Question related to the event I am organizing in Portugal to promote Fedora.

[07721 at ipam.pt]

Quoting Karsten Wade <kwade at redhat.com>:

> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:54:36PM +0000, Nelson Marques wrote:
> 
> > But from my scope this is a Marketing issue.
> 
> OK, I hear what you are saying.  I do see some of your items as
> probably marketing related.  Still, it is often Ambassadors who do
> these items, but _maybe_ they should be overseen by Marketing.
>  
> Here are the items I see:
> 
> > I am working on a
> > document in Portuguese to present them, which is also a base for another
> > document to be presented to some institutions which are
> > local/national/international Industry leaders, such as Portugal Telecom
> > to be involved on this event.
> 
> Is this document generic and can be applied to more than one event?
> 
> Can it be written in a general (generic) way?

 It can be generically applied based on it's structure. This document is
somewhow specific about the local reality.

> 
> >  My question is directed to everyone, engineering personal, marketing,
> > artists, etc. We are trying to gather more people to become involved on
> > fedora, not only just my institute, but other contributors like artists,
> > packagers, etc.
> 
> Is your question directed _inward_ for Fedora Project, looking for
> people to be involved in a specific event or/
> 
> Or is it directed _outward_ trying to draw those people in to the
> Fedora Project?  If yes, where is the question asked?  In the document
> you are writing in Portugese?

Portugal Telecom is meant to trigger a chain reaction on the event, to lure more
people in (as we are promoting Fedora?). They used Red Hat (not sure, but I
think that are on CentOS currently) in the past, they implement Linux solutions
worldwide, a GNU/Linux enabler.

Having them there, I will accomplish the following:
- Get more students involved in the event;
- Promote Linux, they are a case of success;

I need formal letters to address them as an institution, though I don't need
much to get some of their people involved (some are community icons, including
veterans like Mário Moreira, founder of PLUG - Portuguese Linux Users Group).
But I do wanted them to present officially as their presence will lure students
and other industry companies, giving us a bigger audience ;)

> 
> BTW, I approve of writing in one's native language and then having it
> translated, to English if necessary.

 I'm handling this locally, doesn't make sense to ask sponsorship for a local
event in another language. Translation is useful to story and make information
available for reference in case someone needs it in the future.

> 
> >  What has been done in the past? Anyone wants to share some experiences
> > they had previously? If my institute gets involved, I'm hitting the
> > national industry (over 240.000 small/medium business, and the heavy
> > weights as well, like Portugal Telecom), and I will have cooperation for
> > communication campaign and such.
> 
> What has been done in the past in what way?

 Official presence in a event.

> 
> If your questions are mainly about creating or being involved in an
> event, the Ambassadors have the experience and help get it done.
> 
> If you are looking to write and use general materials, maybe Marketing
> is the right place to discuss.

I'll get back into this.

> 
> >  How can we envolve the Fedora community on this? What do we want to
> > safekeep? And how can the Marketing Team get involved, because after
> > all, I am a Marketing student, and I want to promote open source
> > marketing as well. My image is on stake here, between my friends at
> > school, before my own institute and before the local industry.
> > 
> >  What materials do we have that can be used?
> >  Can we establish a link with someone on the artwork team wishing to
> > help us?
> 
> As your plans come together, you can ask the Design Team for help.
> Ambassadors has experience here, too.

 I'm planning to reserve a couple of invitations/conference seats for
strategical people. If Fedora wants to pop an official model, can use, else I'll
have a native doing them, still I will need someone to approve them.

> 
> >  From my scope, I am planning to document everything for future usage by
> > whoever wants to organize such an event. If my institute gets involved,
> > this means I have the opportunity to work with Marketing Professionals
> > from my institute and rally support on teachers for the campaign. There
> > a lot we all can learn.
> > 
> >  And if Fedora can provide a Marketing Team speaker to give a conference
> > on Open Source Marketing, this would be great. I will approach soon
> > (once I have the dates) the Aveiro City Hall, so that this Fedora event
> > is a part of the City's cultural program (free advertisement ;)), as I
> > am approaching some Hotel's so that they can sponsor the event (would be
> > great at zero cost, if not, I'll try to get special prices for anyone
> > traveling here).
> > 
> >  Yes I am motivated!
> >  Yes I want to shake this country!
> >  Yes I want to promote open source!
> >  Yes I want to succeed as a future marketing professional!
> >  And yes, I do have lots of eyes looking at me already ;)
> 
> There is the concept of 'strategy' and 'tactics'.  Strategy, in this
> case, would think about, "Is telecom a good area for Fedora
> Ambassadors to concentrate effort?"  Tactics, in this case, would
> think about, "Now that I know I am going to concentrate on telecom,
> how do I go about it?"

Telecom is "means" to reach an end. Consider the following:
- This is a strong technological pole.
- PT (Portugal Telecom) enables Linux solutions and PT In/CET are winning nearly
all the "Enterprise of the year" prizes... There is a chance for them to
establish a proof amongst the local industry of Linux success. I don't think I'm
breaking any NDA by saying this, but there is a lot running on top of Red Hat Linux.
- PT is the major employer for IT Professionals. This will bring us students and
people who are connected. They will want to see some of their community icons.

It's a mean to gather more people there, and their story of success can
influence the local industry.

Another point is that I can recruit a lot of speakers there at zero cost. Keep
in mind I'm not running a budget for this. This is meant to be a free event (no
costs) and fully based on free contributions.

> 
> In general, Fedora Project Marketing and Ambassadors separate their
> focuses this way:
> 
> * The Marketing team is trying to be the strategic voice -- understand
>   and help set the larger approach to open marketing of Fedora.
> 
> * The Ambassador team is the tactical voice -- understanding and doing
>   the actual work of open marketing of Fedora.
> 
> One important difference from other Marketing approaches is that in
> Fedora, it is sometimes the individual ambassadors who decide where
> they personally want to put their effort.
> 
> So, as you share the success of your work on
> e.g. planet.fedoraproject.org, the Marketing people will see that it
> may have further strategic focus.
> 
> Finally, it appears we have a strong need for useful marketing
> materials that ambassadors can use.  We've talked about this a long
> time, too.  Some people who care need to not only create and collect,
> but find a way to curate such a collection.  Things change rapidly,
> content needs regular updates, and it can be a lot of work for one or
> a small group.  Perhaps Fedora Insight has some role to play here.
> 
> Does any of this help?

Indeed, it does help, but I'm new here and getting to know how to pull the right
strings is a problem. But I'll do the following... I'll gather all the support I
need and I'll do an official presentation and ask what I need.


 
> - Karsten
> -- 
> name:  Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Sr. Community Gardener
> team:                Red Hat Community Architecture 
> uri:               http://TheOpenSourceWay.org/wiki
> gpg:                                       AD0E0C41
> 
>