Re: The "What is GNOME?" Answer

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="John Williams">

> But, again, we are going about this in the _wrong way_ again.  We need
> the top management (Foundation board I suppose) to define what the
> message they want to send is; and then the creative types can think of
> ways to make it memorable and evocative.

I didn't really want to do this with my Board hat on, because the Board is
definitely *not* "top management" of GNOME. :-) If we come up with something
cool, we can ask the Board to give its blessing.

> If the above two suggestions suck, we all need to know why, so we can get
> an idea of what is wanted by the people who will make the decision.

Rather than a pithy marketing slogan, I'm looking for an honest, informative
answer for when people ask us "What is GNOME?" I used the examples of family
and business people in my first mail. If your Mum, a client, or your CTO ask
"What is GNOME?", you wouldn't realistically answer, "GNOME! The Choice of
the GNU Generation!" ;-)

Our current answer (which was changed on some of our webpages), which I'm
inclined to stick with if no one can come up with something more informative
and/or inspirational, is:

  "The GNOME Project is an effort to create a complete, free and easy-to-use
  desktop environment for users, as well as a powerful application
  development framework for software developers."

So, the message we want out of this is a succinct, informative, honest, but
hopefully inspiring description of the GNOME project, and its product(s).

- Jeff

-- 
GVADEC 2004: Kristiansand, Norway                    http://2004.guadec.org/
 
  "Anyway - I need something more James Bond than Banana Man, if you know
                       what I mean..." - Tom Gilbert