On 27 November 2015 at 13:53, sankarshan foss.mailinglists@gmail.com wrote:
The "smarter stickers" aspect is something which I find interesting. My question was to try and arrive at the 'what is the outcome we seek when we distribute DVDs?'
On the "smart stickers" front, nothing more than actual stickers - creating brand awareness. People going back from a conference with something to hold on to and perhaps even do something with, ranging from throwing it in the corner of their stack of swag to sticking it up in their cubicles (I do that BTW) to putting it in their DVD drives and giving it a spin.
I'm not too sure that even 'more people will install and use Fedora' is being met with the production and distribution of DVDs. The absence of any conversation from recipient of the DVDs is obviously not the only evidence of absence.
I don't disagree, which is why I specifically disassociated the distribution from the direct goal of "even more people will install and use Fedora". Recipients of these DVDs at conferences are usually techies who will probably give it a spin to see how it measures against the latest Ubuntu, Debian, etc. and then maybe use it as an alternative for a while.
The Freemedia program however is very different in that the recipients don't fit into this demographic. TBH, I don't know what the average recipient of DVDs from the Freemedia program looks like and if someone could define that, then maybe we could get closer to knowing what's going on there.
The reason I start the discussion implying that we should stop producing and distributing DVDs is not because I want to strongly advocate that path. The reason is whether by continuing to produce and distribute DVDs we become complacent and not seek to measure the benefit or, think about the actual impact which needs to happen. My opinion is that this "cheap grace" [1] is what is an impediment to thinking around paths which create more contributors within and without the Fedora project space. My contention is that we have enough
If you're referring to DVD giveaways as cheap grace then I have a different opinion because I don't see DVDs as any kind of grace, much like I don't see stickers and buttons as any kind of grace. If you want DVDs to be something more than that, then I think we're on to a different question and I don't have a more convincing answer for it other than recipients would find it more useful to get the actual idea (i.e. DVDs, USB sticks, etc.) than stuff about the idea (stickers, buttons, etc.).
models around us to think about how we can experiment to achieve those outcomes. My observation is that it is required to do so. If you have been participating in the Fedora project for a while, you'll notice the lack of news from LATAM, APAC, Africa etc - large blocks of nations which seem uniquely poised to derive benefit from contributions, but there's substantially less structure in the activity around the project.
I believe the reason for this has very little to do with the Freemedia project or DVD distribution, although I understand why you would want to raise questions about both initiatives - they seem like things targeted at the 'less fortunate'. The real reason seems to be to be the fact that most people who receive this media are more intent on solving their own problem (build something with it, like their college assignment, replace the coaster that their neighbour stole, etc.) than being involved in the project itself in any capacity. A lot of times they may use it for a project and then completely forget about it - this was true 13 years ago when I was studying in college and saw people around me use RHL/Debian for their projects and then forget what ls did the very next day, so I don't see why that truth won't prevail today. The idea of software freedom is actually a much harder sell in these regions than it is in NA/EMEA since the idea of Freedom itself is not as well appreciated.
Siddhesh