Sorry I couldn't attend the meeting, because the time 16:00 UTC is for me 25:00 JST (+9:00) and I had to get up early next morning for my work.

I've just read the log of the meeting and have some thoughts about the topics discussed in the meeting.

Since Bryen said at the meeting, "Let's continue discussions on these topics via email. I'll write a new thread for each of the topics today", I'd post my thoughts to new threads, however, there is something I want to tell you, marketing team mates, here.

There are a lot of "should" and "have to" in our project. Everyone know there are so many things to be done and to be improved all over the project/community. But the biggest problem is always "who can/will do?" If everyone say "I know we should, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to do that. Can anyone do?", nothing won't go forward.

If I understand correctly, marketing team aim to promote openSUSE and attract users, developers and contributers to openSUSE. But actually, what motivates the members of marketing team? For me, as I'm just a volunteer and not paid at all, the answer is clear: It's fun to collaborate with others and realize that I can do good for others.

The most important "should" is, IMO, "Participating and contributing openSUSE project/community SHOULD be interesting, attractive and fun!"

I know some responsibilities are needed for our activities and contributions, however, responsibilities without fun easily make people tired. Although listing the things to be done is important, but I hope everyone in this list will keep in mind, how we can make our work more interesting and fun.

So, I wish our further discussions will not end with "OK, what we should do is now clear. Will anyone volunteer for this task? - <<silence>> ...", but continue like "... So, let's put ideas out, how we can make the work more interesting and attractive so that as many persons as possible will participate."

... I wish I haven't bore you with a long mail. ;-)

Best,

On Wed, 2010-02-24 at 13:33 +0900, Satoru Matsumoto wrote:

Sorry I couldn't attend the meeting, because the time 16:00 UTC is for me 25:00 JST (+9:00) and I had to get up early next morning for my work.

I've just read the log of the meeting and have some thoughts about the topics discussed in the meeting.

Since Bryen said at the meeting, "Let's continue discussions on these topics via email. I'll write a new thread for each of the topics today", I'd post my thoughts to new threads, however, there is something I want to tell you, marketing team mates, here.

Thanks! Appreciate hearing your thoughts here.

There are a lot of "should" and "have to" in our project. Everyone know there are so many things to be done and to be improved all over the project/community. But the biggest problem is always "who can/will do?" If everyone say "I know we should, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to do that. Can anyone do?", nothing won't go forward.

This is true and its not just restricted to our Marketing team. I think its a challenge that we all face especially in FOSS where everyone is excited about the very concept of being able to participate and influence and foster the growth of our project, but we also have personal commitments and responsibilities outside of this project that have to be tended to.

If I understand correctly, marketing team aim to promote openSUSE and attract users, developers and contributers to openSUSE. But actually, what motivates the members of marketing team? For me, as I'm just a volunteer and not paid at all, the answer is clear: It's fun to collaborate with others and realize that I can do good for others.

Motivation, for whatever anyone's motivation is, is a clear influence in moving forward on any topic. And you are right, it *should* be fun.

The most important "should" is, IMO, "Participating and contributing openSUSE project/community SHOULD be interesting, attractive and fun!"

I know some responsibilities are needed for our activities and contributions, however, responsibilities without fun easily make people tired. Although listing the things to be done is important, but I hope everyone in this list will keep in mind, how we can make our work more interesting and fun.

The purpose of yesterday's meeting was two-fold. The first was to find out what everyone wants to do with their time. The second was to identify key areas in which they would feel motivated to participate in. Sort of like posting a sign-up sheet on the wall, where everyone can look and say "ooh, I like doing this, I'll put my name down there."

We got distracted from this discussion yesterday when the meeting shifted from Marketing to OWN. And OWN definitely is an important topic. But as OWN is not exclusively a marketing tool, it should have had its own meeting, and that is what I tried to push for in the meeting. OWN is a news project. And as I understand it, the OWN folks will indeed set up their own strategy meeting and collaborate with us in Marketing.

So, I wish our further discussions will not end with "OK, what we should do is now clear. Will anyone volunteer for this task? - <<silence>> ...", but continue like "... So, let's put ideas out, how we can make the work more interesting and attractive so that as many persons as possible will participate."

For me personally, I intend to step up my activities more in marketing team this year. I think it is an area that needs a lot of focus, attention and leadership and so knowing where "silence" begins, in terms of volunteers, helps me to identify which areas I need to cover to make sure those necessary items don't fall into the cracks.

One thing that I've known for quite some time, and it became very obvious in discussions during the meeting, plus in PM's with people outside of the meeting is that many people feel burnt out or unable to continue what they started. Its not just motivation to get people started, but also how to sustain their particular project once it gets started. Far too often, we see "one-man-shows" on all of our initiatives. When that person is unable to continue, due to other commitments like job, family, burn-out, etc., the project is unable to continue to move forward.

We looked at other competing distros who had similiar initiatives (some actually borrowed their ideas from us) and one thing was VERY clear about why those communities are able to sustain their initiatives. They have much larger communities and therefore more manpower.

This has to be the biggest focus, in my opinion, for our marketing team. Finding ways to bring in a good steady stream of new community folks who want to participate in various ways. When we do that, we'll be able to sustain any and all projects we initiate.

... I wish I haven't bore you with a long mail. ;-)

Not at all!

Best,

-- _/_/ Satoru Matsumoto - openSUSE Member - Japan _/_/

Bryen Yunashko openSUSE Board Member