Re: Marketing, GNOME 3.0 and subteams

[Sriram Ramkrishna <sri ramkrishna me>]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron sun com> wrote:

- Many public television, radio stations, etc. will play free ads
 for non-profits.  Wouldn't it be interesting to put together some
 advertisements that we could use to get the message out there?
 While it would require some work to coordinate such things, the
 cost would be low once the content was created.  Perhaps we could
 find volunteers to help with creating the content as well.  Some
 people who do graphic design or video work might be interested in
 volunteering their time on a project that would receive a lot of
 airplay and therefore be a boost their resume or portfolio.

We had talked about a GNOME youtube channel I think that is still a good idea and I'm looking into how to work that in my copious spare time.
 

Although GNOME Journal is a great way to get the message out there,
can't we do more to try and get the message out in more mainstream
press?  We are mostly preaching to the choir via GNOME Journal, I
think.

I think GNOME Journal can still do this.  See the message previously in this thread regarding sharing articles with other magazines.  If we can land our articles in mainstream magazines that is going to be a big win.  Secondly, we have in fact had articles from GNOME Journal published in foreign language magazines I think in eastern europe if my memory serves.

We can reach out to mainstream audiences by focusing on apps that  regular people would be interested in. 
 

+ Identify our key messages. What's new/interesting/cool about GNOME
3.0. Who will it benefit? How?

For example, I have heard that it costs thousands of dollars to make
a Windows machine support the sorts of disabled users who get free
support in GNOME.  Perhaps an interesting marketing angle would be
to better highlight exactly the cost benefits of using GNOME.  How
much, exactly, do you save?  This might be of special interest to
U.S. organizations which need to meet Section 508 requirements of
the U.S. Disabilities Act.

This is an excellent point.  Also, for developers we have gui testing tools that cost thousands of dollars in the windows world.  So that's another thing we can hype up.
 

These suggestions focus on the more humanitarian aspects of free
software, but I am sure that with some thought, we could think of other
ways to target consumers who might be interested in trying out GNOME or
free software in general.

+1
 

+ Press team. Maybe put together a small team of developers,
documentation people and marketing people to roll out the messages and
be key contacts.

A press team would be great, though I don't think we should limit such
a team to only think about the GNOME 3.0 roll-out.  There are a lot
of messages we could be better at communicating.  In the past year, for
example, GNOME hasn't been very good about participating in things like
the "Software Freedom Day" and other annual events that would benefit
from greater participation from the GNOME community.

Only if there is interest.  We already seem to have problems doing things actionable here.
 

sri