[osol-mktg] OpenSolaris, branding & trademarks

[Tim Foster]

Hey Ben & Co.,

On Mon, 2005-07-25 at 08:18, Ben Rockwood wrote:
> Here is an example:  http://cuddletech.com/OpenSolaris-logos.png

Hah, cool - so by using a different font, I can avoid getting sued ?
Well, in *that* case[1]... :-) 

I had a few thoughts about interesting ways to promote the project. The
main idea, is that since OpenSolaris is a code program and there's no
definitive product to try to sell (except perhaps for promoting the
distributions), something we can do, is get more developers interested
in the codebase itself. The blogs have done very well with that, but
here's a few more ideas :

http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~timf/opensolaris/milestone-opensolaris_small.png
http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~timf/opensolaris/disk-opensolaris_small.png
http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~timf/opensolaris/keyboard-opensolaris_small.png
http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~timf/opensolaris/zx81-opensolaris_small.png

- okay, the colours need to be fixed a bit in some of them, but you get
the general idea. I'm sure I could come up with more of these - the
pattern is pretty much :

1. Find an interesting bit of your computer to photograph
2. Locate some related source code on opensolaris.org
3. Play with Gimp, using layers, fonts, and a bit of cloning where
appropriate
 - rinse, repeat.


The average man on the street won't get many (any?) of these ads, but if
they serve to make a few people go to the OpenSolaris website to have a
look at some of the source involved, then they'll have done their job.

Of course, they'd probably look a lot better with an official logo (and
finding someone more artistic than I fix them a bit) but you get the
idea.

> http://cuddletech.com/img/codeos_frontpage.png
> http://cuddletech.com/img/codeos_frontpageb.png (with tag)
> http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=229  (dtlogin 
> replacment and desktop wallpaper)

Nice!

> >- sorry, I'm not trying to stir things up here, I'm just trying to see
> >how I can help spread the word more effectively ...
> > 
> God bless you sir.  Stir away. :)

Hmm, I'm expecting a lawyers letter any time now...

> >A page on what could be done to help the marketing of OpenSolaris would
> >be really useful for folks like me who have little clue as to where to
> >start, but the willingness to lend a hand regardless !
> >  
> If we had a community page for evanglism we could put up todo lists, 
> resources for evanglists, etc.   We need to coordinate and empower
> evanglists as much as possible to have a combined voice and impact
> I think.  Lets see if we can get one.

+1 I'm sure there must be some marketing material around Sun floating
around that we might be able to get access to : being able to give
OpenSolaris folks elevator pitches that they can use when accosted by
heathen-non-opensolaris-using folks who trot out the same old
"slowaris", "linux is cheaper", etc. lines would be really nice.

Marketing certainly isn't just about fancy graphics and nice logos -
getting the message out there involves people talking about how good
OpenSolaris is, and why you should run it. [ I had a go at that sort of
thing a while back at
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/timf?entry=solaris_on_the_desktop ] but
some advice/hints/tips on how to sell it more effectively would be
useful : with OpenSolaris, Sun could have access to a very large and
enthusiastic sales force, in the form of geeks who like talking about
OpenSolaris technology -- we should be encouraging this sort of thing!

Would love to be at the upcoming OSCon, but alas while diskspace is
cheap, travel isn't at the moment (oh well).

	cheers,
			tim



[1] Um, seriously please don't sue me Sun, - I really like working here
and will happily remove those graphics if they're infringing anything...

-- 
Tim Foster - Tools Engineer, Software Globalisation
Project Lead, Open Language Tools https://open-language-tools.dev.java.net/
http://blogs.sun.com/timf  http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~timf

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