Someone's missing the point...it's us.

[Alex Maier]

Couldn't agree more.

As long as the landing pages on fedora.redhat.com and
fedoraproject.org keep talking about a "project" and not a distro and
who it is meant for, people will imagine all they want, and we will
not be able to control this.

However, we are in the lucky position of being able to shape the
public perception of Fedora by doing just that. As someone who is
making her living by marketing Red Hat products, I can tell that 97%
or more of the marketing is in information--building halfway usable
web pages, buing ad space, organizing events, etc. I would say goodies
would weigh in at 3% or less, and they really do not contribute
terribly much to the perception of Red Hat which is being formed by
all the other activities.

If we want public to think about us in a certain way, we have to tell
them what to think, and to be credible, of course. So far, I would not
say that Fedora sucks any more than any other non-commercial
disctibution out there, it's only the perception in the people's minds
that accounts for articles like this.

A month or so ago, someone on this list mentioned Firefox web page as
a positive example of what a web page should look like. If you have
not visited this page in a while--go there and have a closer look. Ask
yourself what makes it work so well.

I completely support Matt's action plan and would like to add a couple
of points to it myself. Let's discuss it at the next meeting and start
working on stuff perception is made out of!

On 8/11/05, Matt Frye <mattfrye at gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
> 1) Stop spending time on decisions that we don't get to make, e.g.. logos  - it's just an example, but there will be more like it.-- [a.m] it is true, we need some discussion, but talking about things we can't control over and over is a waste of resources. and to be quite honest, logos do not define brands, it is up to us to define the brand by communicating with the public

> 2) Build a plan that's actionable, i.e. one that Red Hat's real marketing team will allow us to execute.  Ultimately, any real chances that we want to take must be approved.  Red Hat 2005 isn't the Red Hat of 1998, and we don't have real autonomy. -- [a.m] i think we should focus on the stuff we CAN change in the first place and not fret about stuff we can't. how about re-writing these landing pages?

> 3) Market with information, not just hats and t-shirts.  Make it cds, books, dvds, etc.  Organize speakers for LUGs.  Be one.  That's what they really need! -- [a.m] even though we might not be ready for publishing a book yet, it would be comparably easy to decide on a messaging  index and have it spread in the Fedora community so that when we talk about Fedora, we say the same stuff about the same things.
It certainly shall not be restrictive, but it would help everybody if
everybody knew what our policy for contributions is like, how to
invite a speaker to their LUG, when and where the next FUDCon will be
etc.
 
4) Give people ideas: Adding visible links to the Fedora landing pages
with stuff we want them to do, such as: "Download Fedora Now" --
"Submit a Bug here" -- "Invite a speaker to your LUG" -- "Find out
about next FUDCon here" etc.

-- 
Visit FUDCon London 2005
http://fedoraproject.org/fudcon

FUDCon:
Fedora Users and Developers Conference