[osol-mktg] Re: [cab-discuss] CAB-OSM meeting 4th August 2005 - minutes

[Jim Grisanzio]

I'm very happy to see user groups crop up a couple of times in this 
marketing/CAB meeting.

Jim
-- 
Jim Grisanzio, Community Manager, OpenSolaris
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/



patrick finch wrote:

> All,
> 
> These minutes are later in the publication than hoped, August has a
> habit of getting in the way of things!   Anyway - here they are.
> 
> regards
> 
> Patrick
> 
> 
> 
> OpenSolaris Community Advisory Board and OpenSolaris Marketing
> Thu 4 Aug 05
> Doubletree Hotel, Portland, OR
> 
> A big THANKS to the CAB and Mktg team members for getting up *early* in
> the morning (after a late night) to have this conversation.  Let's hope
> that it's the first of many creative and productive collaborations.
> 
> Present
> =======
> Casper Dik       CAB
> Sara Dornsife    OpenSolaris Mktg
> Roy Fielding     CAB
> Patrick Finch    OpenSolaris Mktg
> Teresa Giacomini (facilitating)
> Claire Giordano  OpenSolaris Mktg
> Simon Phipps     CAB
> Laura Ramsey     OpenSolaris Mktg
> Rich Teer        CAB
> 
> (Absent and much missed:  Al Hopper, CAB)
> 
> Goals of Mtg
> ==================
> 1. gather CAB's ideas for community building
> 2. gather CAB's input on priorities for marketing efforts
> 3. agree on next steps
> 
> Marketing Goals
> ==================
> 
> Discussion of OpenSolaris Community Marketing goals.  They are:
> 
> 1. Spread the word
> 2. Drive adoption
> 3. Bring OpenSolaris into more Computer Science departments
> 4. Make sure existing Solaris customers/community understand what's
>    happening with OpenSolaris, how it affects Solaris
> 5. Create "buzz" and "cool-factor" around OpenSolaris
> 
> Simon suggested adding Community Building to the set of goals.
> Supporting user groups, recognizing community contributions, creating
> incentives that map to our values and the kind of behavior we'd like to
> see.  Claire had thought community building was implicit in the
> drive-adoption goal, but we all agreed to make it explicit.  Good catch
> to Simon.
> 
> Discussion
> ===========
> 
> Simon:	Community Marketing must be part of the community.  This is not a
> Sun group performing "outbound" activities to the community, but that it
> has to be an activity driven within the group.  This is not nuance,
> OpenSolaris Community Marketing is INSIDE the community, doing things on
> its behalf and it must be recognised that this group IS PART of the
> community.  This is the model throughout the community, e.g. the
> Development process, the next steps will be community driven.
> 
> All:  Discussion of the staffing of the Sun pod at OSCON.  As a result,
> it was made sure to have OpenSolaris team members staffing it the entire
> rest of the day (thanks to all who answered the call at short notice!)
> 
> Rich:	Marketing should do more irreverent things. Things like Inside
> Jack etc., things which may make people squirm are good.
> 
> Simon:	OpenOffice community allow marketing to scale globally; this is a
> good model.  Empower and facilitate the community to market itself, e.g.
> t-shirt designs, make pdfs available for reproduction etc. (of course
> there are some constraints of brand protection).  Remember that the
> people who create resources can be different to those deploying them.
> 
> Sara:	Raises issue of www.opensolaris.com (someone else owns the domain
> for an OpenSolaris trademark).  Requests CAB guidance.
> 
> Simon:	Marketing needs to be transparent.  Planning / discussion of
> marketing can happen on mailing lists, although this must be properly
> pitched: proposals should be made and feedback gathered.
> 
> Rich:     Must also make sure that we are not preaching to the converted
> with a "build it, they will come" attitude.  Awareness building is
> required: reach out.
> 
> Brainstorming of ideas, suggestions of focus:
> =============================================
> 
> Community Development Ideas
> ---------------------------
> 
> Support User Groups
> 
> Institue an Annual Recognition Program for contributions to the community
> 
> Take care of and feed the of existing community BUT
> 
> Don't just preach to the converted.
> 
> Hold a Developers' Conference
> 
> 
> Other Ideas
> ----------
> Conference booth should be something appeals to developers, it needs to
> be informal, a place where the community can come.
> 
> We need to understand Sun's overall position on open source.
> 
> Don't be afraid of irreverent marketing tactics - in fact, you should
> accelerate this.
> 
> An Inside Jack episode about installing Solaris would be fun (maybe even
> one to watch WHILE you are installing Solaris).
> 
> Empower and facilitate the "grassroots" community involvement in
> marketing -make it global, build a growing library of collateral for
> others to reproduce, such as CDs for mounting on magazine covers etc.
> and use it to reach out.
> 
> Be transparent in planning.
> 
> Build awareness.
> 
> Follow Sun-on-Sun principles - use Solaris yourselves!
> 
> Develop OpenSolaris activities that will interest geeks -such as games.
> 
> Solicit ideas from the grassroots of the community.
> 
> Reach out to some pre-university potential community members (nothing
> addresses this yet)
> 		
> 		
> Priorities
> ==========
> 
> 4 CAB members voting on priorities (all members had 5 votes, and could
> cast more than one per item)
> 
> Votes	Item
> 6    	Empower and facilitate community in international marketing
> 3    	Care for and feed existing OpenSolaris community
> 3    	Irreverent marketing
> 3    	Support user groups
> 2    	Annual recognition programme
> 2    	Developers conference
> 1    	Create resources for others to use
> 
> 
> Next Steps
> ==========
> 
> Agreed to have a formal OpenSolaris Mktg/CAB meeting about every 6
> months, when the CAB has face-to-face meetings.
> 
> Requested that the CAB provide "advice" to the marketing community on
> that frequency.  Not just in a casual conversation, but as a
> prioritized, well-considered set of top-3 or top-5 strategic
> suggestions.  (& Pats on the back are always welcome!)
> 
> Obviously some of the CAB members are on the opensolaris-mktg discussion
> list and will have more frequent interactions, since they participate in
> the mktg community.
> 
> CAB also invite OSM to contact them about anything that's so big or so
> controversial that they are needed to to weigh in on it.
> 
> 
> Post-discussion: Developer Conference brainstorm
> ================================================
> 
> ApacheCon is popular because developers plan it and invite specific
> developers for a "pre-conference" and provide attendance at a free /
> reduced rate.  NB. Apache didn't have a conference until 3 years after
> the project started.
> 
> OpenSolaris is mature enough to have a conference because there is
> already a mature community (partly due to volume of Sun employees who
> are already Solaris developers).
> 
> Location should be somewhere cool, but accessible, also for Sun
> employees (large volume in Bay area).  Idea: Monterey.
> 
> Important to plan sufficiently in advance so people can book and attend.
> 
> Also consider large universities have facilities, Geek cruises etc.
> 
> 


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