+1 --- On Sat, 2/20/10, Nelson Marques <07721@xxxxxxx> wrote: > From: Nelson Marques <07721@xxxxxxx> > Subject: Re: A question to this list regarding Fedora as a Product > To: "For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base" <marketing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: Saturday, February 20, 2010, 10:23 AM > > > On Sat, 2010-02-20 at 11:53 -0500, Paul W. Frields wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 03:18:03PM -0500, David Nalley > wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 3:07 PM, Nelson Marques > <07721@xxxxxxx> > wrote: > > > > From what I could understand, two > goals to reach: > > > > > > > > - Increase the number of Fedora users > > > > - Increase the number of Fedora > contributors > > > > > > Well I'd say that's a misconception. > > > Fedora is concerned with growing it's contributor > base and advancing > > > the state of free software. > > > > > > Fedora isn't at all concerned with the "getting > mindshare above all > > > else" type of mentality that most orgs have. > While we want and like > > > users, I don't think that we actively try and > seek out what people > > > want as driving our decisions. > > > > At the same time, though, we're trying to identify > places where we are > > actually *driving away* users. Through more > attention to these > > problems and the many easy fixes we could put in > place, we can do > > better on both of the goals Nelson mentions. > > > > Our aim is not to carpet-bomb the planet with CDs, nor > to just > > accumulate fans. We prefer to define and follow > more sustainable > > practices, aided by strong engineering and good > upstream partnership > > with the projects creating important and innovative > software. > > > > My idea is not to change how Fedora operates neither boss > people > around. I shouldn't go technical on this one but this is > important to > mention, and it's about segmentation. It is important to > segment your > audience (doesn't mean you need to change your product). > Keep in mind > that Fedora is aimed for a international community, and > that very > community has different goals and perceives value (from > Fedora) in a > different way from individual to individual. You need to > segment your > communication, else it won't work. > > There are other things that Fedora has that need some > work, I'll point > two of them that need a lot of work at communication > level: > > - SELinux (being rivaled by Novell's AppArmour) > - Red Hat FOSS drivers (check the output of several > communities about > this news, ex: slashdot threat). > > The last one points clearly for several types of users, > those who don't > really need outstanding 3D performance, and those who > explore this > subject on a more technical point of view and show > different advantages. > > Threads like the one on Slashdot could be avoided if there > was good > communication around that topic. Another disruptive fight > is going > around GNOME and gnome-shell vs gnome-panel. > > All of this could be sorted out by marketing. Those who > believe that > Marketing is a sales force, are completely wrong. Marketing > has the most > powerful diagnose tools at it's service for issues like > this one. See it > this way: If you are sick, you search for a doctor for a > diagnose and > then you get a set of conditions to fulfill in order to > improve your > situation. An organization should use Marketing not only to > support > sales, advertising and so on, but to diagnose as well > itself and it's > product in order to achieve it's goals. Marketing might > provide a good > set of procedures to improve it. > > Everyone forgets a single point, Fedora at some point > promotes the > technology created by it's sponsor Red Hat. If you fall > back in users > related to other distributions supported by Red Hat > competitors, > eventually in a 10/15 year time frame, all this users that > are currently > using other distro's will hit the market, and they will > flavour as their > tools those they work for a long time. > > I might have a degree on Marketing and not on Engineering, > which > doesn't mean I've worked years packaging software the > former Center of > Telecommunication Studies in Portugal (nowadays Portugal > Telecom > Innovation S.A.). > I used SuSE back then at home, and was forced to work with > Red Hat, and > since then I'm far more comfortable with Red Hat/Fedora > than with SuSE > itself. If I needed to choose between distro's taking > productivity in > mind, I would go Red Hat for sure because of the strong > background I > have with it. > > This will apply to the users that somehow people want to > neglect. > Eventually the Industry and it's professionals at a later > stage will > reflect what we do today. > > The higher the number of users, the better it will serve > Fedora and > it's sponsors in the future. I might be wrong on this. > > To finish, people can't expect to keep a community if we > don't provide > them challenges and if we don't incentivate them to > cooperate. By > statements like: > > "I don't think that we actively try and seek out what > people want as > driving our decisions." > > We are doing exactly what we shouldn't, marginalizing the > users. We > don't have to be driven by what people want, but we should > try to > understand their needs and provide the right communication > segmented for > them in order that we can offer them a product that they > recognize value > on it. > > Expectation > Satisfaction = Loose situation > Satisfaction > Expectation = Win Situation (and you can > only achieve > this if you don't neglect your users and if you understand > then, and > most important of all, if we can answer to their needs). > > From the marketing point of view, Quality is not achieved > by security, > stability or whatever, it comes as easy as: > > Quality = Expectation - Satizfaction > > Positive = Quality > Negative = No Quality > > This is how users perceive Quality. If we can asnwer them > accordingly, > I would believe that everyone has something to win, Fedora > as a > community, Fedora as a Product, Red Hat as a sponsor and > technology > enabler and above all, all users. > > Keep in mind the following as it is always true: > > Organization Goal: Profit (might come in different > flavours, > capital/finantial profit, social profit, etc), for Fedora > community I > would recon it would translate better into social profit. > Organization Means: Product/Service (always) > Organization Target: People (always) > > People/Consumers/Users, whatever is always the key > element. Neglecting > their role on this "symbiotic ecosystem" is not wise. > > There is no point in being a King without people to rule. > > NM > > PS: This is a personal opinion, nothing more, nothing > less. > > > -- > > Paul W. Frields > > http://paul.frields.org/ > > gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 > 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717 > > http://redhat.com/ - ; - > - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/ > > Where > open source multiplies: http://opensource.com > > > -----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > -- > marketing mailing list > marketing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing -- marketing mailing list marketing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
