On Mon, 2006-01-30 at 18:06 +0100, Steven Pauwels wrote: > Hi all, > > I have printed the marketing plan and read it very carefully, almost > immediately after deciding to try and help... in fact :) reading the > plan was the trigger to get me to volunteer :) > > What is the difference between objectives and a plan to obtain the > objectives?? You set objectives, mostly long term. then draft a plan, > mostly year based, on how to get there... > > What I find is mostly objectives... And I have to agree with Finn... an > extremely high level of ambition... Where is the strategy but to use > disruptive marketing? Again, I know my words seem hard and that it is > easy to comment on someones efforts... But only trying to help...
I would have to concur. I do write development plans for a living but I don't really see how we can get beyond viral marketing unless there is a budget. For the plan itself if it is to be a tool for meeting objectives, there needs to be a lot less description of general things and more about the specifics of how objectives will be met. I suspect that this is the stumbling block since with a volunteer work force its difficult to manage a conventional development planning scenario that is written as if from the perspective of a corporate entity with budgets and control mechanisms associated with control of resources. > In general, an objective is based on figures from the past calculated > into planned actions and thus getting a predicted result... Nothing we > can do is new... It has been done... everything... and therefore there > are figures available for each type of action to use when calculating > objectives... > > But Ureka! We do not have to meet budgets :):) Yes! Hmmmm.... How about > setting a goal for sponsors? Local or Global? If Finn can find them, so > can I, or you... Or setting a target for fund-raising to finance some of the other marketing efforts. ie I don't see meeting budgets as a problem, having no budget to finance anything is a far greater problem. > As I said on the art list: whe should define goals for the marketing of > the 3.0 release and be prepared to 'launch' it. > > Let me compare it with the highly structured chaos of an antfarm... > Although it seems like no one knows what to do and looks like complete > chaos... Every ant knows exactly what to do and works together to obtain > one goal: the survival and victory of their colony. > > But we're not ants :) so how about doing the things as all succesfull > things have been done in the past? I asume all of you are ambitious? :) > > This is my suggestion: > Be it the first in a series of actions to get ready to define a > strategy, lets go back to the past. If everyone gets as much data on > past usage.... anything, marketing share... any data... (about OOo AND > competition... ) I will be happy to analyse them an present them back to > you all, commented and with suggestions on future actions... In order > to follow up on what has been done in the past, let me know what > actions you think were succesfull... an more important: data on the > succes of these actions... I'm working in education in the UK. The most effective thing seems to be strategies to make people aware that OOo exists and then to get them to install it. (ok obvious :-) ) My own way of doing this is to use the professional networks I am in to bring OOo to the attention of people who would not otherwise see it. I have a certification strategy going through the process of gaining government recognition here in the UK which will hopefully generate an income that can be used to develop open source educational applications some of which will be based on OOo and ODF. Its not so much something that has happened in the past (not that I am aware of). I studied work on disruptive technologies brought to my attention by Christian Einfeldt, another marketing project member. I used this and my knowledge of the education system in the UK and my business contacts to devise a certification for IT that can be universally applied in schools and we now have assessors in about 20 countries. Part of the certification was to contribute to the OOo project in a meaningful way but I have broadened this to community service in open source projects for a variety of reasons. There is still a long way to go but we have made a lot of progress and there is some chance of earning significant revenue in the future. In short, I'm not sure I can provide any data on usage. I did start trying to compile a list of the organisations using OOo but it didn't seem to get me very far and it was taking up a lot of time. I decided the strategy I have now makes best use of the knowledge and expertise I have and I get support from OOo volunteers in a range of the communities where they think its relevant to them. I just wonder if a corporate plan of the type that companies use is actually applicable in an Open Source community where the resource is 100% volunteers that each has his or her own reasons and interests for being a member of the community? We can only get people to do things by persuasion and mailing lists are not that good at conveying infectious enthusiasm to get people to invest large amounts of time in areas in which they have little interest. Indeed there is a risk in doing anything lengthy that might not be accepted since the time and effort invested then comes to nothing. That is the road to disenchantment. I am aware that I am describing rather than solving a problem here but I have given it a lot of thought over the last two years and I don't see that there is an obvious solution. > If this is the general marketing list... I hope all Local projects read > and help out... as Finn says: I know this worked... why don't you try it. > > Let me know how you feel... :) > > Steven P -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMS Ltd --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
