Erwin Tenhumberg wrote:
For example, is it better being present at an event at all, even if
the presence is poor, than having no presence?
Since we all want that OpenOffice.org appears in the best light
possible, I think we need define some kind of minimum level of
presence or engagement, in case we decide to go to an event.
I'd suggest that a couple of people at the booth is a good minimum.
Look at it this way: The NEA conference went well. Hundreds of people in
a position to influence others heard about OOo for the first time. This
conference had exactly two OOo representatives. If we set the minimum
higher than two it means that something like the NEA conference could
not happen.
A simple
table where 50% of the time nobody is available as a contact
person because the booth is understaffed, is probably not
something that puts OpenOffice.org in the best light
So let's say that we expect at least one person *at the booth* at all
times and at least two people *at the booth* at least 50% of the time.
So, it doesn't matter if "only" two people volunteer, if they are
willing to stay at the booth for the entire length of the conference
except for short breaks. Like at the NEA conference.
It would be useful to have some consistent messaging and a few
official spokes people, e.g. the marketing project leads,
community council members and maybe native-lang project leads.
I don't like the idea of only a small number of people being able to do
PR. However, if could be assured that this small group could actually
maintain a high press presence and respond to events quickly (eg. "an
open letter from Corel on OpenDocument") I would feel more confortable.
Perhaps it'd be better to have PR targets. For example:
* Important events receive a response within no more than 2 days.
* Each week must have at least one press article on OOo.
* Any 6-month period must average at least 4 articles on OOo.
So we have a clear picture of what "a good job" looks like. And if we
are not meeting those targets, then we add PR people until we do.
This would add a healthy level of clarity and accountability. It woudld
be easier to know if the PR team is doing a good job, and whether or not
the PR team needs to be expanded or not.
Another question might be, what events we "officially" want
to support, i.e. fund with money from Team OpenOffice.org,
mention on the OpenOffice.org home page, etc.
A problem here is that anything you decide will be limited by the
mentality of whoever is making the decision. This, by definition, puts a
cap on new ideas and flexibility. For example, if you've never heard of
the NEA conference, or you don't know the education market, you might
feel that this is not an important event.
So there must at least be a clause saying that this list of events is
only a minimum, and we are willing to officialy support some other
event. I don't want to see us missing an important opportunity because
one person doesn't understand the market and simply says "this
conference is not in our official list".
Another issue that we must not forget is the human factor. An open
source project relies on volunteers. That means that you must be willing
to work within the constraints of what the volunteers happen to be
interested in, or have expertise on. It's no use telling someone they
can't go to conference A and must instead work on conference B, if their
interest lies in A but not in B.
I'm not sure what the selection criteria should be, but
enough local "human resources" could be one
That is a good criteria, because it helps us rely on the realities of
our community instead of what one person thinks is important. Another
obvious criteria is community interest. If many people want to go to
conference A but not B, you probably should support that even if you
would prefer that they be interested in B. You know, you sort of have to
go with the flow a bit.
Cheers,
Daniel.
--
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