Dotan Cohen wrote:
Mmm... I disagree. Offering a solution that's mainly point and click in
Ooo.org will illustrate how little one needs to be a geek to use
Ooo.org. It requires very little effort from the writer of the article.
And it prevents the author (who's probably not familiar with Ooo.org)
from finding an over-complicated solution that would make Ooo.org look
complicated.
I think that it prevents the author from taking a look at OOo. Instead
of asking him a question, and possibly encouraging him to look into
OOo, you are giving him an answer to a question that nobody asked.
What will he do with that?
... put it on his site allowing other people to find that answer. If the
question asked in the article was something nobody actually wanted to
know in the first place, the article wouldn't be read. This would
testify of a crummy writer (and probably not a very interesting blog)
Giving the answer would actually (so I hope) help existing users... and
would point out how "a free application" could actually offer quality too.
Offering the author an additional content item on his/her website/blog
about this item in Ooo.org will also increase traffic to their site
If you give him one item, then he has one more page. If you interest
him in OOo, then he will have hundreds of new pages. I think that
there is an expression about teaching a man to fish that is relevant
here.
Well... that thing about the fish has 2 big prerequisites: (1) the man
wanting the fish, must feel the need. (2) the man bust believe he's
capable of fishing. People using MS Office don't feel hungry, and
indeed, many people think of "Open Source" to be geek-ware (= "out of my
league").
To make a comparison: you won't convince a 12-year-old who's in Mc
Donalds daily to grow his own vegetables and to slaughter his own cow...
(1) He's used to the fat and fast food. He's willing to pay for the
comfort ... (2) that's to complex for him ... and (3) He's not hungry.
Bottom line: give me one good reason (and please: now get into the
mindset of someone who isn't interested in Openoffice and has a busy
job) why that author will do the effort.
(it's called "third party content" and is an enrichment for a site).
Not only will search results on "create TOC ms word" lead them to their
page, but also "create TOC openoffice writer" - thus increasing the
visitors to their site (what many bloggers apparently seem to want)
If you want to write all that author's OOo content, be my guest. My
intention was to get him to take an interest in OOo and write about
it, not to have him publish your writings.
Nope, don't want to write his site for him... just want to give the
author a small snack and emphasize how easy it is: I would hope the
author would think: "Shit man, this can be done with that free
application too?" (pardon for the language)
I would hope this surprise would trigger him to actually take a look and
see if it's really that easy to getting it done in OOo. I'll "spoon
feed" a toddler until it's big enough to scoop himself. And as a
responsible parent, I'll even cook his food until he's out (and then
hope he'll grow up to cook healthy if it's up to him).
Obviously one has to choose his "battles": don't go spamming all MS
Office sites with (copy * replace "MS Office" with "OOo" * paste) type
of questions. This will quickly annoy every blogger. If you choose 1 or
2 much read and highly sought (and seemingly complex) problems and solve
them... this will result in an increase to the site of the blogger
(blogger wins at it) AND a bigger exposure to Openoffice (OOo winst at
it) - if the blogger sees how the OOo article causes a traffic increase,
this will also not remain unnoticed: the author sees how OOo-users are
(becoming) a relevant impact group.
And yes, it requires a little more effort. It also tells us something
about the community: The Open Source World is community driven, and OOo
actually has users who try to answer your questions (not at a rate of
$50 per hour).
Wow! This thread is growing into a long mail...
(I think it's actually quite important)
