fedora store SIG

[Jeffrey Tadlock]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Ian Weller <ianweller at gmail.com> wrote:
>  - Why is Zazzle not on the potential distributors list?

If I recall correctly, Zazzle had a license agreement that entitled
them to use any image uploaded to their site in their own marketing
and promotional materials.  How big of deal this really is I am not
100% certain.

>  - Goal 1 states that we make it easier for Ambassadors and event
>    organizers, however by potentially going through different
>    distributors for different products (a lot of 'propsed items' are
>    offered by different people), this seems to cancel itself out. (of
>    course this is trivial)

Keep in mind the proposed items list was a wish list.  Very few single
shops sell everything on that list.  Upon initial launch, all items on
that list may not be available or ever be available.

There are two purposes in mind for the store - a place for Fedora
users to pick up one-offs of various items and provide a reference
point for Ambassadors who need items in bulk.  On top of this, we
don't want to maintain an inventory of items.  Using a print on demand
storefront for the user needs is apt to work best on that front.
Unfortunately, I have yet to see any print on demand place that can
come close to matching what I can get bulk orders through a
traditional screen printer for - so that is why the Ambassador Vendor
page exists.  It allows an ambassador to contact a Fedora friendly
vendor and place their order for event supplies.

>  One idea I had for a store was using distributors with nice APIs that
>  could submit orders automatically.  Thenw hat I would do is implement
>  all the products into one store (let's say at store.fedoraproject.org),
>  and when the order was placed on store.fp, orders would be placed with
>  distributors automatically, and the person ordering everything would be
>  notified of what distributors are sending what.

Will the distributors require us to maintain an inventory of items
with them?  Do you have some distributors in mind with these APIs in
place?  Where does the payment process occur in the above scenario?

One of the things with the initial Store project is to keep things
simple.  The immediate goal was to provide a place for Fedora users
and Ambassadors to go when they needed something.  If things go really
well once we get it up and running then we will have a much stronger
case to tap into some infrastructure resources and move to a more
elegant solution as you have suggested above.

>  Also was there a meeting on 2008-03-05?  I noticed that meetings are
>  sparsley populated, and I could show up if the meetings didn't happen
>  while I was in school.  I'm not asking for a time change necessarily.

No, the meeting on 2008-03-05 was canceled.  Last week had sort of a
rough start for me which prevented the meeting.  The meeting this week
will also be canceled as I am in training this week and unable to lead
the meeting.

Feel free to continue the discussion on the mailing list though.  I
have encouraged anyone that can't make the meeting to post ideas and
thoughts to the mailing list.  It can really help move things along,
as finding a common meeting time for everyone that is interested is
near impossible due to various time zones and work schedules.

>  I'd like to discuss the future of the store with somebody.

Please keep the ideas and discussion coming.  The Store SIG can still
use help from anyone interested.  I'm also interested in hearing
people's direct experiences with Spreadshirt.com while I work on
getting an image uploaded to them and printed so I can see first hand.

Thanks!
Jeffrey