-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Onno Benschop wrote:
> So it would be wrong to suggest that I have little or no experience with > Windows - far from it. Well, I was basing my comments on what you said. Obviously that interpretation was wrong and I apologize. > > Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulted in any way by your comment, just > that when I make a point about something, it's with a long background in > this industry with the experience of being a both a radio broadcaster > and producer, an IT help-desk operator and team leader, a software > developer, an IT trainer and a web-developer. I started playing with > databases in the dBase II era and wrote sales management systems back in > the days of the Summer Edition of Clipper (for those with a sense of > nostalgia :) My own experience goes back to 1983 when I went to work for a large civic organization in Chicago as the administrative assistant for a program that coordinated corporate volunteers and material donations to small grass roots organizations. I have used computers ever since. The point that I was trying to make is that my experience and yours are very different and that gives us a very different perspective on things. And I think my experience is closer to that of the people we need to target than yours or many others in the Ubuntu community. A very small percentage of Windows users have the level of technical expertise that you do. And that is something that, IMHO, is something that the discussions on this list seem to not take into account in any substantive manner. > > (That was a tad longer than I intended, but being concise has never been > a strong point - I'm working on it.) I got you beat by a mile on that!!!! LOL > > > The other point I'd like to make is that I have to disagree with your > perception of progress. > > I've seen many meetings that descend into rabble without any decisions > being made, no common ground being reached and little or no progress > having been made - our 2 and a half hour marathon session achieved lots > more than I dared hope for. It did achieve a lot, no argument there, but, IMHO, it did not achieve enough. I am beginning to think that our basic difference is that I feel a sense of urgency about this team that you do not. I want us to "go forth and market" - as you so neatly put it - but we cannot until this team has both direction and structure. - heart and brain. We now have the heart, but we need our brain. > The single thing I would like to achieve is that the marketing team does > not stagnate as it appears to have done in the past. Yes, and that is why we need both a heart and brain. We will stagnate until we have both. And, my sense of urgency says that postponing things is going to hurt us big time. > >>From my perception (that word again :) the team has gone through several > resurrections and I would love to understand what caused each of those > to happen - so we have a chance of avoiding those pitfalls. I have a theory, but you may not like it:-) A lack of a formal leadership structure. Specific "offices" that are filled as they become vacant. Consensus requires what Max Weber, the great German sociologist, called charismatic authority - like, to use my favorite example. Jesus during his lifetime. But once that charismatic leader is gone, the community stagnates. until a new charismatic leader comes along, St. Paul for instance. It was not until the appointment of the original group of presbyters (bishops) that the early Church had anything resembling a sense of permanence. > > Finally, you could think of leadership in another way, that is, the > Ubuntu-Marketing is providing marketing leadership by using best > practice and central resources which it makes available to the Ubuntu > Community. That is EXACTLY how I see the leadership role of the team. What concerns me is the leadership within the team. We cannot lead Ubuntu marketing until we have some leadership of our own to keep us on track and moving forward. To use the analogy of the early Church again, Christianity did not become a force, and ultimately the guiding force, in the Roman Empire until it established its own leadership structure that existed outside of the people who held those roles. Then look what it accomplished. And for those on this team who are not Christians, every major religion has similar history. - -- Peace! John -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFITQ2N3oYFui6B2koRAv4lAJ9jlEJgvmJBp8ezKtPnkEufaYWg9QCg7gWU 36ItXhwV1gShcEAnW/wCisQ= =R5oU -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
