SWOT - Strengh's - The Master Plan

[Nelson Marques]

On Thu, 2010-03-25 at 09:02 -0400, Mel Chua wrote:
> > Back on my SWOT, here's the master plan...
> > I've been working on: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing/SWOT_STR
> >
> > My goal with this is to present a light weight call for help to Fedora
> > Community. On that webpage I want to run a community driven contribution
> > (similar to what we done with the release slogan). People should go
> > there and fill in the table with the right information. I've established
> > the end of May (30th) to take the info and process it accordingly.
> 
> This is shaping up very nicely, Nelson! I like the way you're explaining 
> the process itself on the page - it's like the "view source" equivalent 
> of doing marketing. ;)

Well, I try to contemplate transparency and it's important that every
single soul who checks that wiki page can realize that this benefits not
only Fedora as project but also contributors on any field, as of course
we are highlighting our work. 

I've started with "Strengths" on purpose, because I consider it easier,
and then people are already shapped up for "weaknesses" which is more
sensible and most likely will get some polemical cases. Either way, this
is not the time, but I would like to point my will in having some time
on a future marketing meeting to discuss this and how I will evaluate
and process the data.

Though I plan to continue doing this in the future, I would like that
when people are confortable with the process, there will be more
contributions.

By the way, blogged this already ;)

> 
> > Now... the deal... I need to spread the word about this on emails to
> > lists so that people can participate and know what we are doing. Who can
> > help on this list towards that goal ? Advertise this so that people are
> > aware of it's importance and can help.
> 
> If I were in your shoes, this is what I might do:
> 
> 1. Try this out with some Marketing contributors - find, say, 3 of us on 
> IRC (whoever's hanging out in the channel when you're around) and see if 
> we can follow the steps you want the broader community to follow on the 
> SWOT. This is to make sure the instructions make sense for people who 
> may not have heard of a SWOT before (like me). I'd be happy to be one of 
> your 3 people.

+1. You and Paul are already on the move :)

> 
> 2. Once that works, head to #fedora-devel and #fedora-admin and try and 
> find... maybe somewhere between 5 and 10 developers/admins to do the 
> same. This would also be for "debugging the process" - making sure that 
> people can give you the kind of help you're looking for.

I kinda might have twisted this, or maybe cutted some time before I make
an "official" call for this. I blogged this :)

> 
> 3. Ask the developers who've just tried out your SWOT process how they 
> would suggest reaching out to other developers, and show them your email 
> template and ask them what they think of it - they're the ones who'll 
> have the best ideas on how to revise it for a wider response.

What you said previously is true. I would like to point and suggest that
we gathered a small task force around the Marketing group, a small group
of people that can represent other parts of the Project, like
establishing a bridge with developers, ambassadors, artists, etc. So
that when we want to distribute information like this, we have an
official inside man that can bridge us with other departments. Maybe
this exists, but I am not aware of such.

> 
> > I can go on and fill in the table (I haven't on purpose), but I don't
> > have the know-how and don't know enough about Fedora to handle this, in
> > words I would ignore most likely important stuff. This shouldn't happen,
> > and eventually a SELinux developer for example would be able to point
> > out its importance on Fedora, as an artist could point out his work
> > importance.
> 
> Yep. I liked the way you phrased it in the message: "I am taking the 
> assumption that engineers can highlight better the pieces of engineering 
> in Fedora, as artists can highlight their contributions and so on to 
> everyone who is involved with Fedora."

It is true. Keep in mind that I am a new comer :)

> 
> > Since we are collecting all the important points, it makes sense to me
> > to call for help on the Fedora Community. Another question to the
> > list... Who should we contact and appeal for participation? any
> > restrictions?
> >
> > Finally and also very important, if someone wants to review my english,
> > feel free to do so...

Thanks. Anything that can be improved on this field is great.


> I made a few light edits to 
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SWOT_strengths#Personal_Message - you can 
> see them at 
> https://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=SWOT_strengths&diff=161586&oldid=161584.
> 
> > The goal here is to point all the important things that make Fedora a
> > strong organization and product. All the points for Strength's (later
> > also for Weaknesses) have to be controllable by Fedora. This means that
> > we shouldn't point our things that are out of our grasp. Only reinforces
> > the appeal for the community to participate on this.
> >
> > By the way, the plan is to cover the Fedora 12 life cycle. Later will
> > make a new review for Fedora 13 and so on for every release.
> 
> This is great - a continued thanks, Nelson, for driving this forward. 
> It's ambitious, but that's good. :)

Ambitious? It's something I believe it's important for the future and
that will allow us to improve and get another view on how things are. If
we have a SWOT for every release, when we reach F15 or so, we can
establish a clear point on our evolution, hopefully killed some
strength's and I believe that it will make us work better as an
organization and help the management to make us more attractive to
contributors.

Glad to help :)

-- 
Nelson Marques <07721 at ipam.pt>