> -----Original Message----- > From: Daniel Carrera [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 8:12 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Marketing] Looking to do a briefinterview about > openoffice.org? > > On Sat, 2006-19-08 at 14:02 +0200, Finn Gruwier Larsen wrote: > >> But maybe nobody reacted because everybody thought it was someone else's >> job to do so, and they didn't want to do anything wrong. So maybe what >> we need is some directions from the project leader on how to react if we >> see a mail on the list from somone outside the project, and it obviously >> needs to be answered. >> > > It might be that no one reacted because they didn't want flack if they > got it wrong. But that means that fear of being wrong paralizes the > project. I think it's important to delegate work (e.g. to MarCons) and > let them make reasonable judgements without fear of reprimand. Accept > that the people you delegate work to may not do everything exactly the > way the project lead would have done it, but that having an effective > project is more important than getting your way all the time (even if > you /are/ right about the details). The job of a manager/lead is not to > approve every little action, but to delegate. MarCons and other > volunteers are resources, and the manager's job is to manage those > resources effectively. The fact that there are 5 MarCons in North > America who could have replied here and none of them did tells me that > the project's resources are not being managed properly. > > Cheers, > Daniel. >
I agree with much of what you say, we do however fall into that rather awkward space between Cathedral Builder and Bazaar which tends to create some tensions that are not easily resolved. The different levels of responsibility for instance: to leads... to "shareholders" and who are each of those responsible to. No doubt there can always be improvements made. I think this one caught us a little by surprise. Almost invariably contacts to MarCons are direct rather than on the lists, certainly mine are. Personally I wasn't sure if the OP wasn't asking for an interview with a non-management community member rather than one of us on the Contacts page. It doesn't matter who you are in the community, simple presence on this list means that you obviously have some opinion about OOo Marketing. Such opiniions are no less valid than Louis's or mine or yours. Just because they may be /different/, does not make them any less valid. Posting the request to the list seemed to me a good way to get grassroots impression of the community. Perhaps it is because this is a marketing list, people are cautious about saying anything because they are worried that a word out of place can be misconstrued and twisted to suit a journo's particular agenda. We need to be less fearful. What was disappointing to me was that only one member of the community put his hand up when we should have seen a sea of hands. Go Chad!! [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > You think? > > Sorry, I sit on the sidelines and watch all this and all I can say is, it > figures. > Heh, It figures that you would sit on the sideline or that you were sorry? > I wanted to participate in the Marketing Project a year ago but the general > attitude toward those who were volunteers - not employees and the politics > just turned me off to it. This is Marketing. It's about debate and information and propoganda. Marketing people tend to be Opinionated, when you have differing opinions on a subject amongst a large group of people you get politics. The only time I've not had politics in marketing is when I owned the Company. Large group interaction creates politics. > I still subscribe to this list just to keep an eye > on what's going on because I am still a Community Distributor and I still > support OpenOffice.org. Unfortunately, I find this Marketing Project > somewhat disorganized and this is one example that proves my point. > As I stated earlier we ride that overlap between Cathedral and Bazaar, sometimes it comes out looking disorganized because to a degree it runs on chaos > I have fourteen years in broadcasting myself and I could have contributed to > this interview had I been involved. Rick, forgive me for stating the obvious, but you are involved, as is Chad, you subscribe to the list and as you say, you're a community distributor > An opportunity such as this does not > come every day and if you are ill prepared to seize it don't expect it again > too soon as it doesn't always knock twice, at least not on your time > schedule. > > The lack of response is unfortunate but based on my observations of this > group over the last couple of years it is to be expected. > > As you will have no doubt observed, Louis responded to the OP offlist without informing the list, which he has acknowledged was an error. The next time I have a mistake-free month I'll inform you so that I may bask in your praise. ;) One of the really cool things about being a MarCon is that you often get feed back from non community people. And for all it's faults and difficulties (and god knows I've pointed out a few of them myself over time) there are many who are hugely impressed by what the Marketing project is achieving. OOo's marketing is the envy of many in the FLOSS world. Just the other day I received an email from a student at a local Technical Institute who has no involvement with OOo lists and so on other than being a user... with a "Keep the Car" slogan on his sig. Very cool. When you're on the inside, you see all the warts and blemishes but only because you're looking up close. It is a simple fact that only a miniscule decimal of a percentage point of OOo users subscribe to the lists. They see OOo marketing from outside and from the feedback I get, it looks pretty good to them. Could it be better? Hell yes, lets have some suggestions. http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Marketing Cheers Yo -- "GET LEGAL - GET OPENOFFICE.ORG" http://why.openoffice.org ISO 26300 compliant Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html INGOTs Assessor Trainer (International Grades in Office Technologies) www.theingots.org.nz --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
