About Peter's point #2...I suppose this is getting kind of abstract, but what is the payoff from expanding AOO's community? Typically marketing is performed to increase sales, which earns money; AOO has no sales, so what should the intended benefit from marketing be?
How does Apache gain from a larger user base for AOO? More users -> more traffic -> more demand for resources -> more demand for people that maintain infrastructure and the money to pay for said infrastructure. What is Apache's interest in promoting its offering of AOO? How does AOO gain from a larger user base? More beta-testing, more word-of-mouth exposure, more potential donors? More representative clout for acquiring resources from Apache? I'm not saying -- I would never say -- that making AOO available to the world is a bad or unnecessary thing. Given monopolistic business practices and commercialization of software available, it's important for there to be freely available alternatives to such things as an office productivity suite. But if marketing is going to occur, it would be good to know what said marketing is meant to accomplish, other than promotion for promotion's sake. Promotion for promotion's sake is the organizational manifestation of a viral idea. If there's to be a discussion on marketing, perhaps it should include a manifesto that's more concrete and strategic than "Don't you think this is great? Let's throw money at it until you do." Don
