[osol-mktg] Re: [ug-discuss] Community Consolidation -- Marketing & UGs

[Shawn Walker]

On 04/04/07, Kaiwai Gardiner <kaiwai.gardiner at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 04/04/07, Jim Grisanzio <Jim.Grisanzio at sun.com> wrote:
> > Kaiwai Gardiner wrote On 04/03/07 14:31,:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > For me, I don't think the two should merge as both groups have different
> > > goals; Marketing is setup to evangelise OpenSolaris and its respective
> > > technologies to the rest of the 'industry' (used int he most loosest of
> > > terms) and to develop dialogue with the user community, which hopefully
> > > can then be relayed to the programmers and those who do the design,
> > > analysis and implementation - call us the intemediary between the users
> > > and the worker bee's.
> > >
> > > What I do propose, however, is for the two to have a closer working
> > > relationship, as dialogue between the marketing and user group(s) is
> > > necessary for the 'worker bee's' to know what customers want, who
> > > current sit outside the Sun 'customer list' - the end users *could* pass
> > > long requests directly, but the better way would be for us to
> > > consolidate the issues into one voice so that there is a consist voice
> > > with a matrix of issues that concern them.
> >
> >
> > I agree that the two need a closer working relationship, which is why
> > I'm suggesting that they live within one community. Now, that new
> > community will have many parts -- user groups, presentations,
> > video/audio, screen-casts, contests, t-shirts, web buttons, advertising,
> > marketing, branding campaigns, PR activities, profiles, Patrick's
> > metrics, other forms of technical and non-technical content
> > (newsletters, etc), conferences & events, etc. Try to think of it
> > *without* the word "marketing" in mind, but simply the general
> > evangelization (as Steve suggested) of OpenSolaris. Think of how strong
> > that new group could be. Also, under the new Constitution, each
> > Community Group will interact with the OGB. Wouldn't the interests of
> > the UG and Marketing communities be better served under one combined
> > voice since so many of their issues overlap?

> Which brings a bigger question - does OpenSolaris need a home grown
> community distribution along the lines of Fedora or OpenSuSE given the
> current dearth of a distribution community? the current OpenSolaris Express

If there's to be a homegrown distribution, it should be just that,
homegrown. A community needs to step up and do it, if Sun does it, it
really isn't "homegrown."

> CE respins are nice, but for those who aren't familar with OpenSolaris, the
> idea of downloading something that changes every 2 weeks can be a daunting
> experience - if there is a release, must I upgrade it? where does it leave

That's what Solaris Developer Express is for. It's updated quarterly,
not every two weeks.

> me if I stay? which is why I bought up the idea of a community based
> respository where by releases can be made available not only in iso form,
> but 'apt-get' respository like form as to allow those who are unfamilar to
> remain 'up to date' without a constant cycle of re-install and disruption
> that goes with the territory.

The whole update thing has been brought up before by others. Doing it
should be a community project though. I don't think anyone should
expect Sun to do it given the costs involved. There are of course many
issues to overcome, including redistribution and licensing rights to
some of the materials included in Solaris Express, as well as possible
technological hurdles.

I don't think the average Solaris developer will be interested in a
version of Solaris that is akin to break-my-gentoo ;)

I think the main point is that if this issue is to be addressed, the
community needs to address it. There is no excuse for them not to,
after all, Sun has already spent millions (very likely) on this
project (beginning from its inception); its only fair the community
gives back something.

> piece of turf. Trawling through miles of mailing lists discussions isn't
> effective - there needs to be a one stop point list: "This what we're on
> about here, this is what we're currently focused on, this is what we are
> going to be addressing in the near future, and here are some pie in the sky
> ideas which are floating around" - then with each one, explain, if you're
> 1/2 through developing a driver for  particular widget but need greater
> testing, then do so, if you're having problem understanding how a driver
> works which you have ported from another operating system, put it up there,
> someone from that community might be able to help having experienced the
> same issue.

You're "preaching to the choir" here I think. That's why the community
pages exist, why the mailing lists exist and so on. Many of the
resources on OpenSolaris.org are geared towards that one goal:
communication. However, you can't make folks use them. It is up to
each community to be responsible and *communicate* :)

Most of these issues you're discussing are something that the OGB will
be dealing with (I'm certain) as they look at community structure and
organisation and how to encourage growth and development.

-- 
"Less is only more where more is no good." --Frank Lloyd Wright

Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst
binarycrusader at gmail.com - http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/