Hello, [please reply on the opensuse-project mailinglist!] Some time ago, we collected ideas for contributor gifts on http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Contributor_gifts and also decided who should receive a gift - see https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=682098 (basically active members + GSOC students + an option to propose someone who contributed a lot, but isn't a member (yet)). I discussed with AJ today which items on the list would be possible and would make sense. That made list much shorter ;-) The contributor gifts should be something special/exclusive IMHO, not the "usual" stuff we hand out to visitors at conferences or stuff you can order via shop.o.o. I'd say the symbolic value is more important than the price - no gold bar with geeko embossing needed ;-) The narrowed down list contains these proposals: a) things you can touch - coffee mugs - caps - T-Shirt (not an exceptional idea, but people like them) - USB memory sticks (with bootable openSUSE) - openSUSE playing cards The design should be something special that is only available to contributors/members and should contain a hint that the person who wears/owns item is an openSUSE contributor/member. (Take the 11.1 "iContribute" t-shirts as an example.) The openSUSE playing cards are an idea on its own. While the easiest way would be to create "normal" playing cards and just replace king and queen with Tux and Geeko, having a special "openSUSE game" would be even better. (But that would probably also mean it won't be ready when we release 12.1.) When we send out a parcel, we can always add things like stickers, some promo DVDs and a cheat sheet poster. And of course a "thank you" letter. b) Awards at openSUSE conference for contributions in a few categories There would be some categories (for example marketing, packaging, development, bugreporting etc.), and the top-contributor in each category would receive a price. This price would be "bigger" and more personal compared to the items in a) The handling could be done similar to how KDE does Akademy awards: Winners from last year choose winners from next year; would only need 'starting up' for us (categories and winners). The only risk is that not everybody might love that sort of "paperwork" to choose next year's winners so we might need some volunteers as fallback. c) software SLE* license for free or at least a special price (a restriction to "updates only, without support" if you do it for free would be OK). The problem with this option is that not everybody needs a SLE* license. If we decide on one of those, then the next problem comes up: money ;-) At the moment there isn't a budget available, but AJ sees at least chances to get one. (We'll probably have to discuss the details after deciding which of the above we want to do - or if we spend the money for something totally different.) Beside the costs for the gifts itsself, we also have to keep shipment costs and customs in mind. This leads to another question: When/how often do we send a gift to a contributor? The options are: - at every release - once a year - (could even reduce shipment costs - people visiting the conference could get it there, so we have to ship only to those who can't come to the conference) - once when you become a member - call it a "member welcome package" ;-) (and of course the current members would also receive it) I'm open for feedback. What of the above do you think would make a good contributor gift? When/how often should we send one? Or shouldn't we send one at all and spend the money otherwise? There are also some good ideas in the wiki page would make good giveaways at conferences, trade fairs etc: - geeko-shaped paperclips - geeko/openSUSE pins - key fobs - lanyards - jellybaby geekos - someone (Klaas?) mentioned this idea at the conference, but the problem seems to be that producing the shape/form is expensive. The jellybybies itsself are quite cheap compared to that. @marketing team: feel free to use any of those ideas ;-) Regards, Christian Boltz -- [Loadbalancer vor Mailservern] Ausbauen, bei Ebay verhökern und die frei gewordene Zeit zusammen mit dem Ebay-Erlös in eine große Betriebsparty mit Cocktails anlegen. [Peer Heinlein in postfixbuch-users] -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org