On Friday 01 Oct 2010 02:04:26 Marc Paré wrote: > Le 2010-09-30 07:21, Graham Lauder a écrit : > > A group of the marketing and communication peoples got together to get > > our heads around Vision and Mission Statement. Everyone brainstormed > > what they saw as the core values of Mageia to give a direction that the > > Projects Vision and mission statement could head. > > > > The reasoning behind this is it points a figurative arrow at our primary > > target market and thus gives us a guide toward where our branding should > > be aimed. > > > > A mistake that is often made is branding from an internal aesthetic when > > in fact branding should be more aimed externally to attract a new > > demographic. If the gods are in alignment then ideally it should point > > toward our principle point of difference and again this influences our > > branding choices in terms of Colour Pallet Logo and so forth. > > > > The "feel" to me that came from the brainstorming was that Mageia could > > be marketed as the "Family Distro". This being a principle point of > > difference when a user makes a decision as to what operating system to > > run. > > > > Our principle competitor, MS competes against the Linux universe as a > > whole but other distros compete for the MS user base aimed at particular > > Demographics. For instance: > > OpenSUSE aims at the "Power User" Market > > Ubuntu aims at the young individual end of the market > > CentOS at Community enterprise and Not For Profits > > Fedora at the Computing Professional > > > > Mageia could therefore aim at the Young Married professional market, > > being the Distro that could be installed on the home computer and geared > > so that the whole family could use it. > > > > So for instance as well as the standard software, educational programmes > > would be installed by default, be NetSafe (Dans Guardian), have OOo4Kids > > installed as well as a full office suite, Tuxtype, TuxPaint and so on. > > > > Documentation added to show parents how to set up accounts for the kids > > and how to make it Net safe. > > > > I think that this is an untapped market right now and something that the > > project could leverage into a marketing campaign and guide us in terms of > > branding. > > > > Comments? > > > > Cheers > > GL > > I think that if you target the software packages that are compatible > with Educational software advocated by educational organizations, we > could make quite large inroads in the adaptability of Mageia.For > example, when marketing the OS, emphasis on the distro that can carry > your kids through their educational paths with such packages as > OpenOffice (soon to be LibreOffice -- make sure the MSWorks plug-in is > also included) compatible with MSOffice; GIMP similar to Photoshop and > some plugins are compatible; Freemind mindmapping; etc. If Mageia > concentrated on making these software packages work solidly then you > could have a good run at competing with other linux distros in the > educational field.
Indeed, that's why I suggest OOo4Kids. The go-oo.org version is pretty much essential right now because of it's GoogleDocs/Zoho integration. Schools are using the cloud as an educational tool more and more. > > BTW, in Canada, many school boards still use the Novel Netware setups > and they are just now in the midst of planning out its replacement. My > school board for example will have to replace close to 10,000 units if > they were to move to a Linux setup. I sat in on a meeting about 5 years > ago to hear out a RehHat re-seller's pitch. Most school boards are > almost at the break point and will be actively looking for new > networking/desktop solutions. Common all over the world and if the school can see that the software used at school is as friendly on the home computer... > > So, compatibility with educational software. The distro should also be > an easy install for everyone and GUI run. If we are going to make it and > contend with other distros, the majority of users want a GUI run install > where everything works right away. There should be as little fiddling > around as possible. Install (15-20 minutes), then, register user > accounts, shares for accounts, re-name the computer to instill a sense > of ownership to the user (rather than having your computer called > "localhost" all the time, and then you are done! (Cups and 3d should be > installed automatically during the install phase). Make the install as > easy as possible. When I started using Linux (Mandrake was my first distro and the reason I abandoned Windows) MCC to me, a nongeek, was the killer app. OpenSuSE's Yast is/was the only real competition. The ability to administer everything from a GUI is killer for the Ex-windows user. > > The next is a distro with games and solid multi-player game setups that > work. Get the distro to play nice with WOW and other popular games. This > will kill the competition and grab kids attention. Have a Mageia games > advocate(s) who periodically send out "snazzy" e-newsletters and a > "Magei Games Korner" on the website to foster gamesmanship on the > distro. Get the kids talking about the "rock-solid" install of WOW (for > example) using Wine -- the distro should come "hard wired" to play! and > rock! The critical thing about aiming at a family market is that you are not aiming at Kids. The target in this market is Mum, she is the power here, the rest of the family follow along meekly. > > Have a great advocacy group that will stand up to Mageia bashing and > hand out comparative studies on the distro's performance and keep the > name in the headlines with such sites as LinuxToday.com. Be proactive > rather reactive to Linux possibilities of use where it can rationalized > as a good replacement desktop distro. What we have to do is replace the Linux=Ubuntu with Mageia instead of Windows. Linux has already been sold to those who fill the market that needs to know about that, let Ubuntu have that space. What I would like to see is a decision making process that goes Windows or Mac or Mageia. > > Sorry for the long note. A long note is only long when it doesn't say anything, this ain't long, many thanks for your input Marc > > Cheers > > Marc > Cheers GL -- Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant. INGOTs Assessor Trainer (International Grades in Open Technologies) www.theingots.org _______________________________________________ Mageia-dev mailing list [email protected] https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-dev
