Note:  I removed LoCo, News, and Devel from my response, because this
pertains to marketing only.

Martin,

Thanks for the offer.  I'm not looking to throw anyone under the bus about
what occurred.  It was just all standard fare if you are used to those sort
of politics.  The people who held up the greatest amount of resistance know
who they were an no amount of reconciliation seemed to matter.  If you keep
prodding enough, they will make their presence known :)
The problem was just like it is presenting itself now:  the activity on the
lists was stagnant, a handle of people wanted to get involved and give it
some direction, and some of the folks who were "active' already stepped in
and over-moderated until the new blood lost interest in the games and walked
away.  The last thing anyone wanted was the people that were already doing
stuff to become disenfranchised and walk away from the important things they
were already handling.

"Ah, we're not a business, we're a community, it's not exactly the same.
And it's not like we don't have a certain vision, we just don't have a
good leadership for this section of the community."

I appreciate, but don't necessarily agree with the assessment that the
volunteer marketing team should be considered community.  Ubuntu users form
a community through their shared experiences and interactions throughout the
world as they collaborate online and off about the Linux operating system.

When you sign up to help aid and assist in marketing, you are offering to
become a foot soldier in the grassroots movement.  It is no longer about
 just wanting to be the person that tells all your friends how great your
computer is now that you have cast aside the close source conglomerates.
 Its about using tactics and savvy that rival the big boys to promote
awareness and to get people who are using our product to evangelize for us
in the community and outside of it.

Communal thinking is fantastic for the already successful LoCos.  But when
it comes to genuine, innovative marketing, the hive mind needs people to
pull the trigger that can provide direction, proceed with vision, and
deliver excitement to the rest of the group that needs to see some sort of
progress in order to measure its own success.

Until the old guard realizes this, the volunteer marketing group will
continue to stagnate.




John Vilsack

email: [email protected]
voice: 651-314-9858 (recently updated)

Active Sports, Inc.
200 S Owasso Blvd E
St Paul, MN 55117
651-482-9995

http://www.the-house.com


On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Martin Owens <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hey John,
>
> On Wed, 2009-10-21 at 10:46 -0500, John Vilsack wrote:
>
> > It saddens me because Ubuntu is a dominant product that could be so
> > much more if the grassroots movement would allow itself to have
> > direction.  But after years of infighting in politics and other open
> > source products, I didn't have the constitution to go toe to toe with
> > the embedded members of our community here who were putting up a
> > fight.
>
> Could you identify these people? would it be possible to get a meeting
> in IRC and hash out your concerns with an arbitrator/moderator?
>
> I haven't seen much stubborn, I've only seen lack of man power. If only
> there was someone to fight, at least that'd be more interesting than the
> tumbleweeds.
>
> > My feeling is that the only way this will ever change is with the
> > direction of Canonical.  Until that time, we will continue to get our
> > collective rears handed to us by companies that have the discipline
> > and cohesive message necessary to establish any sort of mainstream
> > market awareness or saturation.
>
> Ah, we're not a business, we're a community, it's not exactly the same.
> And it's not like we don't have a certain vision, we just don't have a
> good leadership for this section of the community.
>
> Martin,
>
>
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