I agree with you David, an excellent analysis. Walter - beyond my personal belief in the worth of software freedom :-) being part of the FOSS ecosystem is a key differentiator for us and i agree that should be part of the message.
Sean On 7/30/09, David Farning <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 4:36 AM, Sean DALY<[email protected]> wrote: > > > OK but I will need to think a little bit about this (and for the > > moment no internet access in the house, truck unloaded yesterday & we > > are in boxes, internet will take a couple of weeks at least) > > > > I have promised Tomeu to assist in recruitment but this is a tricky > > one... the "magic" if I may say so is to find an "angle" that is > > newsworthy... that will bubble to the top choices a journalist or > > blogger will choose to write about. Unfortunately, "we need help" or > > "we are succeeding an ambitious technical challenge", etc. are not > > newsworthy in and of themselves. So we need to find a link, a "hook" > > to generate newsworthiness. My instinct is to springboard from Sugar > > on a Stick which has already captured the imagination of many writers > > and bloggers. > > > > Marketing, advertising, even recruitment springs first from emotional > > response, then reasoned analysis. If you listen to Red Hat's CEO in > > the BBC link I sent two days ago you will hear him try to motivate > > potential recruits in terms of social responsibility and making the > > world a better place. I think all of us are deeply motivated by the > > desire to educate children. > > > I have come to the same conclusion. > > I have been uneasy about our shopping list of needs approach to > engaging new contributors. Every open source article about attracting > and engaging contributors talk about providing a easily accessible > list of activities for contributors to get started. Yet, when ever I > read those lists (and our lists) I end up saying 'Why should I help > with this.' > > Further research on non-profit and my own personal experience has lead > me to the conclusion that people help social benefit organizations, > such as Sugar Labs, because we 'meet needs' not because we 'have > needs.' As an example, I don't donate to Wisconsin Public Radio > because they run those annoying 'please help us' campaigns every > couple of months. Instead, I believe that Wisconsin Public Radio is > providing a valuable service, thereby meeting a valuable community > need. > > I think this was why the SoaS release made such a splash in the tech > community. It was widely perceived as 'meeting the need' that Sugar > be available without purchasing an XO during their limited periods of > G1G1 availability. The 'value' of freeing Sugar appeals to certain > people. > > OLPC in general is such a compelling project because it aims to 'meet > the needs' of students in developing nation by leverage technology. > The 'value' of education and the 'usefulness' of technology resonate > _very_ strongly with many people. > > Overall, the message can take the form of: > 1. Here is the need we aim to meet - > 2. Here is our track record on making progress towards meeting that need - > 3. Here is how you can help us meet that need - > > > david > > > > Perhaps, Slashdot-style, we can announce a technical challenge with a > > deadline (cf. JFK man on the moon). For example: "Sugar on a Stick is > > a liveUSB system and is based on liveCD solutions which impose certain > > limitations on writable media; one of the consequences is a higher > > failure rate for USB sticks than optical media. We want Sugar on a > > Stick to be absolutely reliable for children and their teachers; who > > can help us design and implement an improved liveUSB architecture by > > May 2010, to prepare Sugar on a Stick for wide deployment by the > > beginning of the school year?" > > > > This is only an idea, but the brainstorming aspect of it - we want to > > do something which has never been done before - could raise awareness > > among sharp geeks who could bring their experience to the project. It > > would position ourselves as being at the leading edge of innovation, > > bringing high tech on a $5 stick to kids. We could imagine a "contest" > > with the only prize being the implementation of the best idea; but a > > wiki page where we invite geeks to propose their best take on the > > subject could build traffic amongst prequalified developers. > > > > This is a double-edged sword, because there are some pundits who love > > to diss Sugar and OLPC by implying that Python is a silly choice, or > > OLPC "failed" by doing X and not doing Y or Z. But we could maybe > > minimize mindless trashing by asking the community for the best ideas. > > > > This might work best as a blog post not a press release... although if > > we raise the bar of the challenge high enough, some tech writers might > > want to write about it if it is a press release too. > > > > We absolutely have to improve the Getting Involved page as part of our > > recruitment too, I had had some suggestions a couple of months back > > but no time for me to find those today :-( > > > > I will think about this some more, feedback appreciated thanks > > > > Sean > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 4:01 AM, Walter Bender<[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I will spare you the discussion details, but an idea that emerged from > >> IRC would be PR around our technical challenges in order to recruit > >> more interest. We could get Tomeu, et al. to draft some descriptive > >> text and you could work your magic??? > >> > >> -walter > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > > Marketing mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing > > > _______________________________________________ Marketing mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
