Re: support for local gnome groups.

[Fernando San Martín Woerner <snmartin galilea cl>]

El mar, 07-06-2005 a las 20:14 +0200, Erik Snoeijs escribió:
> Now in my humble opinion the local gnome groups are the most important
> gnome marketing asset. Since basically they are the direct link to
> middle sized and small businesses and local people.

Sure, in fact we can demostrate this in Chile, we're a small group of
people but we make a lot of noise here, that make us to be present in
conferences, talks and events. At GUADEC we review different experiences
from local groups and i agree that are one of the most effective way to
spread GNOME.

> I think that a lot of these groups could do a lot more if they got more
> backing from "global gnome" then just a pat on the back and a
> encouraging speech. (not meant as indictive as one might read.)
> Now i'm not talking money. I'm talking about network, i'm talking about
> events where global gnome could perhaps arrange for a famous gnome
> person to also be there, just to have that little extra that will give a
> company the feel that gnome is not a "internet" thing but a well
> organized project that they could reliably use in there business.

I guess that local groups don't need money, and i agree with you that
they need real support from people inside the core. Hackers going to
local groups, at least in our experience that could be a great step
forward.

> Also i was thinking about props. Like simple posters or gnome t-shirts
> that could be made in bulk for all global gnome groups so the cost would
> be reduced. Because getting proper props is now quite a expensive
> business if you don't have a sponsor.
> Good props are in my opinion essential to give a good first impression.

And an effective way to represent the project in their countries, may be
the foundation can give guidelines to be a local representative for
GNOME project.


> And there are probably more ideas that could be realized for local gnome
> groups to further the goal of marketing the gnome project and supplying
> local businesses with information about gnome.

We're organizing developers meetings, there we show how to contribute to
GNOME, how use their tools for developers, we do it in many universities
here in Chile, and we think that is one of our most important
activities, we have very good results doing this.

regards

-- 
Fernando San Martín Woerner
Jefe de Informática
Galilea S.A.