Re: [opensuse-marketing] [Ambassador] Toward improving the Ambassador program
The openSUSE Ambassador program[1] was launched in May and many Ambassadors are registered on the Ambassador List[2] now. Thanks to those, who are working hard on promoting openSUSE in their area on a daily basis !
However, there still remains much works to do in order to make this program more effective and there are some problems to be solved.
The necessity of improving Ambassador program was discussed in the latest openSUSE Conference - unfortunately, I couldn't be there :-( - and some thought, *"Now is the time to start improving the program !"*
To start with, some volunteers have organized 'Task Force for Improving Ambassador Program' and had a kick-off meeting on #opensuse-marketing channel last Saturday[3].
After the meeting, I summarized topics to be discussed hereafter and some draft plans[4]. Please read through the topics there and join the task force if you are interested in.
Note: At this moment, persons who will shoulder a burden - in other words, who are willing to say "Is there anything I can do ?" - are strongly needed instead of the persons who just say "Will you do me a favor". Because the task force itself doesn't mean to offer supports to each Ambassador.
The next meeting will take place tomorrow (Saturday October 3rd) at 16:00 UTC. See all time zones on the Fixed Time World Clock[5]. The meeting will be held in IRC on the #opensuse-marketing channel on Freenode.
Not familiar with IRC ? A good overview can be found at irchelp.org. This site is not affiliated with openSUSE. For more information on Freenode, see http://freenode.net/.
Even if you won't be able to join the meeting at that time, you can still add your comments and opinions to the Q&A Section on the meeting page[6] or directly to the "Ambassador/Improving Anbassador Program" page[4].
May I suggest an ambassador's list rather than IRC. Narrow meeting times on IRC always mean that several have difficulty being there. For instance, for me this latest meeting time is 4 am sunday morning local time. IRC is great for chatty stuff but not for meetings that are global in their effect. There is nothing done on IRC that can't be done on a mailing list. Some structures have to be put in place in terms of procedures to make the mail-list work for some things, but that's not hard. Mail-lists make for more fullsome and reasoned discussions, IRC's structure militates against that, it's a chat space not a forum for discussion. Now I'm all for being one of the "doers" but not if it means having to be at the keyboard at 4 am trying to make some sort of sense. Use a mail-list, write up some parliamentary procedures to allow democratic processes (I can do a draft, it won't be "Roberts Rules of Order for mail-lists" but it will be usable) and forget IRC, It's too chaotic, usable time frame is too small, getting a quorum is often extremely difficult if you use proper procedures and if you don't then decision making is ruled by one geographical area. And don't say "Oh we'll spread the meeting times around", from experience with other projects, 0400 UTC means the Europeans don't turn up and the west coasters are too tired 0800 UTC is OK for me and Europe but the US stays away or if people do turn up they always have to be somewhere else very shortly. Cheers GL Graham Lauder, INGOTs Assessor Trainer Moderator New Zealand (International Grades in Office Technologies) www.theingots.org Mobile +64 27 494 4315 OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org
Hi Graham, Graham Lauder wrote:
The openSUSE Ambassador program[1] was launched in May and many Ambassadors are registered on the Ambassador List[2] now. Thanks to those, who are working hard on promoting openSUSE in their area on a daily basis !
However, there still remains much works to do in order to make this program more effective and there are some problems to be solved.
The necessity of improving Ambassador program was discussed in the latest openSUSE Conference - unfortunately, I couldn't be there :-( - and some thought, *"Now is the time to start improving the program !"*
To start with, some volunteers have organized 'Task Force for Improving Ambassador Program' and had a kick-off meeting on #opensuse-marketing channel last Saturday[3].
After the meeting, I summarized topics to be discussed hereafter and some draft plans[4]. Please read through the topics there and join the task force if you are interested in.
Note: At this moment, persons who will shoulder a burden - in other words, who are willing to say "Is there anything I can do ?" - are strongly needed instead of the persons who just say "Will you do me a favor". Because the task force itself doesn't mean to offer supports to each Ambassador.
The next meeting will take place tomorrow (Saturday October 3rd) at 16:00 UTC. See all time zones on the Fixed Time World Clock[5]. The meeting will be held in IRC on the #opensuse-marketing channel on Freenode.
Not familiar with IRC ? A good overview can be found at irchelp.org. This site is not affiliated with openSUSE. For more information on Freenode, see http://freenode.net/.
Even if you won't be able to join the meeting at that time, you can still add your comments and opinions to the Q&A Section on the meeting page[6] or directly to the "Ambassador/Improving Anbassador Program" page[4].
May I suggest an ambassador's list rather than IRC. Narrow meeting times on IRC always mean that several have difficulty being there. For instance, for me this latest meeting time is 4 am sunday morning local time. IRC is great for chatty stuff but not for meetings that are global in their effect. There is nothing done on IRC that can't be done on a mailing list. Some structures have to be put in place in terms of procedures to make the mail-list work for some things, but that's not hard. Mail-lists make for more fullsome and reasoned discussions, IRC's structure militates against that, it's a chat space not a forum for discussion.
Now I'm all for being one of the "doers" but not if it means having to be at the keyboard at 4 am trying to make some sort of sense.
Use a mail-list, write up some parliamentary procedures to allow democratic processes (I can do a draft, it won't be "Roberts Rules of Order for mail-lists" but it will be usable) and forget IRC, It's too chaotic, usable time frame is too small, getting a quorum is often extremely difficult if you use proper procedures and if you don't then decision making is ruled by one geographical area. And don't say "Oh we'll spread the meeting times around", from experience with other projects, 0400 UTC means the Europeans don't turn up and the west coasters are too tired 0800 UTC is OK for me and Europe but the US stays away or if people do turn up they always have to be somewhere else very shortly.
Thanks for your comments. However, I'm wondering if you really read my post and the wiki page carefully.
Even if you won't be able to join the meeting at that time, you can still add your comments and opinions to the Q&A Section on the meeting page[6] or directly to the "Ambassador/Improving Anbassador Program" page[4].
And ... * The task force aim to ... ... make things clear. What are needed and what should take priority for the improvement. ... prepare a basis for the further and open discussions. ... make draft plans so that we can discuss more specifically. * The task force doesn't aim to ... ... make any final decisions. The decision making process should be as open and transparent as possible. http://en.opensuse.org/Ambassador/Improving_Anbassador_Program Please write your opinions and proposals on the wiki. You know, each communication channel has drawbacks and advantages and discussing on mailing lists is not always the best solution. Sometimes, we can see endless frame wars on mailing lists that remain inconclusive. Some may think mailing lists are the best place to discuss, but others may not. Same can be said for IRC meetings and forums. Please don't forget, we don't mean to decide everything only in IRC channel. We just think it's efficient at this moment. The feedbacks from the meetings will be posted to this list and you will be able to comment on them. Best, -- _/_/ Satoru Matsumoto - openSUSE Member - Japan _/_/ _/_/ Marketing/Weekly News/openFATE Screening Team _/_/ _/_/ mail: helios_reds_at_gmx.net / irc: HeliosReds _/_/ _/_/ http://blog.geeko.jp/author/heliosreds _/_/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Satoru Matsumoto <helios_reds@gmx.net> wrote:
Please write your opinions and proposals on the wiki.
The wiki doesn't seem like a great place to hold an interactive discussion. The preliminary brain storming can take place on IRC, but I second the comment that the follow up discussions should take place on the mailing list. I don't think we really need a new list for this, this list should suffice. The wiki seems like a place where you would post the conclusions and/or consensus after the discussions. But already we are bogging down on procedure rather than making progress so I apologize for contributing to that... I'll try and make up for it in my next email where I'll post an actual constructive suggestion. Regards, -- John Lange www.johnlange.ca -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org
participants (3)
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Graham Lauder -
John Lange -
Satoru Matsumoto