reading this list and the marketing list of another flavor of Linux for a while and would like to make a suggestion. Maybe the current marketing team should be broken up by function: 1) Ambassadors - People with connections in their local communities that could get marketing materials out there and let people know about Ubuntu. Fedora has similar sub-project's [0][1] [0] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing [1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing#Ambassadors -- Vid || http://www.svaksha.com || -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team (Mike Feravolo)
On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 8:52 AM, Mike Feravolo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello: I have been reading this list and the marketing list of another flavor of Linux for a while and would like to make a suggestion. Maybe the current marketing team should be broken up by function: 1) Ambassadors - People with connections in their local communities that could get marketing materials out there and let people know about Ubuntu. This should be the LoCos job. Fedora does this because they don't have the concept of LoCos. 2) Marketing - People that mass produce the marketing material and distribute it to the Ambassadors and the current LoCo team structure. They also setup and a maintain the channels of communication between the other two LoCos should decide how to physically produce the material. If a LoCo can't do it for some reason, we should see if other LoCos can help them out, but trying to mass produce anything and then shipping it all over the world is logistically painful. 3) Graphic Design / Copy Writing - People that have the ability to create the marketing materials and people that can write the copy that goes with the graphics. We need to work with the Artwork Team to get them involved and see what materials LoCos can create that can be shared among everyone. nick -- http://boredandblogging.com -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team (Mike Feravolo)
On 29/05/08 23:06, Nick Ali wrote: On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 8:52 AM, Mike Feravolo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello: I have been reading this list and the marketing list of another flavor of Linux for a while and would like to make a suggestion. Maybe the current marketing team should be broken up by function: 1) Ambassadors - People with connections in their local communities that could get marketing materials out there and let people know about Ubuntu. This should be the LoCos job. Fedora does this because they don't have the concept of LoCos. 2) Marketing - People that mass produce the marketing material and distribute it to the Ambassadors and the current LoCo team structure. They also setup and a maintain the channels of communication between the other two LoCos should decide how to physically produce the material. If a LoCo can't do it for some reason, we should see if other LoCos can help them out, but trying to mass produce anything and then shipping it all over the world is logistically painful. 3) Graphic Design / Copy Writing - People that have the ability to create the marketing materials and people that can write the copy that goes with the graphics. We need to work with the Artwork Team to get them involved and see what materials LoCos can create that can be shared among everyone. nick I agree. I think what we really need is to provide the infrastructure to make it possible for teams (and likely individuals) to do the marketing. That's not saying we cannot dream up marketing proposals and find interest within Ubuntu to roll out those proposals. I'm sure that there will be times that we do actual end-user marketing ourselves. I'm sure that there will still be plenty scope to get your hands dirty. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
I see the marketing of Ubuntu as a Canonical responsibility. Anything community lead I see as D.I.Y./street team work. Just me. If I had my way, I'd reinvent the team as Ubuntu-StreetTeam or something. Hi, I can't agree with Cory here. The community-based-marketing-team or whatever you want to call it just needs to get the ball rolling and to set up some basics. After that, it shouldn't be that hard to get things done from this team. Organization is the key, guys. With it you don't have to stay at StreetTeam, which is quite a mean view on what a whole group can bring up to light if you ask me. A solid and organized group could just do tons of things, not just basic stuff waiting for Canonical to do the biggest part and following. Did ubuntu start from Canonical or did Canonical start with ubuntu ? I guess you know what I mean. As I said, we have a find ways to keep Canonical marketing dept and community-based-marketing-team. I already have some in mind, but that's maybe not the point now. Listening to some here, it seems that Canonical is the only company having money, and the only one allowed to put money in ubuntu. I saw a lot of funds raised just by community donates, and I strongly believe that we could - as an organized entity - get funds from some smallers companies. I could get my company working for some ubuntu marketing at the price it cost me. I could even get some things free. And that's just the tip of the iceberg you know ? How many people are reading those words now ? How many could they get in touch with about the idea ? How many people could be aware of the project in 24 hours just by community forums ? Money is a problem, but not the biggest one imho. Long story short, I believe starting now to say we should just do the less of what we can is the best way to get ride of the community-based-actions. Let's talk, Jonathan -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
Sounds the best way to act to me. But still I would put defining our relationship with Canonical's marketing department at the first place. Since that's the point of the long discution we just had : everything that will be done here is depending on this relationship. So I'll change your question in How to sort this issue out ? Jonathan Well, it appears to me, and the information, such as it is, on the Marketing Team wiki page confirms it, that we need to do the following things very quickly in order to be effective at marketing: 1. Define who and what we are. This entails defining our mission in some detail as well as defining our target market AND defining our relationship with Canonical's marketing department. These have to be spelled out concretely, not just vague generalities. 2. Once we have defined who and what we are as well as our mission, then we can set up how we will do this: speific goals, projects, tasks and who will do them. Then we do #2!!! And everything we decided regarding #1 and #2 should be put in writing on the wiki page, so anyone can go read it and know exactly who we are and what we do and how we do it. The only point of discussion prior to working on #1 is to decide when and where we are going to do it - as a thread on the list or do we want to have some sort of formal meeting. I suggest we try to avoid any orher discussions until #1 and #2 are accomplished. How does that sound to everyone? Peace! John Botscharow -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
I think we are running in circles. Gleaning what I can from these messages, This is what I think we should consider: 1. The Local Communities are their own entity, and should be considered free to do what they want, with no perceived or implied oversight from any governing body. This group should be forked into a specific LoCo group. 2. A Marketing team should be formed to oversee the direction of marketing as a whole for the open source project. While Canonical is responsible for the trademarks, a marketing team should be able to build materials between releases for items such as white papers, meeting kits for LoCo's, talking points for dealing with the press, etc. I envision the team as being the equivalent of the core-developers for the intangibles of the Ubuntu project with a similar contribution model and transparency. 3. Establish a liaison within Canonical to help facilitate a coordinated effort with them that is also mutually exclusive. This would ensure we are using the trademarks properly, not doubling up on projects, and filtering upstream whatever projects or ideas might require their contributions. I think if we simplify here, we can see that there isn't much that is needed, except defining the discussions between Local Communities and the Marketing team as separate but equally important endeavors. The Marketing Team's purpose would be to support the Local Communities if they choose to, but giving them the freedom to do as they please. This grassroots model was proven effective in a Presidential campaign I worked in that had a global message team that distributed information to local grassroots meetups for dissemination. Each group was asked to only consider the information, and it was a fantastic success. Thanks, John Vilsack -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 09:44 -0500, John Vilsack wrote: I think we are running in circles. The reason, IMHO, that it appears we are running in circles is because we are due to the fact that the marketing team has not, as far as I can tell, established any real sense of its own identity or its direction . In order to do that, we need to go back and fix what is broken. That is what I have proposed. We all need to be on the same page, but first we have to write the page. Your points below have a lot of merit and need to be taken into consideration as we go long in the process of defining clearly and so everyone knows who we are and what we do. If we all focus on doing this, we can have it done very quickly and get down to setting in place some substantive marketing projects and tasks that should do much to improve the moral of this team as well as how the rest of the community perceives us. Gleaning what I can from these messages, This is what I think we should consider: 1. The Local Communities are their own entity, and should be considered free to do what they want, with no perceived or implied oversight from any governing body. This group should be forked into a specific LoCo group. 2. A Marketing team should be formed to oversee the direction of marketing as a whole for the open source project. While Canonical is responsible for the trademarks, a marketing team should be able to build materials between releases for items such as white papers, meeting kits for LoCo's, talking points for dealing with the press, etc. I envision the team as being the equivalent of the core-developers for the intangibles of the Ubuntu project with a similar contribution model and transparency. 3. Establish a liaison within Canonical to help facilitate a coordinated effort with them that is also mutually exclusive. This would ensure we are using the trademarks properly, not doubling up on projects, and filtering upstream whatever projects or ideas might require their contributions. I think if we simplify here, we can see that there isn't much that is needed, except defining the discussions between Local Communities and the Marketing team as separate but equally important endeavors. The Marketing Team's purpose would be to support the Local Communities if they choose to, but giving them the freedom to do as they please. This grassroots model was proven effective in a Presidential campaign I worked in that had a global message team that distributed information to local grassroots meetups for dissemination. Each group was asked to only consider the information, and it was a fantastic success. Thanks, John Vilsack -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On 28/05/08 10:13, John Botscharow wrote: On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 07:50 +0800, Onno Benschop wrote: One of the major challenges I had (and still have) - is the visibility of this particular group of individuals - the Marketing Team. Would you elaborate on this, please. Perhaps your response may shed some light on what we need to be doing as a team. As a member of the Ubuntu Server team I am participating in a marketing and data-gathering effort - in our case we decided that we needed a survey to understand better the needs of our user-base. I volunteered to prepare the launch by writing a press-release and determining whom to forward this release to. I had to invent resources to achieve my aim, rather than be able to reuse and coordinate with any existing marketing effort. Specifically, resources that I was in need of: 1. Guidelines on the Ubuntu way of preparing a release. 2. A wiki press release template to assist me in the creation of our press release. 3. A standard distribution method for our press release. 4. A central point where our team could coordinate our release with the rest of Ubuntu/Canonical. 5. A central marketing plan indicating where we could connect our team effort into the greater whole. To be fair, we've not yet launched, there is still time to achieve the above, but at the moment our effort is isolated from any other efforts. At present it looks to me as if many resources are wasted by duplicating the effort. There appears to be no collective memory being built up that benefits the balance of the Ubuntu Community. The collective wisdom of a bunch of programmers can be expressed as software - which is why the bazaar works so well. There does not appear to be a similar approach to our marketing efforts. I should point out that I've been in the IT industry for over 25 years, that I've run my own business for the past 9 years, but I've not had nearly as much experience within Ubuntu. My first Ubuntu install was made in June 2006 and I've been submitting bugs and patches since. What I'm trying to say with the above is that it may well be that the resources I'm looking for already exist and that my lack of Ubuntu experience made me miss them, in which case they need more visibility - as in, the marketing team needs to market them. May I also suggest that it would be useful for a member of this team to attend, or at least notify conveners of team meetings, that your team exists and can provide resources (assuming the above resources I outlined above actually exist or are created). Finally, perhaps it would be useful to use the brainstorm site, that I understand qa set-up, to start developing a plan and foster marketing ideas. I think that integration with LoCo's is essential, but it needs to link with Canonical and all other Ubuntu-teams. Perhaps the model might be the kernel of ubuntu marketing. I've added myself as a member to this team to dispel any notion that I'm telling you what you need to do. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team ( Mike
On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 07:55 -0400, Mike Feravolo wrote: Good Day: I have been trying to post a comment to this list for a couple of weeks and have had my messages bounced back as a non-member. Wondering how I would be able to read the thread and the fact that they were never reviewed and posted is an yet another example of what's wrong here. Have you gotten the mail proglem straightened out? I hope so because we can use all the participation we can get!!! I'm not much on technical stuff, so I'm no help there, but scroll down for more substantive comments Who actually benefits from Ubuntu ? The so called community, Canonical or the LoCo teams ? Maybe all of these are really the same thing and need to support each other. This is an excellent question, Mike. I'n pretty new to Ubuntu, so I am not really able to give you an authoritative answer as to the current reality, but the ideal situation would be that we ALL benefit. Canonical owns the Ubuntu trademarks and has the last word in everything that has to do with using those marks. Therefore marketing Ubuntu as a product benefits Canonical the most and Canonical should be willing to develop a cooperative advertising program with small businesses that support Linux at the local level. By owning the trademarks, C pretty much has the FINAL say so in everything, since very little gets done that does not involve those trademarks and those trademarks are a very essential part of marketing Ubuntu. That is why understanding the rules of what the marketing team can and cannot do is so important and why we need to set up close communication with someone from Canonical. And making the communiy aware of what we can and cannot do with those trademarks should be one of the major tasks of the team. I think that I have reconfigured the mail client on this computer to use the address that is the member's address this time. Thank You Mike Feravolo Cocoa Beach, FL USA -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
As I mentioned earlier, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get this project in line. I am a firm believer that we can do this democratically, but someone has to be given the ball to put filter the discussion and finally provide some forward momentum. Mr. Botscharow and myself have written almost identical messages and share similar views. In fact, his mission statement almost uses the same exact language! Onno is also saying what I feel...its clear to me that there is a lot of initiative in this group that we could use to make these ideas all work! I was preparing a draft statement to the Community Council to ask for the development of a Core Marketers team or a Marketing Board to be treated in a similar fashion as the Core Developers. A core team would have the same responsibilities to the intangible aspects of the Ubuntu movement that the development team has to the distribution. If approved, I recommend we appoint at most three members of the current group to step into the role of leadership. From there, members of this core group could be inducted based on a similar methodology that the Core Developers use. Everything should remain transparent, but committal to the overall agenda as well as standardized marketing materials would be handled by this new group. I believe shaping the direction in this manner would allow for us to have both a leadership team and a direction that would be a suitable arrangement for an open source project of this magnitude. We want to keep it open to all and allow for everyone to participate, but at this time, the Marketing aspect of community is languishing so poorly, we need to have some folks step up and take control. How do you feel about putting about proposing this to the Community Council? Is leadership what this group needs above all else? Thanks, John Vilsack On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 12:57 PM, John Botscharow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jeez, Cory, that one caught me off guard. I am very flattered by your question and very honored. Let me hold off answering that for a day or two to give others a chance to express their opinions; but you are right. the team does need to set up strong leadership and that is something we should do soon. Until we have more of a consensus on leadership, I guess I'll lead the writing of the marketing plan. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it LOL. On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 13:39 -0400, Cory K. wrote: John Botscharow wrote: The reason, IMHO, that it appears we are running in circles is because we are due to the fact that the marketing team has not, as far as I can tell, established any real sense of its own identity or its direction. I'd like to know are you up to leading this new Marketing Team? It needs to be asked because without strong leadership we can talk about this stuff forever. I'd like to have an clear, established lead then go from there. -Cory K. -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharowhttps://launchpad.net/%7Ejbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing -- John Vilsack Network Administrator The-House.com 300 S Owasso Blvd E St. Paul, MN 55117 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-house.com p. 651.482.9995 f. 651.482.1353 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
John V, Yes, I think leadership IS the biggest issue keeping us from doinng anything substabtive, and by leadership I mean more than just people. I think your proposal is something that definitely needs done. So, I ovte YES!!! On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 13:40 -0500, John Vilsack wrote: As I mentioned earlier, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get this project in line. I am a firm believer that we can do this democratically, but someone has to be given the ball to put filter the discussion and finally provide some forward momentum. Mr. Botscharow and myself have written almost identical messages and share similar views. In fact, his mission statement almost uses the same exact language! Onno is also saying what I feel...its clear to me that there is a lot of initiative in this group that we could use to make these ideas all work! I was preparing a draft statement to the Community Council to ask for the development of a Core Marketers team or a Marketing Board to be treated in a similar fashion as the Core Developers. A core team would have the same responsibilities to the intangible aspects of the Ubuntu movement that the development team has to the distribution. If approved, I recommend we appoint at most three members of the current group to step into the role of leadership. From there, members of this core group could be inducted based on a similar methodology that the Core Developers use. Everything should remain transparent, but committal to the overall agenda as well as standardized marketing materials would be handled by this new group. I believe shaping the direction in this manner would allow for us to have both a leadership team and a direction that would be a suitable arrangement for an open source project of this magnitude. We want to keep it open to all and allow for everyone to participate, but at this time, the Marketing aspect of community is languishing so poorly, we need to have some folks step up and take control. How do you feel about putting about proposing this to the Community Council? Is leadership what this group needs above all else? Thanks, John Vilsack On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 12:57 PM, John Botscharow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jeez, Cory, that one caught me off guard. I am very flattered by your question and very honored. Let me hold off answering that for a day or two to give others a chance to express their opinions; but you are right. the team does need to set up strong leadership and that is something we should do soon. Until we have more of a consensus on leadership, I guess I'll lead the writing of the marketing plan. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it LOL. On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 13:39 -0400, Cory K. wrote: John Botscharow wrote: The reason, IMHO, that it appears we are running in circles is because we are due to the fact that the marketing team has not, as far as I can tell, established any real sense of its own identity or its direction. I'd like to know are you up to leading this new Marketing Team? It needs to be asked because without strong leadership we can talk about this stuff forever. I'd like to have an clear, established lead then go from there. -Cory K. -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing -- John Vilsack Network Administrator The-House.com 300 S Owasso Blvd E St. Paul, MN 55117 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-house.com p. 651.482.9995 f. 651.482.1353 -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
VidA wrote: [...] For example : Suppose the loco team and Canonical** are exhibiting at the same event/conference, which will be taken seriously, the loco team or the Canonical team? Why should there be separate efforts and not a team effort ? Keeping Canonical separate from the community marketing and from loco efforts seems counter-productive imho. I do not think counterproductive. For example at UK Linux World (London) Canonical had a stand. And so did the various communities, including a Ubuntu UK team (I helped). I knew one or two people at the C stand, and met another - which was useful. The next year I borrowed a Canonical formal display roll-up stand for a FOSS event locally here in my town) for Software Freedom day. I think trying to channel too strongly will loose us some benefit. Canonical is hoping to make a profit from selling services and support - most obviously to the corporate market. Canonical do not have many employees. At the exhibition (above) I wore a Ubuntu Tee shirt and Ubuntu Baseball hat and was covered in stickers.. :-) A couple of professors from a UK University stopped me in the crowd and asked for information to help with a (big) international contract (for Ubuntu) they had just won. I was able to take them to the (corporate) Ubuntu Canonical stand. They would be intersetd in business support and corporate and international contact. I noted that the interest and energy at that exhibition at the community stand was quite different at the two stands. Vive la difference! -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
RJ wrote: Sounds the best way to act to me. But still I would put defining our relationship with Canonical's marketing department at the first place. Since that's the point of the long discution we just had : everything that will be done here is depending on this relationship. So I'll change your question in How to sort this issue out ? My answer would be Let them read the list just as they do at present! If they dont like something they can let it be known, and vice versa. It would be nice to have a defined relationship with them, but not essential. It is not going to stop me in what I am doing for example. Including talking to UK Government Ministers. :-) The existing 'relationship' could be formalised - that the list is a public one to all comers and Canonical they may read the list. I believe their marketing department is small, but on an occasion when I urgently needed a reply to an email request, I got a useful and positive reply within hours (at night). I may have opinions about how Canonical runs its business, but from what I have seen so far what Mark S has done and is doing, I am not going to knock it! -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
John Vilsack wrote: I think we are running in circles. Gleaning what I can from these messages, This is what I think we should consider: 1. The Local Communities are their own entity, and should be considered free to do what they want, with no perceived or implied oversight from any governing body. This group should be forked into a specific LoCo group. 2. A Marketing team should be formed to oversee the direction of marketing as a whole for the open source project. While Canonical is responsible for the trademarks, a marketing team should be able to build materials between releases for items such as white papers, meeting kits for LoCo's, talking points for dealing with the press, etc. I envision the team as being the equivalent of the core-developers for the intangibles of the Ubuntu project with a similar contribution model and transparency. 3. Establish a liaison within Canonical to help facilitate a coordinated effort with them that is also mutually exclusive. This would ensure we are using the trademarks properly, not doubling up on projects, and filtering upstream whatever projects or ideas might require their contributions. I think if we simplify here, we can see that there isn't much that is needed, except defining the discussions between Local Communities and the Marketing team as separate but equally important endeavors. The Marketing Team's purpose would be to support the Local Communities if they choose to, but giving them the freedom to do as they please. This grassroots model was proven effective in a Presidential campaign I worked in that had a global message team that distributed information to local grassroots meetups for dissemination. Each group was asked to only consider the information, and it was a fantastic success. Sounds pretty good to me -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
John Botscharow wrote: Jeez, Cory, that one caught me off guard. I am very flattered by your question and very honored. Let me hold off answering that for a day or two to give others a chance to express their opinions; but you are right. the team does need to set up strong leadership and that is something we should do soon. Until we have more of a consensus on leadership, I guess I'll lead the writing of the marketing plan. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it LOL. I suggest that (you) create a wiki page with a suitable set of goals included - there is not much divergence in the opinions here, and we will be pretty close to seeing something which can be accepted or edited to run with? -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
John Botscharow wrote: John V, Yes, I think leadership IS the biggest issue keeping us from doinng anything substabtive, and by leadership I mean more than just people. I think your proposal is something that definitely needs done. So, I ovte YES!!! Seconded alan cocks On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 13:40 -0500, John Vilsack wrote: As I mentioned earlier, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get this project in line. I am a firm believer that we can do this democratically, but someone has to be given the ball to put filter the discussion and finally provide some forward momentum. Mr. Botscharow and myself have written almost identical messages and share similar views. In fact, his mission statement almost uses the same exact language! Onno is also saying what I feel...its clear to me that there is a lot of initiative in this group that we could use to make these ideas all work! I was preparing a draft statement to the Community Council to ask for the development of a Core Marketers team or a Marketing Board to be treated in a similar fashion as the Core Developers. A core team would have the same responsibilities to the intangible aspects of the Ubuntu movement that the development team has to the distribution. If approved, I recommend we appoint at most three members of the current group to step into the role of leadership. From there, members of this core group could be inducted based on a similar methodology that the Core Developers use. Everything should remain transparent, but committal to the overall agenda as well as standardized marketing materials would be handled by this new group. I believe shaping the direction in this manner would allow for us to have both a leadership team and a direction that would be a suitable arrangement for an open source project of this magnitude. We want to keep it open to all and allow for everyone to participate, but at this time, the Marketing aspect of community is languishing so poorly, we need to have some folks step up and take control. How do you feel about putting about proposing this to the Community Council? Is leadership what this group needs above all else? Thanks, John Vilsack On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 12:57 PM, John Botscharow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jeez, Cory, that one caught me off guard. I am very flattered by your question and very honored. Let me hold off answering that for a day or two to give others a chance to express their opinions; but you are right. the team does need to set up strong leadership and that is something we should do soon. Until we have more of a consensus on leadership, I guess I'll lead the writing of the marketing plan. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it LOL. On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 13:39 -0400, Cory K. wrote: John Botscharow wrote: The reason, IMHO, that it appears we are running in circles is because we are due to the fact that the marketing team has not, as far as I can tell, established any real sense of its own identity or its direction. I'd like to know are you up to leading this new Marketing Team? It needs to be asked because without strong leadership we can talk about this stuff forever. I'd like to have an clear, established lead then go from there. -Cory K. -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing -- John Vilsack Network Administrator The-House.com 300 S Owasso Blvd E St. Paul, MN 55117 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-house.com p. 651.482.9995 f. 651.482.1353 -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
Onno Benschop wrote: On 28/05/08 10:13, John Botscharow wrote: On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 07:50 +0800, Onno Benschop wrote: One of the major challenges I had (and still have) - is the visibility of this particular group of individuals - the Marketing Team. Would you elaborate on this, please. Perhaps your response may shed some light on what we need to be doing as a team. As a member of the Ubuntu Server team I am participating in a marketing and data-gathering effort - in our case we decided that we needed a survey to understand better the needs of our user-base. I volunteered to prepare the launch by writing a press-release and determining whom to forward this release to. I had to invent resources to achieve my aim, rather than be able to reuse and coordinate with any existing marketing effort. Specifically, resources that I was in need of: 1. Guidelines on the Ubuntu way of preparing a release. 2. A wiki press release template to assist me in the creation of our press release. 3. A standard distribution method for our press release. 4. A central point where our team could coordinate our release with the rest of Ubuntu/Canonical. 5. A central marketing plan indicating where we could connect our team effort into the greater whole. To be fair, we've not yet launched, there is still time to achieve the above, but at the moment our effort is isolated from any other efforts. At present it looks to me as if many resources are wasted by duplicating the effort. There appears to be no collective memory being built up that benefits the balance of the Ubuntu Community. The collective wisdom of a bunch of programmers can be expressed as software - which is why the bazaar works so well. There does not appear to be a similar approach to our marketing efforts. I should point out that I've been in the IT industry for over 25 years, that I've run my own business for the past 9 years, but I've not had nearly as much experience within Ubuntu. My first Ubuntu install was made in June 2006 and I've been submitting bugs and patches since. What I'm trying to say with the above is that it may well be that the resources I'm looking for already exist and that my lack of Ubuntu experience made me miss them, in which case they need more visibility - as in, the marketing team needs to market them. May I also suggest that it would be useful for a member of this team to attend, or at least notify conveners of team meetings, that your team exists and can provide resources (assuming the above resources I outlined above actually exist or are created). Finally, perhaps it would be useful to use the brainstorm site, that I understand qa set-up, to start developing a plan and foster marketing ideas. I think that integration with LoCo's is essential, but it needs to link with Canonical and all other Ubuntu-teams. Perhaps the model might be the kernel of ubuntu marketing. I've added myself as a member to this team to dispel any notion that I'm telling you what you need to do. I am interested in knowing what server marketing activities develop, and if I can I will try to support them (now I am aware). It is great that you have found this list! However, I do hope and trust that this list will proceed with its suggested aspirations to become more effective fast, while accepting that some actions will be followed up in the future, without any delay at this time. -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On 29/05/08 02:40, John Vilsack wrote: How do you feel about putting about proposing this to the Community Council? Is leadership what this group needs above all else? I agree that this needs to happen, but until we have figured out how we're going to do what we're talking about and how we plan to manage it, it might be a little premature. Allow me to make a proposal that works towards your suggestion. I'm in UTC+8, if all here who wish to participate could note their local time-zone, then we could all meet on IRC and have a discussion about this. I'm not sure if we'd need to book ubuntu-meeting, but I'm sure we can if that is required. I note that the normal meeting time is the fourth Tuesday of the month, but I think that we may need to at least initially increase the frequency and consistency of that meeting. I propose that we discuss some or all of the following: * role of ubuntu-marketing within Ubuntu * interaction between ubuntu-marketing and Canonical * aims for ubuntu-marketing * plan on how to achieve the aims * documentation * team leader I agree with comments made that in a group such as ours a consensus leader is required. Until such time, I am happy to chair that initial IRC meeting with the understanding that I am not equating that interim step with becoming the team leader. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
I'm on Central Daylight Time UTC-5 I was afraid someone was going to suggest IRC LOL. I have never used IRC. I do have Pifgin installed - will that work or do I need something else? And how do I set up an IRC account? Do I need a mic or is text talking? Sorry for being such a newbie, but I did warn you guys LOL Dinner is ready so I'll be back in about an hour with my comments for you release, Onno On Thu, 2008-05-29 at 06:48 +0800, Onno Benschop wrote: On 29/05/08 02:40, John Vilsack wrote: How do you feel about putting about proposing this to the Community Council? Is leadership what this group needs above all else? I agree that this needs to happen, but until we have figured out how we're going to do what we're talking about and how we plan to manage it, it might be a little premature. Allow me to make a proposal that works towards your suggestion. I'm in UTC+8, if all here who wish to participate could note their local time-zone, then we could all meet on IRC and have a discussion about this. I'm not sure if we'd need to book ubuntu-meeting, but I'm sure we can if that is required. I note that the normal meeting time is the fourth Tuesday of the month, but I think that we may need to at least initially increase the frequency and consistency of that meeting. I propose that we discuss some or all of the following: * role of ubuntu-marketing within Ubuntu * interaction between ubuntu-marketing and Canonical * aims for ubuntu-marketing * plan on how to achieve the aims * documentation * team leader I agree with comments made that in a group such as ours a consensus leader is required. Until such time, I am happy to chair that initial IRC meeting with the understanding that I am not equating that interim step with becoming the team leader. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
That'll work. Thanks On Thu, 2008-05-29 at 00:28 -0400, Nick Ali wrote: On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 12:15 AM, John Botscharow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Onno, As far as putting together a wiki template for press releases, I am certainly willing to take a stab at it, although it might go slow until I get more comfortable with wiki codes. I use very little coding on my own articles because, as I have said, I am not very technical person LOL I can certainly put up a text template and someone else here can do the coding, if I can't figure it out. Why not start with the last press release and change it accordingly? http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1409 nick -- http://boredandblogging.com -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 8:22 PM, alan c [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think trying to channel too strongly will loose us some benefit. Canonical is hoping to make a profit from selling services and support - most obviously to the corporate market. Absolutely, Canonical should be looking at revenue generating steams. The community effort should not be confused nor be a hindrance to their efforts. My point was more along the the lines of finding a convergence point between both, to avoid duplication and not wasting resources. -- Vid || http://www.svaksha.com || -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
I would draw attention to the nature of much of the marketing creative and effort resource - it certainly has a central objective. Canonical and the wider set of volunteers have strongly overlapping objectives. However, the factors of geographical location, local culture and circumstances, and local flavour of motives, are all key factors which will fuel the effort at ground level, in the 'wild', the wider world. I believe the work will be done by self motivated volunteers. My experience of volunteers is that they will go a long way to do what they want to do, and not nearly as far to do what somebody else wants. This is the niche I believe a Marketing Team has to fill. Autonomy should exist at the local level, but if someone new wants to start or gain access to a local chapter, then the Marketing Team should be there to fill the niche with information and kits about how to get started. I really think the use of bumper stickers would be very effective in UK from about now. I am fascinated to find that the only bumper stickers which seem to be available are way too big for most UK (European?) vehicle bumpers. I have had to cut somedown fo rmy own use, but a cut sticker can look poor quality unless great care is used. Alan brings up an interesting point, and this is a firm example of why I feel somewhat listless in the direction of Marketing the project. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=738134 : This is a simple vinyl sticker I made that obviously mimics the white logo of another hardware and software manufacturer. Virtually everyone who chose to look at it felt that it could be worthwhile to produce for evangelists of Ubuntu. Unfortunately, I have tried several times to contact someone at Canonical to seek approval of this type of usage to no avail. We could be out there scanning the bumpers of cars during rush hour, looking for that secret handshake that shows we are all a part of something we love...instead I get dead air from our commercial sponsor who needs to have input on the matter. Marketing needs leadership. We need people responsible for working with Canonical to establish coordinated marketing efforts and to ensure the grassroots movement is armed with easily accessible material to make launching a LoCo a snap. In essence, we need to stop treating the Marketing group as a hobby full of buzz words and promises and start treating it as seriously as product releases. Thanks, John -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 18:49 +0100, alan c wrote: Restrain the oCo??? Heaven forbid If anything, I would like to see them empowered much much more :-) RJ wrote: Hi folks, I'm quite new in ubuntu-marketing list but I'd like to get my two pennies worth feeling in. If I'm of topic or redundant, just slap me and forget. If you find my english awful, just know I'm French and English isn't my native language. I'm the CEO of an advertising and printing company, and that's how I would describe it if you'd ask me : A simple way to get ideas on paper while being the referee between the customer, the supplier and the funding organisation (which is often the customer himself, in my case). The main purpose of the marketing team should lay here, in my opinion. Getting ideas together, getting the most skilled group of volunteers to work on those picked ideas, and funding it from whatever supplier possible. To get it clear, marketing team should be able to get a job done like that : 0) Establishing a How to contribute : step-by-step manual to get a marketing project on its way. Before creating this how-to, the marketing team has to create some guidelines : ending a printing project on RGB colours while you need to print it (CMYB) is of no use, for example. You have to put everything like that on a paper, so everyone knows what's an useful job and what's not. That had to be done prior we start working on any marketing project. 1) Picking up best ideas on how to promote ubuntu from LoCo's, lists, contributors ... and centralizing them. Maybe we could even get a group of users voting for the one they'd like to see coming up first. 2) Getting together a member of each LoCo. A sort of link between marketing team and the loco itself. His job is to report what's currentmy ongoing - marketing wise - in his LoCo while sending feedbacks from his LoCo to the marketing team. He could browse forums from his LoCo and get in touch with new ideas owners to bring the idea to the marketing team. 3) Getting a group of skilled volunteers to work on some of the picked up ideas to get them on a professional stage. Let's call them Creating Group. Those people have to work following the guidelines established by the marketing team (1). 4) Getting a group of volunteers to help the Creating group doing his work. Their task is mainly to comment on the project, a sort of brainstorming. Let's call them Brain Group. 5) Getting a group of people working on the funding way. As said by John Vilsack, Canonical should be involved in my opinion. Ubuntu is more and more depending on their company, even if it's a community distribution. They don't need to fund 100% of marketing issues, they maybe don't need to hire somebody to lead the marketing team, they maybe don't need to allow each marketing project, but they have to be involved on a way or another. Maybe a person from this group (let's call it Money Group) could be in charge of communication between the marketing team and Canonical, depending on the activity degree of the marketing team. Anyway, Canonical isn't the only way to get a project funded, and that's the point of this workgroup. 6) Writing reports on each project with FB (Features and Benefits). Each project has pros cons, the idea is to get the best out of each. Maybe each project could have a project manager (like a company would) who's the guy to write it, beside managing every step named before. That's just my idea on how I would organize the marketing team. This template on how to manage a project has to be worked and adapted to each type of project (press releases, posters, whatever) ... we could had luch more since marketing and much more than that (laws on each countries / LoCo, suppliers, etc ...). I could go on for hours, but I'll end here and see how you guys welcome the idea. I go along with much of what you say, and it is great to have the experience of a professional. I would draw attention to the nature of much of the marketing creative and effort resource - it certainly has a central objective. Canonical and the wider set of volunteers have strongly overlapping objectives. However, the factors of geographical location, local culture and circumstances, and local flavour of motives, are all key factors which will fuel the effort at ground level, in the 'wild', the wider world. I believe the work will be done by self motivated volunteers. My experience of volunteers is that they will go a long way to do what they want to do, and not nearly as far to do what somebody else wants. So however crucial it is to have a clear central vision with some boundaries and guidance, and maybe some funding, it is equally crucial to enable and encourage the LoCos - in doing what they want. Or at least
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
John V., What a perfect segue to something I wanted to propose, but was waiting to see if more members of the group chime in: My talents and experience are not in the programming area. far from it! I am a writer and a blogger. So, the other day, when Ronnie Tucker of FCM came on with the draft of the new issue of FCM, I contcted her about helping with the mag. And in looking over the magazine, I noticed that there is NOTHING about marketing Ubuntu. I asked Ronnie about contributing some sort of regular marketing column and she felt that that was something I needed to talk over with the team, which makes sense. How do you all, and hopefully this post will get responses from more people, about a regular column in FCM? Something geared towards new people or even geared to converting non-Ubuntu people into Ubuntu users? FCM could be very useful as a marketing tool. It is very attractive, informative and quite professional. And it is pretty representative of the whole community. We can hash out the details on what the column each month should be about, bt I am offering to do the actual writing. And I would submit a draft to the team for their inpit and approval each month before sending it to Ronnie. What do you all think? Peace! John Botscharow On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 13:12 -0500, John Vilsack wrote: I would draw attention to the nature of much of the marketing creative and effort resource - it certainly has a central objective. Canonical and the wider set of volunteers have strongly overlapping objectives. However, the factors of geographical location, local culture and circumstances, and local flavour of motives, are all key factors which will fuel the effort at ground level, in the 'wild', the wider world. I believe the work will be done by self motivated volunteers. My experience of volunteers is that they will go a long way to do what they want to do, and not nearly as far to do what somebody else wants. This is the niche I believe a Marketing Team has to fill. Autonomy should exist at the local level, but if someone new wants to start or gain access to a local chapter, then the Marketing Team should be there to fill the niche with information and kits about how to get started. I really think the use of bumper stickers would be very effective in UK from about now. I am fascinated to find that the only bumper stickers which seem to be available are way too big for most UK (European?) vehicle bumpers. I have had to cut somedown fo rmy own use, but a cut sticker can look poor quality unless great care is used. Alan brings up an interesting point, and this is a firm example of why I feel somewhat listless in the direction of Marketing the project. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=738134 : This is a simple vinyl sticker I made that obviously mimics the white logo of another hardware and software manufacturer. Virtually everyone who chose to look at it felt that it could be worthwhile to produce for evangelists of Ubuntu. Unfortunately, I have tried several times to contact someone at Canonical to seek approval of this type of usage to no avail. We could be out there scanning the bumpers of cars during rush hour, looking for that secret handshake that shows we are all a part of something we love...instead I get dead air from our commercial sponsor who needs to have input on the matter. Marketing needs leadership. We need people responsible for working with Canonical to establish coordinated marketing efforts and to ensure the grassroots movement is armed with easily accessible material to make launching a LoCo a snap. In essence, we need to stop treating the Marketing group as a hobby full of buzz words and promises and start treating it as seriously as product releases. Thanks, John -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
John Botscharow wrote: John V., What a perfect segue to something I wanted to propose, but was waiting to see if more members of the group chime in: My talents and experience are not in the programming area. far from it! I am a writer and a blogger. So, the other day, when Ronnie Tucker of FCM came on with the draft of the new issue of FCM, I contcted her about helping with the mag. And in looking over the magazine, I noticed that there is NOTHING about marketing Ubuntu. I asked Ronnie about contributing some sort of regular marketing column and she felt that that was something I needed to talk over with the team, which makes sense. How do you all, and hopefully this post will get responses from more people, about a regular column in FCM? Something geared towards new people or even geared to converting non-Ubuntu people into Ubuntu users? FCM could be very useful as a marketing tool. It is very attractive, informative and quite professional. And it is pretty representative of the whole community. We can hash out the details on what the column each month should be about, bt I am offering to do the actual writing. And I would submit a draft to the team for their inpit and approval each month before sending it to Ronnie. Yes - for FullCircleMag it would probably go down well as 'spread Ubuntu' or similar. Not much theory but a lot of 'let us do this' - or that, or good idea of the month, the bumper stickers project, or etc etc. Not just limited to marketing news which was created by others, that is. When a newcomer reads something which assumes they are part of an enthusiastic group, then the newcomer feels good about joining in? -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 Linux user #360648 -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 18:50 -0400, Cory K. wrote: John Vilsack wrote: This is the niche I believe a Marketing Team has to fill. Autonomy should exist at the local level, but if someone new wants to start or gain access to a local chapter, then the Marketing Team should be there to fill the niche with information and kits about how to get started. This is kinda what was talked about at UDS. A team made up of people in each LOCO (local level) who want to promote Ubuntu. Along with ties to the artwork team. I also suggest a name change since this marketing team is confusing since it has no real ties to the Canonical marketing dept. Maybe Ubuntu DIY Promotion team? -Cory K. OR we could leave the name and change the lack of ties to Canonical's marketing dept. :-) I would like to explore that possibility to at least see what would be possible in that area. Let's not dismiss the idea so readily. -- Peace! John You do have choice on what operating system you use: http://www.ubuntu.com/ I am an Ubuntu user! My profile: https://launchpad.net/~jbotscharow My wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnBotscharow -- Read my blog: http://hbotscharow.com John Botscharow: Reflections on Religion, Politics Life -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 7:18 PM, John Botscharow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 18:50 -0400, Cory K. wrote: John Vilsack wrote: This is kinda what was talked about at UDS. A team made up of people in each LOCO (local level) who want to promote Ubuntu. Along with ties to the artwork team. I also suggest a name change since this marketing team is confusing since it has no real ties to the Canonical marketing dept. Maybe Ubuntu DIY Promotion team? -Cory K. OR we could leave the name and change the lack of ties to Canonical's marketing dept. :-) I would like to explore that possibility to at least see what would be possible in that area. Let's not dismiss the idea so readily. The problem with this is that people start expecting things from Canonical. Why doesn't Canonical do this, why don't they do that. Its already evident in this thread. We should definitely work with Canonical coordinating events. But expecting Canonical to hire someone to help us do marketing is not realistic. Like people have suggested, we need to get LoCos involved. Cory's suggestion of working with the Artwork Team is dead on. We should engage them to help us create promotional and marketing material that LoCos can use. If any entity needs paid support, customization, or any kind of guarantee, they need to contact Canonical or one of its partners, not the community. nick -- http://boredandblogging.com -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On 28/05/08 07:18, John Botscharow wrote: I also suggest a name change since this marketing team is confusing since it has no real ties to the Canonical marketing dept. Maybe Ubuntu DIY Promotion team? -Cory K. OR we could leave the name and change the lack of ties to Canonical's marketing dept. :-) I would like to explore that possibility to at least see what would be possible in that area. Let's not dismiss the idea so readily. I agree with John. To me it seems a large step backward to sever ties with the organisation that has a large investment in the success of Ubuntu. Within the ubuntu-server team there are processes being enacted where we are getting ready to roll out a survey to: In an effort to better understand, support and further the Ubuntu Server Edition we would like to ask you to take this survey which should take between 10 to 20 minutes to complete. The information provided will help us determine where we can improve support, where to add additional resources and to generate a better understanding of the community which we work within. During this process I've added my limited radio and publicity experience to the effort in the form of a release and a list of people to release it to. One of the major challenges I had (and still have) - is the visibility of this particular group of individuals - the Marketing Team. I think that if the team and Canonical can work together towards mutually beneficial aims - because I recognise that they may not always be the same - then I think that is a good thing. I'm loathe to hijack this thread to start a discussion about other ideas and comments, so I won't, but I think it would be inappropriate to reference a marketing effort (in the form of a survey) without providing a URL. Note that this is still embargoed. The ubuntu-server team will be meeting in 22 hours from now and I'm expecting to bring this survey up there. * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Survey/Launch -- Onno Benschop Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)()..ASCII for Onno.. |?..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
Nick Ali wrote: The problem with this is that people start expecting things from Canonical. Why doesn't Canonical do this, why don't they do that. Its already evident in this thread. We should definitely work with Canonical coordinating events. But expecting Canonical to hire someone to help us do marketing is not realistic. +1 Like people have suggested, we need to get LoCos involved. Cory's suggestion of working with the Artwork Team is dead on. We should engage them to help us create promotional and marketing material that LoCos can use. I completely think this is what this list should be. A place to spread the Ubuntu brand through DIY methods. Using the LoCos as street teams and the artwork community for resources. If I see this happen I know I would work on the art effort. But if the team continues in it's current state, I personally don't see the point of it. Considering the history and lack of real man-power. -Cory K. -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Tuesday 20 May 2008 21:02:14 Cody A.W. Somerville wrote: Hello Marketing Team Members and Interested Parties, I'd like to report on the session we had here at UDS regarding Ubuntu Marketing so that we can get a wider audience and allow everyone a fair chance to share their ideas, point of view, or prospective solution on the undeniable reality that the way the current marketing team is setup simply isn't working. I know a number of us have been putting effort lately into re-jump starting the team or furthering specific marketing initiatives but because there has been a lack of an individual who has stepped forward to clearly champion Ubuntu marketing, not much progress has really been made in terms of making the team as a whole useful again. There is certainly no shortage of great, creative ideas... we just need to figure out how to get things moving - getting the ideas off the idea board and into production. This inconjuction with the observation that most loco teams seem to be doing an excellent job doing local (also known as street) marketing, the idea was put forward to disband the marketing team as we know it and move to a decentralized model where loco teams collectively makes up the Marketing Team. Before you object on principle, ask yourself What is the purpose of the marketing team?, What should it do? and I think that you'll see that the loco teams are the ones that are clearly fullfilling that role already. While LoCo's in populated areas may be flourishing, some of us in the flyover states of the US have bit more of a problem. I was hoping that the marketing team would act as a conduit to bring ideas and resources from large LoCo teams to small ones. Another idea put forth was seeing Canonical hire someone to lead the marketing team while maintaining a model similar to the one existing. Marketing is a huge job and it is completely understandable why there is no one to step forward and why previous teams leaders have either burnt out or became busy with other things (Such as myself with Xubuntu and being a MOTU). If Canonical were to hire someone, they would have to be hired to fill the role of the community marketing team leader and not employed to promote Canonical or its services. For the individual to be useful and effective, they must simply be any regular, old community contributor who just happens to be able to fill that role with the support they are recieving from Canonical. Jono said that he was unsure if this would be able to materialize due to Canonical growing so fast in so many directions but we did learn from the Mozilla folks at the session that having someone(s) hired to work on the marketing seemed to be instrumental in generating the required momentum. Another interesting tidbit was that Jono said that if a marketing iniativie requires funds or resources (that are unreasonable for the loco team or individuals on the project to be able to obtain easily or via a bit of elbow polish) that they could contact him and he'll be able to assist them (ie. he'll get his wallet out... erm, as in he'll act as a liasion to get sponsorship from Canonical). That does solve part of the problem and would be quite helpful. A third option was to rebuild the marketing team using a similiar model to the current one but sourcing a loco team marketing contact from each loco team to build the new marketing team. Possible leadership for this new team discussed was the loco council. This will work well for the larger LoCo teams, but smaller ones like Nebraska's will have problems filling yet another position. So, what is your opinion? Thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Personally, although I was put off by the idea of disbanding the marketing team as we know it currently, once I had sometime to think about it I've come to think that maybe that would be a good idea. We certainly have to do something and I'm happy, as one of the last active marketing team admins, to faciliate what ever we decide to be the best course of option. I'd prefer to have another try at the team with a volunteer or paid coordinator. One function I'd like to marketing team to provide is to connect people with ideas. (Dave has an idea for an Ubuntu poster that could be hung up in schools, but no gimp skills) with skilled volunteers (George is gimp wizard and is looking for project to work on) Another thing I'd like to marketing team to do is facilitate some small scale gatherings to share marketing ideas between LoCo's or other interested parties using the BarCamp model. Big thanks to Jono, Nick Ali, members of the Firefox/Mozilla teams, and other community contributors who took part in the UDS session. To conclude, I'd like to note a point that was brought up durring the session. People seemed to think that Canonical was an authority when it came to marketing Ubuntu and that everything has to be approved by them. Jono clarified this:
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
Another idea put forth was seeing Canonical hire someone to lead the marketing team while maintaining a model similar to the one existing. Marketing is a huge job and it is completely understandable why there is no one to step forward and why previous teams leaders have either burnt out or became busy with other things (Such as myself with Xubuntu and being a MOTU). If Canonical were to hire someone, they would have to be hired to fill the role of the community marketing team leader and not employed to promote Canonical or its services. For the individual to be useful and effective, they must simply be any regular, old community contributor who just happens to be able to fill that role with the support they are recieving from Canonical. Jono said that he was unsure if this would be able to materialize due to Canonical growing so fast in so many directions but we did learn from the Mozilla folks at the session that having someone(s) hired to work on the marketing seemed to be instrumental in generating the required momentum. Another interesting tidbit was that Jono said that if a marketing iniativie requires funds or resources (that are unreasonable for the loco team or individuals on the project to be able to obtain easily or via a bit of elbow polish) that they could contact him and he'll be able to assist them (ie. he'll get his wallet out... erm, as in he'll act as a liasion to get sponsorship from Canonical). A third option was to rebuild the marketing team using a similiar model to the current one but sourcing a loco team marketing contact from each loco team to build the new marketing team. Possible leadership for this new team discussed was the loco council. These two ideas can be combined. -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
Cody A.W. Somerville wrote: Hello Marketing Team Members and Interested Parties, I'd like to report on the session we had here at UDS regarding Ubuntu Marketing so that we can get a wider audience and allow everyone a fair chance to share their ideas, point of view, or prospective solution on the undeniable reality that the way the current marketing team is setup simply isn't working. I know a number of us have been putting effort lately into re-jump starting the team or furthering specific marketing initiatives but because there has been a lack of an individual who has stepped forward to clearly champion Ubuntu marketing, not much progress has really been made in terms of making the team as a whole useful again. There is certainly no shortage of great, creative ideas... we just need to figure out how to get things moving - getting the ideas off the idea board and into production. This inconjuction with the observation that most loco teams seem to be doing an excellent job doing local (also known as street) marketing, the idea was put forward to disband the marketing team as we know it and move to a decentralized model where loco teams collectively makes up the Marketing Team. Before you object on principle, ask yourself What is the purpose of the marketing team?, What should it do? and I think that you'll see that the loco teams are the ones that are clearly fullfilling that role already. Another idea put forth was seeing Canonical hire someone to lead the marketing team while maintaining a model similar to the one existing. Marketing is a huge job and it is completely understandable why there is no one to step forward and why previous teams leaders have either burnt out or became busy with other things (Such as myself with Xubuntu and being a MOTU). If Canonical were to hire someone, they would have to be hired to fill the role of the community marketing team leader and not employed to promote Canonical or its services. For the individual to be useful and effective, they must simply be any regular, old community contributor who just happens to be able to fill that role with the support they are recieving from Canonical. Jono said that he was unsure if this would be able to materialize due to Canonical growing so fast in so many directions but we did learn from the Mozilla folks at the session that having someone(s) hired to work on the marketing seemed to be instrumental in generating the required momentum. Another interesting tidbit was that Jono said that if a marketing iniativie requires funds or resources (that are unreasonable for the loco team or individuals on the project to be able to obtain easily or via a bit of elbow polish) that they could contact him and he'll be able to assist them (ie. he'll get his wallet out... erm, as in he'll act as a liasion to get sponsorship from Canonical). A third option was to rebuild the marketing team using a similiar model to the current one but sourcing a loco team marketing contact from each loco team to build the new marketing team. Possible leadership for this new team discussed was the loco council. So, what is your opinion? Thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Personally, although I was put off by the idea of disbanding the marketing team as we know it currently, once I had sometime to think about it I've come to think that maybe that would be a good idea. We certainly have to do something and I'm happy, as one of the last active marketing team admins, to faciliate what ever we decide to be the best course of option. Big thanks to Jono, Nick Ali, members of the Firefox/Mozilla teams, and other community contributors who took part in the UDS session. To conclude, I'd like to note a point that was brought up durring the session. People seemed to think that Canonical was an authority when it came to marketing Ubuntu and that everything has to be approved by them. Jono clarified this: Canonical is NOT an authority on marketing Ubuntu besides protecting their trademarks. So, please don't let that thought get in your way - we as the community have the power to make community marketing of Ubuntu successful and effective; it isn't Canonical's responsibility. :) I think this Marketing list is invaluable as an overview facility. I think marketing is paramount and have felt frustrated because this central marketing list lacked an ability to be much use for me, in my specific area - (UK as it happens) and when I wanted a UK marketing list initiated, it was resisted (in UK) because it was thought to be a subset of normal UK list activities. I believe a separate (UK) list would give a better chance of marketing gathering momentum and focus here. However, it is very useful indeed to have a central list for the wider issues. Such as this one now being discussed. General direction, summary, cross referencing ideas, and top level aspects, and not least, a central information channel to and
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:02 PM, Cody A.W. Somerville [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Marketing Team Members and Interested Parties, I'd like to report on the session we had here at UDS regarding Ubuntu Marketing so that we can get a wider audience and allow everyone a fair chance to share their ideas, point of view, or prospective solution on the undeniable reality that the way the current marketing team is setup simply isn't working. I know a number of us have been putting effort lately into re-jump starting the team or furthering specific marketing initiatives but because there has been a lack of an individual who has stepped forward to clearly champion Ubuntu marketing, not much progress has really been made in terms of making the team as a whole useful again. There is certainly no shortage of great, creative ideas... we just need to figure out how to get things moving - getting the ideas off the idea board and into production. This inconjuction with the observation that most loco teams seem to be doing an excellent job doing local (also known as street) marketing, the idea was put forward to disband the marketing team as we know it and move to a decentralized model where loco teams collectively makes up the Marketing Team. Before you object on principle, ask yourself What is the purpose of the marketing team?, What should it do? and I think that you'll see that the loco teams are the ones that are clearly fullfilling that role already. Another idea put forth was seeing Canonical hire someone to lead the marketing team while maintaining a model similar to the one existing. Marketing is a huge job and it is completely understandable why there is no one to step forward and why previous teams leaders have either burnt out or became busy with other things (Such as myself with Xubuntu and being a MOTU). If Canonical were to hire someone, they would have to be hired to fill the role of the community marketing team leader and not employed to promote Canonical or its services. For the individual to be useful and effective, they must simply be any regular, old community contributor who just happens to be able to fill that role with the support they are recieving from Canonical. Jono said that he was unsure if this would be able to materialize due to Canonical growing so fast in so many directions but we did learn from the Mozilla folks at the session that having someone(s) hired to work on the marketing seemed to be instrumental in generating the required momentum. Another interesting tidbit was that Jono said that if a marketing iniativie requires funds or resources (that are unreasonable for the loco team or individuals on the project to be able to obtain easily or via a bit of elbow polish) that they could contact him and he'll be able to assist them (ie. he'll get his wallet out... erm, as in he'll act as a liasion to get sponsorship from Canonical). A third option was to rebuild the marketing team using a similiar model to the current one but sourcing a loco team marketing contact from each loco team to build the new marketing team. Possible leadership for this new team discussed was the loco council. So, what is your opinion? Thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Personally, although I was put off by the idea of disbanding the marketing team as we know it currently, once I had sometime to think about it I've come to think that maybe that would be a good idea. We certainly have to do something and I'm happy, as one of the last active marketing team admins, to faciliate what ever we decide to be the best course of option. Big thanks to Jono, Nick Ali, members of the Firefox/Mozilla teams, and other community contributors who took part in the UDS session. To conclude, I'd like to note a point that was brought up durring the session. People seemed to think that Canonical was an authority when it came to marketing Ubuntu and that everything has to be approved by them. Jono clarified this: Canonical is NOT an authority on marketing Ubuntu besides protecting their trademarks. So, please don't let that thought get in your way - we as the community have the power to make community marketing of Ubuntu successful and effective; it isn't Canonical's responsibility. :) I had always imagined that the marketing team should be a clearing house to get all the great stuff that loco teams produce, hence why I pushed so hard for the spreadubuntu stuff (which looked really good, although never finished). I am still firmly of the belief we need an easy to use site for loco teams to upload and share content, something like art.gnome.org but for banners, posters and the like. Corey -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 4:25 AM, Corey Burger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:02 PM, Cody A.W. Somerville [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Marketing Team Members and Interested Parties, I'd like to report on the session we had here at UDS regarding Ubuntu Marketing so that we can get a wider audience and allow everyone a fair chance to share their ideas, point of view, or prospective solution on the undeniable reality that the way the current marketing team is setup simply isn't working. I know a number of us have been putting effort lately into re-jump starting the team or furthering specific marketing initiatives but because there has been a lack of an individual who has stepped forward to clearly champion Ubuntu marketing, not much progress has really been made in terms of making the team as a whole useful again. There is certainly no shortage of great, creative ideas... we just need to figure out how to get things moving - getting the ideas off the idea board and into production. snip I had always imagined that the marketing team should be a clearing house to get all the great stuff that loco teams produce, hence why I pushed so hard for the spreadubuntu stuff (which looked really good, although never finished). I am still firmly of the belief we need an easy to use site for loco teams to upload and share content, something like art.gnome.org but for banners, posters and the like. This was also mentioned in the session and I don't think anyone disagrees. The solution for the short term is obviously the wiki but once the steam gets going, I'm sure we'll see the spreadubuntu initiative revived and actualized. Corey -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing -- Cody A.W. Somerville Software Engineer Red Cow Marketing Technologies, Inc. Office: 506-458-1290 Toll Free: 1-877-733-2699 Fax: 506-453-9112 Cell: 506-449-5899 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.redcow.ca -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
Just to throw in support for the idea, having a dedicated site would do wonders for content sharing. Something like a mix of a wiki + content managment. So that individuales (as well as locos) can share ideas and content. +1 Thanks, Justin M. Wray Sent via BlackBerry by ATT -Original Message- From: Corey Burger [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 22:25:50 To:Ubuntu Marketing ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Subject: Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:02 PM, Cody A.W. Somerville [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Marketing Team Members and Interested Parties, I'd like to report on the session we had here at UDS regarding Ubuntu Marketing so that we can get a wider audience and allow everyone a fair chance to share their ideas, point of view, or prospective solution on the undeniable reality that the way the current marketing team is setup simply isn't working. I know a number of us have been putting effort lately into re-jump starting the team or furthering specific marketing initiatives but because there has been a lack of an individual who has stepped forward to clearly champion Ubuntu marketing, not much progress has really been made in terms of making the team as a whole useful again. There is certainly no shortage of great, creative ideas... we just need to figure out how to get things moving - getting the ideas off the idea board and into production. This inconjuction with the observation that most loco teams seem to be doing an excellent job doing local (also known as street) marketing, the idea was put forward to disband the marketing team as we know it and move to a decentralized model where loco teams collectively makes up the Marketing Team. Before you object on principle, ask yourself What is the purpose of the marketing team?, What should it do? and I think that you'll see that the loco teams are the ones that are clearly fullfilling that role already. Another idea put forth was seeing Canonical hire someone to lead the marketing team while maintaining a model similar to the one existing. Marketing is a huge job and it is completely understandable why there is no one to step forward and why previous teams leaders have either burnt out or became busy with other things (Such as myself with Xubuntu and being a MOTU). If Canonical were to hire someone, they would have to be hired to fill the role of the community marketing team leader and not employed to promote Canonical or its services. For the individual to be useful and effective, they must simply be any regular, old community contributor who just happens to be able to fill that role with the support they are recieving from Canonical. Jono said that he was unsure if this would be able to materialize due to Canonical growing so fast in so many directions but we did learn from the Mozilla folks at the session that having someone(s) hired to work on the marketing seemed to be instrumental in generating the required momentum. Another interesting tidbit was that Jono said that if a marketing iniativie requires funds or resources (that are unreasonable for the loco team or individuals on the project to be able to obtain easily or via a bit of elbow polish) that they could contact him and he'll be able to assist them (ie. he'll get his wallet out... erm, as in he'll act as a liasion to get sponsorship from Canonical). A third option was to rebuild the marketing team using a similiar model to the current one but sourcing a loco team marketing contact from each loco team to build the new marketing team. Possible leadership for this new team discussed was the loco council. So, what is your opinion? Thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Personally, although I was put off by the idea of disbanding the marketing team as we know it currently, once I had sometime to think about it I've come to think that maybe that would be a good idea. We certainly have to do something and I'm happy, as one of the last active marketing team admins, to faciliate what ever we decide to be the best course of option. Big thanks to Jono, Nick Ali, members of the Firefox/Mozilla teams, and other community contributors who took part in the UDS session. To conclude, I'd like to note a point that was brought up durring the session. People seemed to think that Canonical was an authority when it came to marketing Ubuntu and that everything has to be approved by them. Jono clarified this: Canonical is NOT an authority on marketing Ubuntu besides protecting their trademarks. So, please don't let that thought get in your way - we as the community have the power to make community marketing of Ubuntu successful and effective; it isn't Canonical's responsibility. :) I had always imagined that the marketing team should be a clearing house to get all the great stuff that loco teams produce, hence why I pushed so hard for the spreadubuntu stuff (which looked
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 4:40 AM, Justin M. Wray [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just to throw in support for the idea, having a dedicated site would do wonders for content sharing. Something like a mix of a wiki + content managment. So that individuales (as well as locos) can share ideas and content. Yes. I think everyone has agreed and supported the idea from the very start. The problem is that it will only materialize if someone actually does the work to develop it. So, unfortunately giving a +1 isn't going to help get that done :( However, this thread is about discussing the future of the marketing team and not what we can do to improve our resource/content sharing infrastructure. You're welcome to start another thread on the subject if you feel it would benefit from discussion (although unless you're moving forward with the idea, I think you'll just be beating a dead horse). Thanks! +1 Thanks, Justin M. Wray Sent via BlackBerry by ATT -Original Message- From: Corey Burger [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 22:25:50 To:Ubuntu Marketing ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Subject: Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:02 PM, Cody A.W. Somerville [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Marketing Team Members and Interested Parties, I'd like to report on the session we had here at UDS regarding Ubuntu Marketing so that we can get a wider audience and allow everyone a fair chance to share their ideas, point of view, or prospective solution on the undeniable reality that the way the current marketing team is setup simply isn't working. I know a number of us have been putting effort lately into re-jump starting the team or furthering specific marketing initiatives but because there has been a lack of an individual who has stepped forward to clearly champion Ubuntu marketing, not much progress has really been made in terms of making the team as a whole useful again. There is certainly no shortage of great, creative ideas... we just need to figure out how to get things moving - getting the ideas off the idea board and into production. This inconjuction with the observation that most loco teams seem to be doing an excellent job doing local (also known as street) marketing, the idea was put forward to disband the marketing team as we know it and move to a decentralized model where loco teams collectively makes up the Marketing Team. Before you object on principle, ask yourself What is the purpose of the marketing team?, What should it do? and I think that you'll see that the loco teams are the ones that are clearly fullfilling that role already. Another idea put forth was seeing Canonical hire someone to lead the marketing team while maintaining a model similar to the one existing. Marketing is a huge job and it is completely understandable why there is no one to step forward and why previous teams leaders have either burnt out or became busy with other things (Such as myself with Xubuntu and being a MOTU). If Canonical were to hire someone, they would have to be hired to fill the role of the community marketing team leader and not employed to promote Canonical or its services. For the individual to be useful and effective, they must simply be any regular, old community contributor who just happens to be able to fill that role with the support they are recieving from Canonical. Jono said that he was unsure if this would be able to materialize due to Canonical growing so fast in so many directions but we did learn from the Mozilla folks at the session that having someone(s) hired to work on the marketing seemed to be instrumental in generating the required momentum. Another interesting tidbit was that Jono said that if a marketing iniativie requires funds or resources (that are unreasonable for the loco team or individuals on the project to be able to obtain easily or via a bit of elbow polish) that they could contact him and he'll be able to assist them (ie. he'll get his wallet out... erm, as in he'll act as a liasion to get sponsorship from Canonical). A third option was to rebuild the marketing team using a similiar model to the current one but sourcing a loco team marketing contact from each loco team to build the new marketing team. Possible leadership for this new team discussed was the loco council. So, what is your opinion? Thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Personally, although I was put off by the idea of disbanding the marketing team as we know it currently, once I had sometime to think about it I've come to think that maybe that would be a good idea. We certainly have to do something and I'm happy, as one of the last active marketing team admins, to faciliate what ever we decide to be the best course of option. Big thanks to Jono, Nick Ali, members of the Firefox/Mozilla teams, and other
Re: [ubuntu-marketing] The future of the Marketing Team
On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:46 PM, Cody A.W. Somerville [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 4:40 AM, Justin M. Wray [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just to throw in support for the idea, having a dedicated site would do wonders for content sharing. Something like a mix of a wiki + content managment. So that individuales (as well as locos) can share ideas and content. Yes. I think everyone has agreed and supported the idea from the very start. The problem is that it will only materialize if someone actually does the work to develop it. So, unfortunately giving a +1 isn't going to help get that done :( However, this thread is about discussing the future of the marketing team and not what we can do to improve our resource/content sharing infrastructure. You're welcome to start another thread on the subject if you feel it would benefit from discussion (although unless you're moving forward with the idea, I think you'll just be beating a dead horse). Thanks! Is the code for spreadubuntu floating around somewhere? The SpreadUbuntu wiki page has gone missing at some point. Corey -- 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] The future of the Marketing Team
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:27 AM, Corey Burger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is the code for spreadubuntu floating around somewhere? The SpreadUbuntu wiki page has gone missing at some point. https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-marketing/spreadubuntu/spreadubuntu Is the latest I can find, but I might be wrong -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
