On Mon, 2008-09-29 at 15:52 +0200, Martin Lasarsch wrote:
Hi
As mentioned before we are thinking about how to gain more marketshare, a bigger community, more local support ... whatever you want to call it. Thats a good point, we also need a name for it! :-) It would be similar to the fedora ambassador or Ubuntu LoCo but most of us think that a unique name for it would help a lot. So please put some fuel into your brains and tell us what your favorite is! In this draft we are using the term spokesperson to have at least one ... (and yes, this not describes all the tasks ...).
The openSUSE Project is largely managed by Novell employees, but that's not the long-term vision for the project. As the openSUSE Project matures, we want to be more inclusive and find ways for openSUSE community members to take up equal responsibility for the growth and promotion of openSUSE.
We already have openSUSE supporters who are doing an awesome job of building a community locally. We want to find ways to assist those members, and make the most of their experience to expand to new local communities.
The spokesperson concept will improve the situation and create an environment in which the creation of local openSUSE spokespersons and teams is easier, to support openSUSE and Linux in local areas and channel feedback to the openSUSE project.
Here is a list, this is a rough draft and feedback is highly appreciated/wanted.
The idea is certainly an excellent one. In OpenOffice.org we use the term MarCon (Marketing Contact) and I've never been sure if the abbreviation works. Certainly when I get introduced at conferences, gatherings, meetings and so forth I invariably get introduced as the "Marketing Contact" rather than the abbreviation. While some names sound cool or look cool in text they sometimes don't lend them themselves to be used by "non-cognoscenti". Simple and recognisable to an audience is best.
*Who can be a spokesperson - everybody who signed the guiding principles and is an openSUSE member Q: is this necessary? - everybody who is willing to put time and effort to support the project and Linux/FOSS in general - everbody who likes to communicate with other people
*What are the tasks of a spokesperson? - in general these community members should spread the word about openSUSE in their area, like: - promote openSUSE - dispatch openSUSE DVDs/CDs - contact to local LUGs - attend events (tradeshows, university, community etc.), give presentations - help updating the event calendar on news.o.o - contact for local community (in person, chat, mailinglists etc.) and get feedback to the project - mentor other interested people - create/maintain local wiki page for their region on en.opensuse.org - write reports from events, meetings etc on news or lizards.o.o - create/maintain a localized wiki, minimum set of basic pages (approx. 15) - maintain a localized mailinglist/forum on opensuse.org - create - if necessary or requested - a local group of spokespersons/assistants (this should address the case if more people per region want to help) - attract contributors to the project
Most of the above stuff I do on a regular basis and have become the sort of defacto local OpenSuSE guy, however I would not be eligible to become an OpenSuSE member because I don't contribute code and I'm not greatly active on the website or wiki. However I'm bloody good at standing up and addressing people, doing presentations, running seminars and training courses and doing Demos. For instance I had a 4 station, OpenSuSE LTSP rig setup at the last Software Freedom Day and had an OS 11 Boxed set (demoed an install next to an Ubuntu install and showed it up in terms of ease! Looked cooler too :D) A support framework for this sort of initiative would certainly be a big plus. Cheers GL
(draft by michl, Zonker & /me) -- with kind regards,
Martin Lasarsch, Core Services SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5 90409 Nürnberg GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) martin.lasarsch@suse.de - http://www.opensuse.org -- "The Best Things in life are 3" http://why.openoffice.org
ISO 26300 compliant Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html INGOTs Assessor Trainer (International Grades in Office Technologies) www.theingots.org.nz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org