Re: Commercial support

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

[Accidentally went off list.]

On 7/18/05, Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:43:36 -0400
> Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com> wrote:
>
> > On 7/14/05, Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net> wrote:
> > >  * End users, especially in the public sector or companies, may like
> > >  to
> > > find out if there's such support before they decide for a concrete
> > > desktop solution.
> >
> > If this is a group you intend to target, I'd include 'distributors' as
> > a category, since that is where our heaviest hitters (those most
> > likely to impress 'end users' like Sun and Novell) are clustered.
>
> I'd like others to use the page as "yellow pages". If there are business
> people thinking about deploying GNOME, they should find appropriate
> information whom to contact for commercial services.
>
> Non-business people watching the page will just get the impression that
> others are willing to rely their business on GNOME. This establishes
> trust.
>
> So, it's more ecosystem stuff, no special target.
>
> For distributions, I thought "Installation and Deployments" can cover
> them.

Ah. i was thinking that was more for consultants (folks like
http://www.openadvantage.org/) than for distros. Lets see how long
each list gets, I guess :)

> > >  * By promoting commercial support companies around GNOME, we may
> > > improve our contacts with them. That might be nice for a GNOME jobs
> > > page at a later stage.
> >
> > There is or has been such a page in the past, FWIW. We're also working
> > on this at the board level, so don't be surprised to see something
> > spring up on foundation.gnome.org in the future. Note that for that we
> > should avoid any impression that these companies are (1) endorsed by
> > GNOME or (2) that they support us (unless they are in fact board
> > members.)
>
> I think I saw the mail about the jobs page in the archive. You are
> talking about a jobs page, are you? ;)

Well, sort of; if it is just a 'these are people who support gnome',
then it is less valuable, it seems to me.

> The non-endorsement/non-support requirement will be adressed (somehow);
> probably an appropriate sentence at the beginning.

<nod> figured, just wanted to have it down on the record.

> > > Comments welcome, especially any concerns that GNOME shouldn't do
> > > that.
> >
> > Seems like generally a good idea. I think we used to have one, though
> > I can't find it. Interestingly, googling brought up this:
> > http://www.opensourcexperts.com/Index/index_html/Gnome/
> > which might be worth reviewing and bringing onto that page.
>
> This is just the kind of information I needed. Thanks!
>
> But if you needed to google for it, 'normal' users probably never
> will find such resources. This is why we need such a page integrated on
> somewhere on gnome.org

Oh, I definitely agree it needs to be on gnome.org, we need to link to
it from various places, etc. I was just throwing that up as a
resource, not to say 'oh, it has been done elsewhere, don't bother.'

> In fact, not even the companies around the Nokia annoucement are listed
> there, and also not the company I was talking to. (Once more a lecture
> that we need to improve potential network effects.)

Yes.

> And althought GNOME don't endorse them officially, such a 'service' from
> us may bring them into the foundation as a member. Heck, some of them
> even seem to run a bounty there! :/

Yeah, interesting.

> > > In fact, I'd like to move this page to the regular GNOME pages
> > > later.
> >
> > Before doing that we'd need to figure out how to update it regularly,
> > and have someone who 'owns' that update.
>
> I already thought it might take time to figure this out. I'm all open
> for suggestions. :)

Yeah. Don't have any ATM; the current web infrastructure really blows. :/

Luis