My interest in sharing uses was more from a marketing perspective of Chandler. How could users from the Users-list put their ideas with screenshots and such and put it in a "Chandler Use-case gallery" where others can vote on "usability", "innovation of idea", "originality", etc?
Let me explain: I have been reading through many different blogs in about Chandler and one difficulty I am seeing that we have is a recurring theme about the difficulty in marketing and appealing to target users about Chandler. The question everyone seems to be asking is: "How do we get more people interested in Chandler?" I was thinking about why we were having this problem. I was thinking about the target user for Chandler. Traditionally, when we talk about a target user for a software that helps with organization, we are talking about someone with analytical skills that is good at "figuring out the software and then is able to adapt him/her self to how it works." That's how Excel, MS Project, etc work. You figure out the rules of the system and then adapt what you want to do to how the software system does the entire time you use the software. But that is not the target user for Chandler (from what I've understood). Chandler asks the user to initially make a little investment into understanding the product, but after that, the tool is supposed to be flexible enough to be whatever it is the user wants it to be. Traditional Software Compared to Math: In other words, to draw an analogy, if traditional software used for organizing was more like math. In math there are rigid rules that you have to master before you can do anything. And anything you do is limited by those rules, and you never break it. You have to be very innovative, analytical (and a lot of education) and have that kind of aptitude to translate your day to day requirements as a user into a mathematical model. (I'm exaggerating a little bit of course). Chandler Compared to Art Chandler is more like art class (or cooking class) than math class. In art, sure you have to take the time to learn a few of the tools (ingredients) and colors and crafts but just mastering these things is not enough. To really make use of Chandler, you need creativity a lot more than analytical skills. Chandler has an amazing ability to be able to represent your way of thinking in a very customized (personal) way. I think a lot of people are so used to the traditional way of thinking about software that this concept of innovation & being able to choose how you think of organizing is almost intimidating. I wonder if a lot of people think "Just tell me what it does and I'll just thing that way." Flexibility gives the user the option to "make mistakes." There are people who don't want that responsibility (even in relation with themselves). Art Products: So what I'm saying is that if you want people to buy your art products so that they will want to be artists, you first have to inspire them with art. I think we need to see lots and lots of examples of art work on Chandlers marketing website. It's when you see these type of personal use case examples that people's own thinking will start to make connections. "Oh, I can do that. Hey I could use that." "Oh that's a cool way to use it." "You mean to say I can do that?" Chandler becomes whatever in the hands of the person using it. It becomes whatever it needs to be in the hands of a innovative and creative person So what I feel we need is stories. Lots of stories of how people like you and me are making Chandler work for them in working and collaborating. There needs to be a culture around 'creative uses of Chandler.' And from there you almost start a competition to come up with the most original and useful ways to use Chandler. You get other people voting on what's the most innovative use of Chandler...and so on and so forth. Your thoughts on this? And please don't hesitate to be direct on this. I don't mind criticism when I have confidence the other person knows where I'm coming from :-). The sooner I understand the constraints and strengths we have as a team, the faster I will be able to be more effective as a team member. Praj
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