---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rubén Hubuntu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 13:43:14 +0200 Subject: Re: [ubuntu-marketing] [Fwd: FCN submission - your reaction, please] To: John Botscharow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I believe the best selling point we will ever have is freedom. It's price is right, it's ethical and a technologically superior software methodology. We use ubuntu because we care about freedom! R On 6/8/08, John Botscharow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Sorry, I sent this from the wrong address. > > - -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: FCN submission - your reaction, please > Date: Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:49:18 -0500 > From: John Botscharow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: ubuntu-marketing <ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com> > > > What follows is an article - rough draft which I just wrote as a > possible submission to FCM as a "My Opinion" piece. Since it was > inspired by the marketing team meeting earlier this evening my time), > I'd appreciate your opinion and comments before I submit it. Excuse any > typos as I have not yet proofed it. My eyes are too tired. Time for my > drops and an hour or two in a dark room. I'll cgeck back later to see if > anyone comments and to see what else is going on here. > - -- > Peace! > > John > > > - ----- ARTICLE TEXT ------- > I am writing this post because of my experiences today at my first > meeting of the Ubuntu marketing team using IRC chat. One of the topics > near the end of the meeting was a brief discussion of various > communication technologies the team currently uses, the same > technologies used by the rest of the Ubuntu community and its various > sub-communities. I want to address the issue of communication from the > perspective of someone who is new to Ubuntu and Linux, but not to open > source software, which U have been using for almost 20 yearsm first > Mozilla and then OpenOffice as well as others. I am also going to > address this issue from the perspective of someone who is not a > developer, just a "nornal" computer user - like the vast majority of > people who use Windows. I also want to address this issue from the > perspective of someone who has a visual disability and who wants to be > an active member of the Ubuntu community, and especially the marketing team. > > Up until a couple of years ago, I was an online marketing consultant and > writer, something I did for about fifteen years, so I think I speak with > a certain amount of expertise and experience. I am also a writerm abd > have been one online for almost twenty years, first writing marketing > articles and more recently articles on religion and politics. I also > have avery strong academic background in the social sciences, which > gives me a certain level of credibility when talking about group > dynamics and scoial behavior. > > My comments about communications within the Ubuntu community need to be > understood against the background of fixing Bug #1, in other words, > taking away some of Microsoft's overwhelming share of the operating > system market. I joined the marketing team bvecause I an committed to > doing that. To give my commitment to that bug fix some credibility, even > though I have only been a member of the Ubuntu community for a little > over a month, and a member of the marketing team for almost exactly a > month, I have become an Ubuntero. > > Now, it seems to me that Ubuntu, like the other Linux communities that I > have had some experience with, is comprised in a very large part of > software developers of varying degrees of experience and expertise. And > the primary focus of the community is in improving the product - the > Ubuntu operating system. That is probably the way it should be, to a > certain extent. But, no matter how good a product is, and I personally > believe that Ubuntu is far superior to anything Microsoft has ever > turned out, if people are intimidated by the community of users, then > the average person will NOT be receptive to that product. And, to be > honest with you, I have found my first month of being a member of this > community very intimidating and very frustrating. > > To actively participate in this community, I have had to join a number > of mailing lists. As someone who used Windows for 20 years and all the > issues that come with using email on Windows machines, I learned to be > very gun-shy about email, even with PGP signatures, although that does > help. I stopped publishing my newsletter using email five years ago and > switched to RSS. And I set up a number of forums for people to discuss > issues within my site communities. Those are STILL the technologies I > use today on my site and I love them. > > The people in the Windows universe who will be most receptive to > switching to Ubuntu will be people like me - those who hate and fear the > security vulnerabilties of Windows. But then they come here and discover > that the things they learned to be most wary of, like email, are the > most widely used technologies here. Arguing that this is what is and > what has been and what everybody else in the community uses will not > reassure them. My email has increased, quite literally, a thousand fold. > Although I know at an intellectual level that there is no reason for > fear, at a visceral level, I am still quite concerned. > > Then there is the IRC chat. I have never been a big one for text chats. > And, given my vision problems, it is very hard, as I discovered at the > meeting today, a fast-paced chat session is almost impossible for me to > follow. Hopefully, with some experience, I will get better, but there > will always be a bit of a handicap there for me. And, if my eyesight > gets worse, am I to be excluded from serious active participation in the > community because of my handicap? I certainly hope not. > > Finally, there is the wiki. I LOVE the concept, but using a wiki, for me > and for many non-technical users, means learning a whole new set of > codes. There is some help available for editing a wiki, but it is, for a > novice, not as clear and user-friendly as it could be. If there are > other resources like tutorials, I have not been able to find them. > Sometimes it seems that ubuntu.com is not one web site but a whole set > of them with little integration between them. That can be very daunting > for someone new. > > Whether this community is willing to accept it or not, there will be no > even partial fix of Bug #1 until this community, and especially its > marketing efforts. look outside of the community or even outside of the > Linux community. We need to look to the people who use Windows and > everything we do must be focused on making them understand the > superiority of Ubuntu and to make this community a place where they will > feel welcome and comfortable. Switching to Ubuntu from Windows requires > a lot of adjustments, not only technical, but in how one sees things. It > should be our responsibility as a community to help ease that adnustment > as much as possible. Microsoft does not have a user community and that > is one of the real plusses of Ubuntu, but only if new users from the > world of Windows feel comfortable here, If they don't. more than likely > they will return to the more familiar world of Microsoft. > > Finally, I want to address a "philosophical" issue that was raised at > the marketing team meeting. Should the marketing team focus its efforts > on inside the Ubuntu community or ourside? In thinking about it after > the meeting, it struck me that this is a non-issue. Even if we focus our > efforts on helping the LoCos or other parts of the Ubuntu community by > providing resources for their marketing efforts, our ultimate focus has > to be outside the community. We are trying to convert people from > Windows to Ubuntu, not from the default desktop to Xubuntu or Kubuntu or > even from RedHat to Ubuntu. Our primary focus should always be on the > Windows user and on showing them the benefits of both the product and > the community. > > That is my opinion. > > > > - -- > Peace! > > John > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > iD8DBQFIS0kg3oYFui6B2koRAgANAJ9m7YMpNR7Cq9oaxYd4f2ZbZm5h4gCg8WYH > yZdFlbPwMoMzg+Lgfwa7XBc= > =J8a5 > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > -- > ubuntu-marketing mailing list > ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing > -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
