Re: GNOME's Target Markets

[John Williams <jwilliams business otago ac nz>]

On Thu, 2005-12-01 at 13:15 +0100, Murray Cumming wrote:
> Time to revive this thread again.
Cool!
> On Sun, 2005-07-10 at 18:50 +1200, John Williams wrote:
> > On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 22:25 +0200, Murray Cumming wrote:
> > > Try to explain the issues to us, and suggest definite actions. There are
> > > many people here who would love to help to put a plan into motion.
> >
> > OK, I will try.  It is difficult to do this without access to
> > information.  The issues, as I see them from a top-level strategy point
> > of view, are this:
> >
> > 1. Concentrate on the low-hanging fruit.  What can we do with minimum
> > effort to get maximum results (number of users)?  Only people working
> > with distros, governments, corporates etc. can answer this.  I don't do
> > that.
> >
> > 2. RESEARCH!  Ask users why they do or do not use GNOME.  Include users
> > who have seen/used GNOME and also those who have not.  Measure the
> > results of marketing actions in the only terms that matter: number of
> > users.
> >
> > 3. Manage the corporate culture.  We cannot simply order people to do
> > things.  Motivate the people who actually make GNOME (programmers,
> > documenters, usability team, accessibility team, translators, ...) in
> > terms they will respond to.  I am a marketing/market research person,
> > not an HR person.  (But I think if you treat people as people and not
> > pluggable production units you're probably on the right track.  Do unto
> > others and all that.)
> >
> > I find myself repeating myself in many fora.  The bottom line is that
> > you can't make rational decisions in the absence of information.  I do
> > not have access to the information at the moment.  I am working on it
> > though.  
[snip]
> So, are you now ready to push things forward anyway? 
Yes.

> There seem to be a
> few possibilities, but little difference between them. We don't have
> accurate numbers and survey results, but that doesn't mean that we don't
> know who are customers are, or what product we want to give them. 
True.  Maybe.  I think you probably do, Murray, but I am not sure that
"we" as in GNOME-as-a-whole (whatever THAT might be!) does.

> But it would really help to have our marketing efforts steered by
> someone who knows what he's doing, and not amateurs like me. 
If you are implying that I know what I'm doing, you may be in for a shock ;-)

However I am happy to help in any way that I can.  I have never
envisaged myself taking any kind of leadership role in marketing GNOME,
merely as a sort of agent-provocateur.  However I will now start to
contemplate how I could be more useful in a more active mode.  If you
(or anyone else!) have any concrete suggestions, please let me know.