Timothy Miller wrote:
Lance and Theo have been having some discussions, and one of the
suggestions that has come out of it is that we might benefit from
coming more vocal and activist about our beliefs.
This is somewhat natural. If the key benefit of OGP is the openness of
the product, then anything that puts brand value on that benefit (e.g.
open hardware advocacy) is good for you.
What do you think we should do? What can we do to get ourselves on
the radar of more people on the FOSS community and in IT in general?
Frankly, I'm not so sure you want to be higher profile than you are.
You're being covered in Free Software Magazine and LinuxUser & Developer
(I know, because I'm the one doing the covering!), but how far beyond
that do you really need to go?
What you really need is a product.
Too much exposure, too early will make the product seem old hat by the
time you release it (there will be grumbling about "vapor ware" and how
"free hardware" just "doesn't work", because "look how slow they are
working", etc). On the other hand, creating a product, and then
storming the market could make you look like an "overnight success
story". You need excitement to get exposure, and drama to create the
excitement.
Now, I don't really think you're going to be in a position to do that
for some time (probably not until the consumer OGA1 is manufactured or
ready to be). So, in the meantime, you need a sustaining impression of
"competent progress".
That means lots of little milestones reported in the technical press.
Smoothness is important. Pump out a little story with a press release
every month or two. Don't worry about it being widespread -- at this
point your interest is keeping developers interested and piquing the
curiousity of potential early-adopters.
The key here is to maintain the image of competence and confidence. Any
hint that you fear you will not reach the point of producing either the
development board (OGD1) or the consumer board (OGA1) will give purchase
to the naysayers (and there are already a few out there -- they could be
ATI or nVidia shills, or they could just be cynical grumblers).
Personality matters, too. You, Timothy Miller, are going to be known as
the "founder" of the OGP, so you're automatically accorded a certain
authority or celebrity status. Give interviews. Talk about your
goals. Speculate a little. It's important to establish that the core
people working on OGP are competent hardware designers with definite
ideas about where they are going.
And patience matters too. Open Cores hasn't done anything really
remarkable to market themselves, but they are known as a key source on
hardware just because they've been around for a long time. Awareness of
OGP will grow naturally in time.
One of Theo's suggestion is to use the "people are only interested in
negative press" factor. We could submit trade articles that point
out the flaws in another graphics vendor and how we're a suitable
alternative. This would get us positive exposure (negative press for
A is positive for ~A).
Not if you come across as a mud-slinger. It's a delicate balancing act,
and dedicated marketing professionals have hung themselves this way. My
advice is don't try it.
Have you ever noticed how Linus Torvalds hardly ever slams other O/Ss or
goes on about ideology? He's using the "nice guy" defense. Everybody
knows he has good reasons to slam other O/Ss, but he doesn't, and that
gains him more approval.
Stallman is more of the ideological iconoclast type, but you can see
that his success has been spotty. There are big successes within a
small core of "believers", but on the broad scale, he's regarded as
"eccentric" at best.
And that's going to depend on your personality, Timothy, and you don't
strike me as the pugnacious type. Nor as an ideologue.
You should also realize that you don't really want ATI or nVidia to
realize you are a threat. They are much better funded than you, and can
find a way to undercut or pre-empt your success if you tip your hand too
early (They probably will act after the fact, but by then, it may be too
late -- we can hope that your core market will have already identified
you as the flag-bearer).
IOW, what I'm suggesting is that you need niche marketing that targets
developers and serious free software users who will likely be interested
in free hardware as well. What you need during this phase is sufficient
interest to convince your financial backers of the viability of funding
production runs and your contributors of the solidity of the project.
You're not trying to be a "smash hit", you're trying to be "reliable"
and "capable" and other good solid words that give people confidence
that you will get to where you are trying to be.
Meanwhile, you should prepare materials for a "big launch" when you do
release a product. You should do some "launch" publicity even for the
OGD1, even though the actual market is small. This serves three purposes:
1) Making real hardware proves you can
2) It will attract FPGA developers
3) It provides a teaser for a later OGA1 launch
That's my take on it, anyway. Think about what you specifically need
during this incubation phase, and see how your marketing can be targeted
to achieve just that. Then prepare for a real consumer marketing push
when you have something to market to consumers.
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
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