Re: How do we want to do GNOME Marketing?

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Dave Neary <dneary free fr> wrote:
> > The marketing team should define an overall goal
> for GNOME. We should
> > not just invent slogans. We also should not try to
> "sell" GNOME. I
> > think that we do not want that because than we
> would want people to
> > use GNOME instead of KDE or other desktops. But
> that would not benefit
> > but harm us!
>
> Here we disagree - the marketing team does not
> define the goals, it
> identifies and communicates them. We should be
> herding aligned efforts,
> and making people realise that they are aligned.

I don't think the marketing team should define goals
-- though we can perhaps suggest some based on
feedback from users.
However, I think that *somebody* should be defining
goals for GNOME. 
The marketing team can take part in that, but it
shouldn't be solely us.

> Example: module maintainer 1 is working on
> abstracting away some aspect
> (functionality X) of his module behind a library.
> The functionality he's
> abstracting away could be useful for module
> maintainer 2, who has a
> long-standing feature request to include
> functionality X. So one module
> maintainer's "tidy up code" becomes another
> maintainer's "Add
> functionality X".

That's going to be too technical for some members the
marketing team.
That's something we need 'glue-people' for --
developers who are on several teams or hop between
them.

> Or, in discussing plans with 4 or 5 maintainers, you
> realise that
> everyone really wants to implement Jono Bacon's
> project spaces idea -
> and you get David Trowbridge together with Elijah
> Newren and a couple of
> key application writers (say, gaim, epiphany,
> nautilus) to
> cross-polinate tagging and workspaces, and have a
> couple of apps support
> it, and wahay! Major new feature thanks to your
> insight and effort in
> putting the right people together.

Again, this sort of thing should happen and it would
be great, but I don't think marketing team should be
doing it.
Isn't it desktop-devel-list's job? Or if not them,
who?

> It's the difference between "I'm telling you what
> you're going to work
> on for the next 6 months" and "Just last week I was
> talking to X about
> $COOL_IDEA - you guys should talk and see if you
> can't work on that
> together.

Well there's telling and there's suggesting.

I think the free software ethos of 'everybody works on
whatever they feel like', with no sort of planning &
goal-setting can only get us so far.

The last few releases of Gnome I've been involved in
haven't had any sort of coherency to them. They've
just been 'here's what we all did for the last 6
months'. 
The marketing team's managed to sift through and
produce some sort of theme from that but it's not been
very successful.

This isn't just about making it easier to market a
Gnome release. I think Gnome needs more focus and
momentum.
Like Thilo says in his later mail, we have some big
shortcomings. Take printing -- we should be able to
decide (ddl, or whichever gathering of glue
developers) that 2.20 will be all about making
printing on Gnome cool. 
A long-term roadmap like that would be a good start.




                
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