[fedora-india] DVD distribution and their impact

[Siddhesh Poyarekar]

On 27 November 2015 at 13:53, sankarshan <foss.mailinglists at 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
-- 
http://siddhesh.in