[fedora-india] DVD distribution and their impact

[P J P]

> On Sunday, 29 November 2015 6:56 PM, sankarshan wrote:
> Why would be a stretch? The FreeMedia program works on
> the basis of tickets. And I am not sure if anyone does
> actually check (a) for unique recipients (b) geographical
> coverage of the media distribution.

  It would be a stretch to do so without any effort to
evaluate the impact. And secondly there is a demand for it.
The 2000 DVD count I shared in another thread was received
from various ambassadors across APAC region. Third, lot of
the counts were for DVDs as swag at release parties and other
events.


> We have the FreeMedia program running because it requires the project
> to invest a very minimal amount of money while depending largely upon
> the goodwill of the volunteers mailing the media out. If you discount
> the cost of the media, every single DVD mailed costs around 35 INR. It
> might seem little, but 100 units of such mailing is a good amount of
> money to ask volunteers to bear the trouble for. The question then
> comes up - why are we asking them?

  I don't think we are asking them. Since there is request/demand for
the media, we are providing.


> Is it making the project itself complacent to find (a) ways to
> measure impact (b) ways to create a participant base (c) ways to
> have a feedback loop


  Who do you mean by project here? IMO currently(probably so far)
these activities are done in quite ad-hoc ways. Not sure if there
is an active body with such a stated mandate.


> Why are they different aspects? A few emails back you mentioned that
> in your opinion the distribution is a way to obtain new customer base.

  Ie. user/consumer base. Active participation is quite different than
using a product IMO.


> Well, every campaign takes stock of whether such new customer sign-ups
> have actually happened. How would you do that in case of FreeMedia?

  Fot starters, these recipients could be subscribed to the fedora-users
list. Or at least we could note down their contact(<name,email,phone>)
information for further follow-ups.


> I think the participation in the community in India is not similar to
> writing editorials. As a straw-man argument it is a fine stretch.
> Editorials are written by on-staff contributors and invited experts.

> However, regular recipients of free copies do often pop up on the
> digital boards (newspaper forums, letters to the editor).


  Yes, I did not mean the the ones written by the editors/staff. But the
comments/columns on the editorial pages sent in by the readers. There is
no expectation from readers to send those comments/content for receiving
free copies.

> The percentage breakdown I provided in my original email is probably
> the pessimistic one. The problem is that each time this thread comes
> up, there is a continued narrative around "FreeMedia is making a
> difference". The issue here is that there is no way to figure out as
> such.

  Agreed. As said above, to start with we could at least note down the
recipients contact information. While simultaneously figure out other
ways to measure the impact of the free DVDs. Ex. an automatic intimation
is sent to Fedora servers when an installation is finished. (It'd
require network access, but just an example)


> And while we spin our wheels on it, we are missing out on the
> opportunity to see how else we can create the impact. Or, in other
> words, what are the possible answers to "We do not seem to have enough
> contributors to the various aspects of the project, how can we bring
> about an up-tick?"


  That needs to be a separate thread of discussion/debate.


>>   Do we have these goals and expectations defined and communicated to
>> the active participants?
>
> I wouldn't know. Who are the "active participants"? What do they
> expect from the Fedora community in India? What do they see themselves
> doing within the community?

  I'll take that as No. And as for active participants, let's go with the
ones we see active on this or other lists/channels. And ones we can reach
out to for any required support.


> In the past couple of years I've not seen this discussed.
> Perhaps it is time.


  Perhaps because our ways have been quite ad-hoc, without any clear
mandate/agenda/leadership to follow.


---  -P J P
http://feedmug.com