[Fedora-ambassadors-list] Ambassador's Purpose

Patrick Barnes nman64 at n-man.com
Sat Mar 11 15:44:08 UTC 2006


On Friday 10 March 2006 14:49, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> >Do small events count?
> >
> >I do not think our current format lends itself to discussing general
> >ideas of bringing Fedora to the masses. I get the feeling that our
> >leadership is of the opinion that large high profile events are the ones
> >that count. Everything else is just filler.
>
> Why do you feel so? We have been entertaining all sort of requests
> within the limitations of our funds.

A very poor job has been done of giving attention to these events.  It isn't 
just about sending merchandise.  That's really a tertiary goal at best.  
First and foremost, we must make sure that people have the information and 
promotional materials to effectively spread Fedora at these smaller events.  
We must listen to feedback and suggestions that come out of these events.  We 
must stand behind those who go to these events, and let them know that they 
are every bit as important as those who go to the larger events.  We can't 
achieve our goals without these small events.

Evidence of our failures in this regard can be seen in our callus approach to 
people who haven't attended large events or are unable to do so.  We have had 
people entirely brushed aside and treated as though they were unable to 
contribute in a useful way.  People have left the program over it.  They 
aren't getting the attention and help they need and deserve.  It isn't about 
hand-holding.  We can orchestrate our efforts to better support the smaller 
events and independent efforts that really form the foundation of what we do.  
It wasn't large events that got us to where we are today.

>
> >Should ambassadors be members of the marketing list?
> >
> >I think they should. Many ideas that have been posted to the PRIVATE
> >Ambassadors list should have been posted to the PUBLIC Marketing list
> >for greater input.
>
> Yes, definitely but remember that there are many projects such as GNOME,
> openoffice.org that have their own private marketing lists. It is
> required for various things were incrementally working on something with
> public feedback isnt that effective. A press release for example.

This list isn't supposed to serve such purposes.  The Ambassadors are meant 
only to take our global voice to a local level.  Press releases, for example, 
are NOT the business of the Ambassadors.  That is something that can be 
handled elsewhere.  Everything we do is intended to be transparent, and that 
includes all of our drafting, so gathering feedback about press release 
drafts is something we can do on the Marketing list.  These sorts of things 
also require cooperating with the Documentation project and other key 
contributors, such as the release engineers and key developers.

The Ambassadors list should NOT be thought of as a private Marketing list.  
That isn't what it's for.  Anything we discuss here can and should be public 
knowledge.  I think we should open the archives and create a mirroring, 
read-only form of the list for the rest of the community.

It's time to stop using the Ambassadors list as a staging list.  This is a 
forum to further the goals of the Ambassadors, not to test out our Marketing 
programs.  I don't object to pointing out new efforts to Ambassadors through 
the list, as they should know about and provide feedback on our new ideas.  
This is why I agree that Ambassadors should be on the Marketing list.

> >Where did the Ambassadors project come from?
> >
> >For more information on this you will have to look at the Oct 2005
> >archives of the marketing list.
>
> To have a regional focus and participate in events. To shrink and focus
> on specific aspects of marketing rather than losing track and discussing
> random things.

You got the first sentence right.  We aren't about focusing on aspects of 
Marketing.  We're about providing local attention, by both providing 
information and gathering feedback.  Ambassadors are meant to take our 
marketing to the public at a personal level, not develop our marketing.

>
> >What happened to the Marketing project?
> >
> >It would seem that leadership lost focus, the Ambassadors project was
> >created from this lack of focus as a subproject and the general
> >marketing project was allowed to die.
>
> Allowed to die is misleading. There is nothing stopping people from
> doing things that needs to be done out there. I still send feedback on
> reviews on the marketing list regularly.

"Allowed to die" is a perfect description of what happened.  After the 
Ambassadors program was formed, traffic on the Marketing list dropped off 
dramatically, all focus was placed on Ambassadors, the original focus of 
Marketing was lost, marketing initiatives started appearing among the 
Ambassadors instead of in the Marketing project where they should have been, 
and everything within the Marketing program began to rot.

>
> >Why is the Ambassadors list private?
> >
> >The Ambassadors list was made private as I remember to prevent people
> >from signing up just to get free stuff and promo items.
>
> To stage initial promotional activities and make a better splash when we
> accomplish things.

Wrong.  The Ambassadors program isn't for staging anything.  See above.  The 
list was made private to prevent pollution of the list by non-Ambassadors.  
It was intended to allow us to keep focus on our goals and initiatives.  
While we have succeeded in limiting the list to Ambassadors, the list has 
still become polluted with wrong ideas.  We need to clean up.

>
> >What can we do to make things better?
> >
> >I think we need to re-ignite the Marketing project as the driving force
> >of Fedora Marketing. Bring Marketing Tasks back in to the Public view,
> >part of this will be to Focus the Ambassadors project on supporting
> >Ambassadors in getting to events and related items including giveaway
> >"stuff" and keep Marketing in the marketing list.
> >
> >I am sure more will come from me later, this will be plenty to talk
> >about for now. If anyone has the guts to that is.
>
> If we want to go ahead and continue marketing discussions on that list,
> I dont see any roadblocks on that.

Marketing work needs to return to the Marketing program.  Let the Ambassadors 
focus on the program's true purpose.  We can get things done in a much better 
way if we get thing working the way they were intended to work in the 
beginning.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
nman64 at n-man.com

http://www.n-man.com/

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