On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 01:37 +0200, Pascal Bleser wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Bryen wrote:
On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 11:09 +1300, Graham Lauder wrote:
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)
Don't let that stop you. If you're out there evangelizing openSUSE in your presentations often enough, with the obvious intention of promoting openSUSE, then you should definitely apply for membership.
... or not. The problem is that we need *verifiable* contributions.
While what Graham is doing is definitely valuable to the community, and I'd like to thank Graham for doing so, it is not verifiable in any way.
You'd be surprised how many membership requests turned out to be lies and damned lies.
We're aware of the fact that it is potentially unfair, but... "patches are welcome". I'm (or rather, the upcoming board members will be) all open for suggestions on how to handle such cases. But unless it can be fixed, we should stick to activities that can be verified.
You may of course file a membership request anyway :)
[...]
cheers
Heh, Sorry to disappoint but I wasn't saying that I wanted to be a member, only that regional Marketing Spokespersons shouldn't need to be. For obvious reasons my priority is OpenOffice.org. (I have an OpenOffice.org email in any case which I think is cooler! ;) ) It just happens that my chosen preference for platform is OpenSuSE and as a consequence I end up advocating for both. I've had a many dealings with the local Novell people over the years and count Andreas Girardet as a good friend. So I have a connection to the community but outside the maillists. Frankly my OpenSuSE advocacy is purely selfish, my company (http://www.openopportunities.co.nz) specialises in training in Open Technologies on the Desktop. In other words I deal with grassroots front office people. My training facility runs OpenSuSE exclusively and even Windows users get their OOo training on a SuSE desktop plus I train linux desktop users on the same. That's how I make my living, so the more people that use it the better for me. More support for advocacy would, for the same reason, be good for my business. One of the things that is frustrating at present is my inability to source boxed sets of OpenSuSE in bulk at a wholesale price. At the Software Freedom Day for instance I could have sold at least a dozen boxes. It comes down to a disconnect between the organisation and Average enduser client. Novell is only interested in clients it can invoice well into 5 figures per month. The next level is partners and almost all of these locally are in the business of partnering as many companies as they can and hunting for the BICs (Big Invoice Clients), ergo Netware is big and SLED/OpenSuSE way down the list. There is however no level that connects directly with the Home/Small Office User (By contrast, for all it's faults, MS has a good connect to this market.) This level has been left to the "Community". The problem is that most of the Community (if not all, if we say "member" according to the criteria above) are developers so the community doesn't relate well to this group (Not a criticism, just a fact of life). Now make no mistake, uptake is driven from the home desktop. The upside is that the OpenSuSE product is excellent and second to none IMNSHO and I'm constantly blown away by how much better it gets with each release. So the support system for these grassroots advocacy people needs a number of things many which are covered in Martin's original post,
*What does Novell provide? (since there is no decision on the budget so far, please don't nail us on that ... use them as ideas ...) - welcome box (t-shirts, caps, Promo DVDs), to be resend with each new release
Good idea, this keeps people current and more importantly, on the same page.
- special business cards (template or real)
+1 Keeps brand consistency
- special t-shirt
T-Shirt is great but fits only certain markets
- a special guide/howto to make it easier and better organized - event box (portable booth, signage, banner, flyer, poster etc.) - give-aways, spiffs
Rollomatic type banners are best, they can be shipped around easily and they're free standing so you don't need anything to hang them on.
- certain budget for travel
This would be excellent, travel is often a killer when it comes to doing events away from home.
- create a spokesperson day parallel or a day prior to the openSUSE conference - single point of contact to drive the program and manage travel, DVD shipment, events etc. - exclusive mailinglist for spokespersons to align our efforts (albeit it's public anyway to get feedback)
At OpenOffice.org we have a closed List for MarCons that is apart from the main marketing list. It's used for doing things like putting together Press Releases and the like that need to be kept under wraps until a predetermined date. And I would add a couple more things: 1) Easily available wholesale boxed sets that would suit a small main street retailer, say available in a minimum order of twenty. 2) Good quality Artwork for Posters and Point of sale materials available for download this partly covered by the conf materials list. These next two are not directly aimed at the "Spokesperson", but for the use of the spokesperson to hand on to High Street retailers. This would be a carrot to get those retailers to have OpenSuSE on their shelves. 3) Electronic Sales and presentation materials such as Impress Templates and ready made Impress presentations and sales training materials. 4) At present Novell runs CNS courses which are great when the sales person is aiming at the corporate market, however for this market a similar online course for individuals aimed purely at the desktop. The sort of course that a retail salesperson could do. Have a look at INGOTs courses. INGOTs is "International Grades in Open Technologies". A Gold INGOT would be an ideal prerequisite for such a Sales Certification because of it's desktop focus.
*Benefits for spokesperson - becomes opensuse member after certain period of time and proven support and receives a @opensuse.org email address Q: or do they have to be members in the first place? - reputation, fame, pride - gets once a year a present or - invitation to the openSUSE conference
What can I say, I'm only in it for the fame! ;) Cheers GL -- 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 Open Opportunities ltd. Open Technologies Training and Migration Consultants http://www.openopportunities.co.nz http://openoffice.org http://www.opensuse.org OOoGear: For the Well dressed OOo Advocate http://ooogear.co.nz -- "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