Hi guys, Unfortunately, as you know, I was unable to attend recent team meetings due to LugRadio Live and other commitments. So, I'm a touch late in commenting, but I'd like to nonetheless :)
I'm currently reading through all the materials that have been generated, such as the project charter. Rather than write one huge email, I'll send a mail to the list when I come across something that I feel requires comment. The magazine project charter says: "Lacking marketing research data documenting the need for such a publication, it is assumed the readership is there and a quality publication will be an asset to the Community." and: "At the moment there is no market research giving direction to the project. It is assumed readers will connect to the Magazine forum to offer comments and suggestions and this will become the market research data to give direction to future editions of the magazine." We can get round this lack of research fairly easily. By going through a little extra effort now, we can avoid completely missing the mark later on.
From everything I've read, the intention appears to be to provide a
magazine for people new to Ubuntu. The Ubuntu community has plenty of contact with new users. My suggestion is that we get in touch with LoCo teams and the New User Network (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewUserNetwork) to ask for their help. There are a few problems with this: * We can't have a representative sample - we don't know our marketplace well enough. * Our sample would be what's called a convenience sample - i.e. we'd speak to the people that we can. * Qualitative data isn't particularly reliable with a convenience sample. However, I think that in this case, some research is better than none. I also reckon we'll get some good qualitative data - i.e. opinions, where people tell us what they think, rather than respond to a multiple choice question. In fact, just asking potential readers what they think of certain proposals, may well be the most valuable aspect. I have little market research experience. I do have a few books, though :) Tim Morris, who recently identified himself on the list as a market research professional, may be able to offer some very useful help here. Let me know what you think. If you're up for it, in particular the guys working on the magazine already, then I'll stick a page on the wiki and start contacting the relevant teams. I really believe we need this, if the magazine is going to work. As a high visibility project, we need to make the magazine as best as it can be. We also need to ensure that we take the right decisions for the right reasons. For example, some would consider creating a PDF magazine somewhat eccentric. Some idea of what the potential readers think of that would be incredibly valuable. Give me your thoughts :) -- Matthew Revell www.understated.co.uk -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
