Re: GNOME's Target Markets

[Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>]

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:07:12 -0400
Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com> wrote:

> 
> For example, while picking a very specific target market and pursuing
> it the way you've suggested above would be useful, we have bigger open
> questions in GNOME right now. For example:
> 
> * who does www.gnome.org target? how do we go after those targets?
> * the printed material we send to general linux conferences which we
> already attend- what does that target? (and is that the best focus of
> our efforts/resources?)
> * our general market press releases and release notes- what types of
> things should they highlight? what language should they use? should we
> do different ones for different media outlets, and if so, what should
> they be?
> 

This is rather easy, for two reasons:

 a.) The point of marketing GNOME is to establish network effects. This
is usually called an 'ecosystem' by IT marketeers, and the method is
often called 'hype' by developers.

 b.) Most of the above media are active: People come to us, not the
other way around.

If you're looking for priorities of the segments listed in the wiki,
this is basically end users on the one hand, and ISV's on the other (and
the press somewhere in between.)

Because they both need eachother (the usual razor/blades example), our
role is to bring them together. The core about marketing GNOME is thus
to tell both sides that the other one catched momentum. We need to
create hype.


Thus, potential answers to your questions are:

1.) gnome.org is the first adress for anybody to find out something
about GNOME. Present information for all of them! Name links on the main
page so that they find the information they are looking for.

All you can say about the "target" group for the web page is: 
   
 * They are smart, intelligent people (business people,
press/journalists, advanced home users). They know how to deal with
modern internet pages otherwise they wouldn't have found our internet
address!
     
 * They want the relevant information now (!), not after doing a
course in 'browsing GNOME web pages' -- which unfortunatly is the
current situation. Not more then three clicks, better two!

 * They should get the impression that lots of things are happening in
the GNOME world.

For a good example, browse microsoft.com -- see also the editorial here
[1]. For a really bad example, imaging you have a special question (Such
as "Is this the right distribution for me?"), and then browse
fedora.redhat.com -- the typical example of a project page made for
potential and existing contributors.

The first main page problem can be tackled by a use case list in the
wiki (Who wants what information?). Maybe, Steven Garrity is already
thinking about it, too. The second ('hype') can only be fixed by
infrastructure and policies, I believe.

2.) Linux conference are nearly the same as above: Who do you meet
there? Of course, potential end users with an interest in Linux, and
people already selling stuff around Linux. Thus, we should do a
flyer/broschure for home users, one for managers (companies and
public sector), and maybe a press map. Maybe a few FOSS ISV's are there,
too, so we should have a flyer for them as well.

     Additionally, we may do an "Advocate Training Center" in the wiki,
so that people presenting GNOME get an idea which answers should be
given to certain questions, or what they should say when not asked at
all.

     Unfortunatly we can start doing proper material because the
homepage gets a face lift, and it would be a major error to have no
identifyable design on all materials. (For example, I heard somebody
from the German GNOME group is doing a standard presentation right now -
nice effort but we probably need to redo it when the new design
is ready.)

3.) Press releases create the impression of momentum by being produced
often. The style is nearly fixed, see [2] There's nothing to do here
except making more press releases and a proper contact list. But we need
to have better feedback to have information with news value.

    Good example: The German press release about the LinuxTag.

    Bad example: No press release after GUADEC. What happend there?

Another example: There seems to be ongoing efforts in the GTK+
department to include additional information so that bindings can be
produced almost immediatly after a new GTK+ version. Even if that's
wrong, it's a useful example: This (would) adress a major concern of
several ISV's. If such a functionality made it into CVS, that's
interesting news for all journals that target Linux developers, and a
sufficient reason for a press release.

4.) The release notes make the mistake to concentrate on "user visible
changes". If we look at it like a press release, we should concentrate
on the most important information for readers. And readers include
ISV's, thought that's probably more the FOSS type right now.

    Example: The inclusion of GStreamer was never mentioned in the
release notes, AFAIK. However, this is a major information for ISV's: It
means GStreamer gets adopted and it might be worthwhile to spend time
looking at it.
 

I'm sorry for the long text but since English is not my native language,
a few more words may have hopefully made my points clear. 

 1.) We need momentum for GNOME's ecosystem, thus end users (home,
business, NFP, and public sector), ISV's and the press are most
important.

 2.) Distributions matter is so far as they distribute ISV apps to end
users, but autopackage is a nice tool to circumvent their gate-keeper
function. We just need to push it until the independent Linux
journals believe they can rely on autopackages for CD's.

 3.) Potential contributors need a helping hand anyway, and somebody
telling them what to do in the first months. No (passive) information
will change that. (But a system with rewards may help.)

We can adress 1.) on the web page, and at conferences somehow, but
progress will be chaotic/archaic. We still need a proper target market
as described in my previous mail to take off.


Cheers,
Claus


[1] http://linuxbusinessnews.sys-con.com/read/86038.htm
[2] http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam_2fWritingPressReleasesHowto