[OSGeo-Discuss] Code of Conduct in Real Case

[Pat Tressel]

The conversation has gone on to the question of diversity in STEM fields,
but if I can return to the original presentation for a moment...

Perhaps we could look at it from a different perspective, namely, that of
marketing and branding.  Is this an effective advertisement?  Does it
accomplish the intended purpose?  (Full disclosure:  I'm not a
professional, though I have worked for an advertising placement company.  I
am, however, very much a fan of good advertising and follow industry news.)

Let's say we don't know what the purpose is.  What can we extract from the
presentation itself?  The majority of the presentation is selling "other
reasons" to attend FOSS4G 2015 besides the content of the conference
itself.  A significant portion advertises travel to Seoul, and includes
traditional travel themes -- culture, entertainment, food, sights.  Another
has the feeling of a business development promotion.  Another portion
emphasizes interaction with other attendees, and especially fun interaction.

What can we infer about the intended audience?  With the exception of the
three elements discussed in this thread, the presentation appears neutral.
The Dali image, Girls' Generation, and multiple images of alcoholic
beverages are elements that would appear intended to appeal to a specific
demographic, unmarried men below middle-age.  (Girls Generation is a group
assembled by SM Entertainment, whose founder says the group is intended to
appeal to men aged 30-40.  However, they now have a significant female fan
base in Japan.)

Next, how effective is it?  The presentation does not appear intended to
stand on its own.  I'm assuming that these slides were used with a verbal
presentation?  For instance, as others have noted, the meaning of the Dali
image sequence is obscure -- it does not work without explanation.  To make
it work without a verbal pitch, ask, for each section, does the lead-in
slide adequately establish what is being promoted in that section?  And for
each slide, ask, does this need a better caption?

Given that this is promoting attendance based on things that are not part
of the conference itself, it would be good to make that explicit right in
the first slide.  If it's intended to also promote the conference program,
that might work better as a separate presentation, rather than trying to
glue it onto this one.

If the three elements in question would be off-putting to some potential
attendees, it would be easy to replace at least the Dali image and the beer
images.  Note in a professional advertising campaign, the question would
not be, can we get away with this? but rather, is it possible that this
will turn away potential customers in our intended demographic, or could
this in any way diminish our brand or cause a negative reaction?  So *if*
the question of offense comes up at all, then that would trigger fixing
that part of the advertisement.

I gather the point of the Dali sequence is to say that something can appear
as one thing from afar, and otherwise close up.  Perhaps use a photo mosaic
image instead?  (These are images constructed of many small images.)  The
beer images are jarring not so much because they feature alcohol, but
because there are so many of them -- they are out of proportion to any
other type of image.  I'd recommend dropping slides 37-41 and keeping only
42 (which is a better image than 41).  Similarly, for the food images (the
second longest sequence), instead of multiple slides, tile them into one
slide.

The Girls Generation picture is more problematic, because they are a
legitimate and popular group.  Two things were jarring to me.  First, that
was the *only* "culture" image.  There are other aspects to Seoul culture
besides K-pop.  A montage of several images showing a range of cultural
aspects would de-emphasize the "sex" aspect.  Second, with the exception of
the Dali image, the appearance of a "sexy" image was unexpected.  Note that
part of the problem is that not many people outside of Asia will recognize
Girls Generation -- they will just see young women in provocative dress and
poses.  (For contrast, ~everyone on the planet would recognize Psy.)

Finally, please don't be offended, but, it would also be good to get advice
from a graphic designer, and also have someone proofread the text.
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