As GDK pointed out, we aren't a liberty to make a number of assumptions
about the "market". We don't have market analysts, we don't have
commercial drivers, we don't have shareholders, we don't have the
budget to engage in any such speculation. The good news is, we aren't
bound to a revenue target, so a whole lot of work doesn't need to
happen around that sort of thinking. We also aren't at full liberty to
establish markets where they commercially compete with Red Hat, though
we won't stop someone from commercializing it in some fashion. Since
our hands are mildly bound, and since we only know *our* version of the
Fedora story, all we can do is start there. And it can be a simple
message (and thusly portable and translatable), so long as being simple
is a goal. <br>
<br>
I don't want to start another brand rant, but we can only lay out the
"promise" (what is it? what does it do? who cares?) of Fedora, the
"experience" (how it's used, and by whom) is semantic, and evolutionary
from this starting point. We can shape and/or react to the promise, but
we'll never be able to magically anticipate it, and surely won't be
able to control it. We can't tell Fedora what to be for everyone, we
can't tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do with. We can,
however, decide to never tell it what not to be--while deciding as a
group the core purpose or *intended* use by *intended* audience.<br>
<br>
Just as we make package choices, without inhibiting third parties from adding/subtracting their own.<br>
<br>
We've answered these core questions about what Fedora is, and for whom
a great number of times already on this list. Someone needs to digest
it, and make a cut we can all vote on. And somone needs to call final
cut at some point. Then, similar to the development of the logo, we can
get a head of steam going and the folks at Red Hat--who know a thing or
two about marketing Linux--can polish it up.<br>
<br>
As for the purpose of Fedora marketing, it's to make more people
use/hack Fedora more often, so we make it better more often than it
gets worse. Just the same as that marketing in a commercial environment
is to "get more people, to buy more stuff, more often, so you make more
money". That's it. There's nothing more to it than technique.<br>
<br>
Our metrics are the number of contributors (code, bugs, feedback, list
posts), and number of users (hackers, enthusiasts, early adopters,
those wanting insight into what RHEL might be)--which together make the
target install base--and the number of articles, reviews and how-tos
written about Fedora. That's not all the use cases and measures for
Fedora, because we don't and never should know all the use cases,
anymore than Apache foundation knows exactly what's going on on every
web site running Apache. <br>
<br>
For example, sometimes, we'll see that we are getting significant
uptake in verticals like desktop productivity, or multimedia, or LiveCD
variants. Or someone will write an article explaining how to shove
Fedora onto a Mac mini, or XBox, or pen drive. Or some teacher in
Portland will start a program targeting K12, based on Fedora. Or some
VAR or IT support org will charge folks for support, customizations or
maintenance. Etc.<br>
<br>
User driven innovation, and an eco-sysem. In other words, a lot of what
made Red Hat what it was before the RHEL/Fedora debbil scat.<br>
<br>
Once we establish ourselves in the known universe, we have a baseline
of metrics. And we can draw up a set of benchmarks and be more
inquisitive and measure against those metrics, as well as reacting
emerging segments.<br>
<br>
--jeremy<br>