[opensuse-marketing] Re: Software Freedom Day and days [was RE: Novell Users International French Chapter]

19 Nov 2015

      Greetings,

I have been pretty busy for the last month or two and managed to get
an hour or so to-day in order to write these reports, so sorry!

Preamble

On 1st of January next year (around) Lower Normandy and Higher
Normandy will re become just one Normandy. The administrative Capital
will be ROUEN. This is good for us. (There is a development on this
event below).

Every year the associations have a show case and people come from
towns/villages of the County in September to see what they do and how
they can use the facilities. Having said that, every month the City
charges a few Euros to each association in order to finance
Electricity, cleaning, security et al.

Event 19 September

This year again, it coincided with Software Freedom Day (International
event). Thanks to Douglas & Elisa, we had some posters and a few items
in order not to be sort of “naked” with the thousands of visitors, the
Mayor, the President of the council and other dignitaries….

I carefully picked up 3 members plus me who have experience and
stamina in this type of event, Laurence, Olivier, Mike (came by train
from Paris). We started early because there were a couple hundreds of
associations fighting for chairs, electricty, wifi and other material.
Some intelligent people set their stands overnight!

This year, we wanted to hit hard because we were refused a stand at
RMLL in Beauvais (The old Novell/Microsoft deal or ordeal, the way you
look at it). We wanted to show our availability to the population,
local, National or international without hindrance.

That served us well, the politicians opened and went for a tour to
visit every stand. I greeted them personally and some did walk away a
DVD of SLED/S and/or a souvenir. Mike brought his 3D printing and
sadly did not get it to work with openSUSE, but the laymen had no idea
what was driving the 3D printer and this became an attraction which
comforted me that if you do not know about open source, when wandering
in the alleys, SUSE, Libre-Office, Leap etc. will not ring a bell, but
seeing a sort of metallic frame on a table with 4 people in green, you
want to know what’s up! This drove a lot of traffic and Mike also
offered free advice for people.

We had some nice encounters:

a.     A local association dealing exclusively with exchange of
services against services, no money involved wants to trade IT from
us. So when he will have no activities on Saturdays that we are in
business, they will come and continue on that path with us.

b.      Somebody came with his desktop to get it fixed, he was running
Ubuntu and had a few broken packages… Delicate situation

c.       We had the firemen (holding  a stand as well) visiting us one by one

d.      Our neighbor just opposite was a lady demonstrating yoga, so
IT was not her priority, nor her visitors

e.      Our next door neighbor was the team that runs a city secondary
site and they very interested that we came to their premises to
demonstrate openSUSE/SUSE….

f.        We had around 26 lapel pins left and a lady came round was
quite upset about wifi microwaves and while discussing with us took a
handful of pins, we were dumbed because she had no computers at home …
Is she going to promote us or going to sell them?

g.       A bit deceived with openSUSE on Raspberry PI 2, this is not
trivial compared to other distributions …

We distributed to professional potential users SLED/S and 100 openSUSE
13.2 DVDs that we burned ourselves over the weeks prior to SFD. Apart
from that, we happily gave away stickers, SUSE key rings.

We showed Tumbleweed on a dedicated machine and Leap in Beta state,
openSUSE 13.2 of course, explained tens of times the various
differences also with other distributions.

After talking to several hundreds of visitors all day, we did indulge
in liters of Coca-Cola, coffee and lunch was very frugal as we were
quite busy.

We all ended at my place for dinner.

In a nutshell: Very positive day, met people from all around Normandy.
Discovered some other associations eager to go in at the deep end with
openSUSE, and our ARM version for Raspberry needs to become foolproof…
We will do it again next year!

Photos: not a lot, uploading soon.

Event 21 October

Here, this was the normal monthly SFD, but there were 6 people who
made appointments for particular questions/issues.

Total visitors 30

Here are the workshops (pre booked) that were held:

1.       Installation of LAMP, then Wordpress and other stuff. All done OK!

2.       Recovery of root password. We failed, probably because
openSUSE is well armored J So reinstalled Tumbleweed, VGA card gave us
grief. So, we ended with openSUSE 13.2

3.       The President of an association in North East of Normandy,
drove all the way to Rouen, he himself had tons of questions. The most
important issue was about transition from Windows to openSUSE, then
which desktop KDE/Gnome. So the full works: installation of openSUSE
13.2 and some labs with LibreOffice, Firefox, Insets on ssh, ftp…

4.       A young man had some doubts about using Linux, I personally
spent time with him and he will start to come every month in order to
better himself.

5.       A person weary of Linux wanted an installation with a dual
boot *with* Windows 7

6.       The best is yet to come! A guy walked in and wanted openSUSE
installed, (he phoned weeks ago) He already made a backup of “My
Documents” and wanted a new beginning.

OpenStreetMap was present (as usual) and they trained people on using
OSM. The other visitors came to have a first encounter with Linux and
some wanted information. A few were also already running other flavors
like Ubuntu and came to see what’s new.

In a nutshell: Very rich day indeed, now getting ready for 12th
December and would like to play father Xmas J Please clean/clear your
drawers and send me what you can spare J

What the competition is doing

It seems to me that someone got in touch with me in April last year on
LinkedIn and might have been monitoring the way we operate.
Someoneelse came in August last year and starting to help voluntarily
a bit when there were too many visitors. He started at the same time a
site with SPIP and has been mingling with other LUGs in Normandy and
complained that he did not get the passwords to directly input their
sites. So, I found him very much involved with a particular LUG
(purist of Linux) and that they were accepted at RMLL. Since then, he
stopped visiting us. He was present on the stand of the other LUG last
September and has a domain name now instead of hosting his SPIP site
with his Internet provider.

Surprise, surprise, the other LUG, Ubuntu (France) and this gentleman
made a coalition and created ubuntu-rouen.org and now attempting to
organize install parties in Rouen (Rouen capital of Normandy). The
first one was planned last Saturday and cancelled because of the
events in France.

RSS issue

Here is what I wrote on the 6th September, I had a couple of answers
(thanks by the way) but I need that done so that I can use my talent
on other matters:

QUOTE “I do not master the python and I have asked for help very
kindly and even opened two cases with support. They stayed opened a
few months then got closed. No way to enter this RSS
http://planet.opensuse.org” UNQUOTE

There is enough visibility on the web, but this one is missing.

@Douglas

A few bits and pieces for Xmas if you can of course :D

1.      * Table cloth?

2.       * DVDs?

3.       * Leap Tshirts?

4.       * Goodies?

Best wishes,

Jimmy

On 6 September 2015 at 13:23,   wrote:
...
Sunday 06th September, 2015.
Greetings All,
When I asked Novell about the future of NUI, I was given Kim as contact.
Yes, I will pursue the path of French Forum with Kim on a separate  thread
now and not bother Kim with the running of NUI.fr
Having said that, I have been cc you all and was sinserely expecting someone
to come forward. The tam-tam is alive and well on Social networks.
Three quickies:
1.       As per attached letter, the City is asking us to pay special
attention to our stand.
2.       I do not master the python and I have asked for help very kindly
and even opened two cases with support. They stayed opended a few months
then got closed. No way to enter this RSS http://planet.opensuse.org
3.       We do need goodies and some form of “uniform”
In the light of the above, I will leave it to your goodwill to make these
events for 2015 and 2016 great successes indeed. For your easy reference:
19 septembe rSFD - Journée Mondiale du LL
31 October 2015 – Monthly event
21 November 2015 – Monthly event
12 December 2015 – Monthly event
Best wishes,
Jimmy
From: Kim Groneman [mailto:kgroneman@novell.com]
Sent: 06 August 2015 16:04
To: PIERRE, Jimmy
Cc: Schweikert, Robert; mmatthews2011@gmail.com; Brown, Richard; DeMaio,
Douglas
Subject: Re: Novell Users International French Chapter
Hi Jimmy,
I am not in a position to help with meetings and events or marketing
material.  The only thing I'm in a position to do is to create a French
online community for the French speaking user group.  I can install a French
language pack on our forums and create a forum for French language
discussion.  If that online community becomes viable and strong, then we
would have a chance to show management and perhaps get more attention.  Is
that what you would like me to do?
Kim Groneman
Micro Focus/SUSE Digital Marketing
Forums, Wiki, & Corporate Search
EMAIL: kgroneman@microfocus.com
PHONE: 801-861-7652
________________________________
...
...
...
Jimmy PIERRE  7/30/2015 4:29 AM >>>
Hi Kim,
I was glad to read you last week but we had a family reunion and I could not
isolate to get back to you. This obviously gave me more time for thoughts.
There were some events which brought me to take contact with you. So let me
start sequentially so that we get to an understanding of where I stand. I
will copy Doug, Mary, Robert the same.
There were the RMLL in Montpelier last year. NUI attended the last 5 in a
row (Including Belgium and Switzerland), so as usual, I requested some
goodies to drive down there 860 KM one way. Nothing left and also kits were
given to other ambassadors including for that event. I was told to try to
get some of these for the show. After releasing chocolate to kids, any hope
of getting some back? I then started as previous years to get hold of a
stand, no luck this time, they tried to put us with people we never did
business before. In the light of this, I gave up! And sadly, no openSUSE was
present. Sic.
NUI carried out our monthly thing in the City Hall venue rooms. Business as
usual. Of course, I personally work for Corporates and evey opportunity I
get, I put SUSE and openSUSE on the table v/s other solutions (MS and/or
RedHat or whatever).
First Semester of 2016 is done and we had a lot of fun, new faces, new
comers, new engagements. The City Hall closed theses activities for the
Summer Holidays, no staff and no money (as well). We did not go to RMLL 2015
in July because again, no stand, no goodies :(
A little bit of background on French culture. Last Sunday ended the Annual
Tour de France of cycling. On the 3 000 KMs journey, there are Pom Pom girls
throwing, yes throwing goodies at "spectators". But few of these
"spectators" came for the race, only for goodies. What I am trying to say,
it's not economically sound to supply goodies by thousands.
Most people nowadays buy PCs that are not equipped with a DVD player. I
received an email last Sunday on a how-to. OK, I managed this one. I did
look out for getting DVDs, pressed by some professionals but bank account
would not follow. So the least that we can reasonably be able to do business
as usual is a USB stick. I had a few quotes for stands kits, but the banker
won't be happy neither . So in terms of branding, we are doing as Mac Gyver
:)
Coming to a forum, if nothing exists in French, please go ahead and create
one. I will either direct link from NUI.fr or URL rewriting, but in the end
it will be found very quickly and SEO will work like a charm.
However, we might need some training on what each product does and used for.
Either via webminars or similar. There is always room in extending the
community and build demos, insets or whatever.
Marketing
We have an old French say: To make an omelet, you need eggs! This is not
happening these days. I am not complaining, mind you. I have asked for a few
t-shirts and SUSE SLE/SLES from SUSE for months now and nothing much
happened. On the other end, I received some brochures, a handful of usb
openSUSE and a few pens, etc. from Douglas DeMaio of openSUSE. First venue
and our stock was on the minus side.
Have you noticed the propaganda on Windows 10? I have been following
Marketing ideas for openSUSE on the ML. I do not know about other countries,
but in order to captivate and motivate the troups, you need something
spectacular. Leap 42.1 being *the* milestone for openSUSE, needs some
particular attention. Milestone 1 is too early for demos, but in a couple of
months, things would have moved forward a lot and it will be time to make a
*joint* party everywhere we can in France on Leap 42.1. Ubuntu, Feudora,
Mageia end others do this some informal, some very formal, but it's
broadcasted and hammered down.
What I use for promotion: Twitter, newspapers, Google+, Facebook, Linkedin,
Viadeo, NUI Blog, dedicated domain (jmll.fr), OVS, Agenda du Libre, etc. The
only "media" that I have attempted to use: planet openSUSE. Despite my Ph.D,
I still do have difficulties and for the last couple of years or more, I
opened a case with the lads at openSUSE and it got sort of closed and
therefore our events never appear there!
So if this gets malleable, here we go...
Now, when people come to see, hear, feel Leap 42.1 what do they take away
with them?
How to decorate the stands?
How ambassadors will be dressed?
Backup from openSUSE Press people as we need some contacts to promote the
event.
What goodies will be available?
Several programs exist for MS: MVP as Most Valuable Person and they meet
yearly. Yes, Kim, we had BrainShare. SUSECon could be an alternative for
Ambassadors?
Our next dates are as follows:
19 Septembre 2015 - Software Freedom Day (doing big this year outside in the
City center)
31 Octobre 2015
21 Novembre 2015
12 Décembre 2015
Finally, we need a backoffice support on translation. I am bilingual so any
documentation in English or French is fine. Translation must be part of "the
package" a release and all docs in native languages. Many Corporates do get
transalation outsourced, it's cheap and they deliver the goods.
Just my two cents :)
Best wishes,
Jimmy
On 23 July 2015 at 16:00, Kim Groneman  wrote:
Hi Jimmy.
I'm glad to hear your group is doing well. I wish there was another
BrainShare so I could meet up with you again. This reply may be a little
long winded, but bear with me and I think it will help you understand where
we (Micro Focus) are in relation to you. Maybe we can help each other out.
HISTORY:
The NUI Program, as you know, was started years ago. NetWare Users
International to Novell Users International. It never had great backing or
funding from Novell, but for a while people thought it worthwhile so threw
some resources at it. Mike Morgan, director of the Novell Corporate Events
team was the last "owner" of NUI. As Novell's user base started to decline
and Mike's funding was reduced, this was one of the things he decided to
drop completely. Novell never announced it, just walked out and left
existing NUI chapters on their own. I think Mary Mathews from Michigan still
runs a user group too (I'm copying her on this email).
About 5 years ago, I emailed the chapter presidents I knew of to see what
interest there was. A few, like you, were interested in maintaining the
relationship. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone else inside the company
interested enough to support it at the time.
COMMUNITY STATUS TODAY:
When TAG merged with Micro Focus, the management expressed interest in
giving a little more support to "community". To that end, they created a
community focused group of employees in the Marketing organization. I manage
our online support forums. There are a couple of guys that manage our social
media accounts. A gal that manages the Cool Solutions stuff. A guy that runs
our Academic focused community. We don't have a single community manager,
but we've all been brought together as a team to establish and foster
community. As Micro Focus management is making valiant efforts to improve
things for customers and at the company, we're still at a point of tight
budgets and personnel. What I'm hearing is that it may take a couple of
years before we're headed in the direction we want to go. The shareholders
believe in the vision thank goodness!
OK, LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR NUI CHAPTER
First of all, I'd like you to tell me what you'd like to see happen. I'm not
in any position to help you out a lot but I'm willing to help you where I
can. If you look at the Novell forums at http://forums.novell.com you'll see
I'm trying to put together communities of vertical markets (government,
healthcare, small business, etc.) That's still in it's infancy and
struggling, for good reason and probably will continue to struggle until we
can combine all Micro Focus community into one location, which is planned.
One thing I could do for you immediately is create a private forum for your
group. A place for French speaking users of Micro Focus products. Forums are
searchable, sticky, and can be subscribed to so you get email notification
of discussions. I don't know if that's something you'd be interested in or
not. Another thing that could be done is to create a wiki sub page on
http://wiki.novell.com for you to use to store information.
We have a good working academic focused community and I've found that once
such a community gets established, that community has clout with the
company. Our executive management are willing to listen to the voice of a
strong community, they're just not ready to throw a lot of resources at it
right now.
My personal opinion is that it once made a lot of sense to have just local
community groups. I think with technology and the value in multiple heads,
it now makes more sense to focus more on idea, industry, or language based
community groups. That's not to say that local groups aren't of value, they
are. I think they would work better as part of a larger focus group though.
I'm kind of rambling here, but again, let me know what you would like to see
happen and I'll see if I/we can do anything to help. I have no idea the
infrastructure you have going and what I'm offering may not even be needed.
Kim Groneman
Micro Focus/SUSE Digital Marketing
Forums, Wiki, & Corporate Search
EMAIL: kgroneman@microfocus.com
PHONE: 801-861-7652
________________________________
...
...
...
Jimmy PIERRE  7/23/2015 3:21 AM >>>
Greetings,
Our association NUI.fr founded in 2001 is still doing fine.
We were wondering how we can fit in the picture liaising with
MICROFOCUS Community Manager.
We operate on a voluntary basis, that is, members buy cakes,
tea/coffee/soft drinks at our venues (monthly).
If NUI is not convenient as name, do you have any suggestions? And, as
NUI seems to have been dissolved, maybe all agreement with Novell are
off now :(
I am totally bilingual and would love to have a quick chat with you.
Best wishes,
Jimmy Pierre
President
NUI.fr
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