Louis Suarez-Potts pÃÅe v Ne 08. 05. 2005 v 16:44 -0700:

Hallo Louis, *,

> Okay; I'd wonder which?  Right now we have difficulty organizing our
> user FAQ--and with Jonathon's KB, it may get even more fun. Mind, I
> object to duplication but am not a maniac about that. I just think it's
> easier to control misinformation if there are limited objects to worry
> about updating.

  just few questions with answers. Below can be a link to a "huge" FAQ
like Jonathon's KB.

> Not sure what you mean and whether these would replace or complement the
> Testimonials, case studies, etc.  Would they?  And, why should users go
> to spreadooo and not OOo proper?  What, in short, makes spreadooo
> better?  

  I mean short comments from users, companies ... Not a long stories,
not a long case studies, ... (*) 

> Right now, we have migration stories and guides; I can see how they may
> be on spreadooo--but that then raises the question: why should they be
> on spreadooo and not on OOo? OOo again was and is conceived with the
> notion of being the place for such information, unless, and I suppose
> this is what I want to determine, you see OOo as being a development
> space and spreadooo as being an evangelical/marketing space? In that
> case, how, again, is spreadooo not just replacing MP?

  No, they can be on both sites, but the spreadoo will contain one,
two, ... and again, link to a longer list. For example, the most
frequent question is - how to convert templates and documents from
Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org. So, put the small howto about batch
conversion wizard and that's all. No more info, just a link below to
other things. 

> >   o buttons and HTML codes how to propagate OpenOffice.org
> >     http://firefox.czilla.cz/propagace/
> 
> how is this not already contained by the art project?

  Yes, this is done by art project, but ... As a new user, come to
www.openoffice.org and try to find how to help with promotion. So, you
will click on the "new user & general info" (1st click). Then you have
to read quite a lot of sentences until you'll find 'participate' link
(2nd click).  Now, you'll see Marketing, OK, you have to guess it's a
proper link (3rd click). Then you'll hit the Marketing link (4th click)
and you'll see two links - Join or Distribute. The user doesn't want to
join or distribute, he wants to know where are the banners. OK, he
clicks Join (5th click) and then, victory. 6th click leads to page with
banners.

  Do you understand my thinking (I know, too difficult sometimes ;-)?  I
do not want to duplicate any existing work / site. I want to take the
most important info from "all" projects, the most important guides, FAQs
and put them on the small, not growing, site where the new user will
find everything very quickly.

  List of the important things (sections) were sent in one of my
previous emails.

> How doesn't OOo do this now? 

  It does, but the site is too huge and not very friendly for the
newcomers. This site is very good for more experienced users and
volunteers, not for newcomers.

  You can look at this site in more ways:

   - big, collaboration corner for the end users, dynamic, growing,
     everything on one domain (not oomacro, ooforums, oo..., oo...,
     ...)

   - or small, more static, slightly bigger (comparing to current PDF
     flyer) electronic flyer (7, 8 pages)

  I'm talking about the second possibility.

> That can be changed.  Right now, Matthew Waldrop is redesigning the
> support page. It can be made to better address OOo user needs. We can
> also have fun creating a general page in MP that provides all the above
> (minus the add ons but with links to them).  What this entails is
> putting the links in one place, really.

  The goal of my posts is not to create new site (this is just one
possibility), but to point out where I see the problems from the
newcomers point of view.

  Try to think like newcomer:

   - what the "hell" is the OpenOffice.org?
   - why I should use it? where are the benefits?
   - hmm, nice, I've got lot of stuff in MS Office
     how can I convert them? nice wizard, yuhuu
   - okay, where I can get it?
   - good job boys, how can I help you with promotion?

   - optional are info from other users and media

  That's all. User will come, will learn, will help with promotion and
will leave. He is not willing to go through this process if there is a
lot paragraphs with text, which is not interesting for him. Think like
this user, newcomer, and create site which will guide him in a similiar
way. Minimum number of mouse clicks to get info ...
     
> So, if the objection to OOo, which is well known, is that it requires
> people to search and is complicated, then address that problem first,
> rather than going off and starting a potentially divisive project.

  I'm not going to do this ... I'm pointing them out and showing better
(IMO) solutions on a few sites ...

> if you want it regional, fine: NLC groups are already doing that, of
> course.  More support may make sense.

  No, it should be like www.openoffice.org, in english for the whole
world with connections to local sites (language detection in
browser, ...).

> Not sure what you mean, exactly; you meant on OOo homepage? then you are
> right. But we have the "new users" page and we have rather flexible
> other pages.

  I mean the OOo homepage. As I wrote few paragraphs before, it's too
complicated on the first look - too many paragraphs, too many links, 

> contributors (where do they stand?) help with OOo's momentum.  That is
> one reason I get nervous thinking of sites that logically do much of
> what we do now on OOo.

  But you're still talking about experienced users. Switch your brain to
newcomer - this man wants to learn quickly, he needs few web pages with
important info. If he will make decission to be a part of our community,
to help with development, ... he will starts using the *.openoffice.org
site because he will become experienced user.

> But I can see the advantage of complementing OOo with a site that offers
> users of OOo things like a knowledge base, information on migration,
> documents, add ons, clipart, and other user goodies, while integrating
> with existing OOo development projects so that there is not competition
> and pointless duplication.  Kind of like what you suggest but with some
> modifications.

  It's another point of view ... But this can split people ...

  I think that the easiest way is to create small, static, very nice,
well polished site, which will catch people and then, they are ready to
go through large site like *.openoffice.org. Or this can be done in the
current 'newcomers ...' page.

  I can see that things are moving, so, it's good ... Thanks for them!

-- 
Robert Vojta
http://blog.vojta.name/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to