[Marketing] Re: Marketing Digest, Vol 15, Issue 13

Fri Dec 12 03:33:42 EST 2008

Hi All,

I again would like to *highlight* how important Chris' comments are to the
Marketing Committee. It is true that at this time OSGeo is quite successful
for it has increased its visibility in an impressive way in such a small
existence.

Thank you Chris and I am glad that this discussion is happening. The
comments which it created are not only extremely important discussions but
are themselves... marketing an idea.

The folowing areas which would be nice to be improved are (+1 for me there
Chris) and a very positive thing is that at this last meeting there was
quite some discussion going on about these communications issues:

*" * Provide a clear, concise overview of OSGeo to first time visitors.
 * Provide a clear description of each OSGeo project to potential
  users considering using OSGeo software.
 * Provide compelling evidence/information about OSGeo projects designed
  for corporate consumption."*

Another great thing was that the marketing committee did suggest to put
another 20k (http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Budget_2009) for website
redesign and optimization (should I suggest here some landing page
optimization<http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/landing-page-continuity-congruence.html>
)

Hope it all works well.

Daniele.

On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:00 AM, <marketing-request at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Feedback from Marketing Meeting (Christopher Schmidt)
>   2. RE: Marketing Calendar on the Web (Jason Birch)
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>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:38:22 -0500
> From: Christopher Schmidt <crschmidt at metacarta.com>
> Subject: [Marketing] Feedback from Marketing Meeting
> To: marketing at lists.osgeo.org
> Message-ID: <20081211153821.GG7946 at metacarta.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Hello,
>
> Upon partial review of the marketing committee meeting on IRC last
> night, I noticed a couple things that I'd like to comment on.
>
> First, It seems that my email was seen as a negative comment on the
> marketing committee. I apologize that it was seen that way.
> Specifically, my original email was not sent to the marketing committee
> for a reason: I don't see that Marketing has -- up until this point --
> had a strong reason to consider the website 'theirs'.
>
> We have a "web committee" who is, as far as I understand it, tasked with
> the maintenance of the website as it stands today. This committee is
> primarily -- at this time -- involved in the upkeep of the current
> website, and not with broad redesign movements. This is understandable.
>
> The idea of significantly changing the website seems like it would be
> outside the realm of any existing committee within OSGeo. WebCom is
> primarily tasked with maintaining the existing website. Marketing is
> working on branding, providing print materials, conference attendance,
> etc. This is fine, and perfectly reasonable.
>
> My email to the board was an effort to point out that perhaps some
> effort needs to be taken *outside* the purposes typically set up by
> these committees -- that the Board should perhaps consider a seperate
> task, that of a significant web presence redesign, as important to the
> Foundation. This is not a criticism of existing efforts -- the existing
> website is a fine piece of work for what it is, adn the marketing
> committee's efforts are similarly successful at the tasks that are being
> undertaken. Simply put, website redesign has not been proposed as a task
> that belongs to either of these committees in the past -- at least, not
> that I've seen.
>
> My email was designed to bring attention to this particular aspect of
> OSGeo's success at this time.
>
> Another complaint was that I mentioned OpenGeo as doing a good job with
> creating a corporate-friendly web presence, "without making a mention of
> how much investment has gone into such branding." Allow me to clarify:
> If I thought this was a task we could snap our fingers at, then I
> wouldn't have bothered to send an email. The task of creating a
> successful brand -- successful insofar as it is recognized as completing
> the goals that people are interested in -- is one that is very hard, and
> website redesign to support that goal is often expensive. Very few
> people who are currently participating in OSGeo have the marketing
> know how to do even a portion of what I suggested.
>
> The fact that this effort is so significant is exactly why I suggested
> that the item be considered *before* the board approves budgets for
> 2009: specifically, if the board considers my suggestions, and finds
> them to have some merit, it may make some sense to address this by
> keeping some funds available for the task.
>
> I am sorry that my comments have upset people. I am not attempting to
> belittle the efforts that the marketing committee has been putting
> forward -- it is clearly doing important work. Nor am I trying to say
> that the marketing committee should be specifically taking on tasks like
> website redesign. Instead, I'm simply trying to offer some
> information/guidance, based on my own personal opinions and the feedback
> that I have been receiving of late.
>
> In my opinion, the OSGeo website does not, at this time, clearly achieve
> the following goals:
>
>  * Provide a clear, concise overview of OSGeo to first time visitors.
>  * Provide a clear description of each OSGeo project to potential
>   users considering using OSGeo software.
>  * Provide compelling evidence/information about OSGeo projects designed
>   for corporate consumption.
>
> It does, on the other hand, achieve the following goals:
>  * Provide a single stop to get access to a large quantity of
>   information about OSGeo.
>  * Provide an overview of recent news and upcoming events in the OSGeo
>   community.
>  * Provide a starting point for getting access to OSGeo projects,
>   especially if you're familiar with them already.
>
> As a resource, these things are clearly important to the existing OSGeo
> community. It's just not as clear to me that the OSGeo homepage provides
> a useful starting point for someone beginning to look at OSGeo -- either
> as a Foundation, or as a home of a project they might be interested in.
>
> Perhaps the answer is "This is not what OSGeo needs." In that case, I
> am simply wrong: that's an easy enough answer. I don't know who is best
> equipped to answer that question. I think that it comes from a variety
> of sources: Marketing, WebCom, other groups within the project, perhaps.
>
> Perhaps the answer is "This is interesting, but less important than
> supporting events." I would disagree with this based on what little
> knowledge I have, but am willing to accept that it's not worth the
> time/energy of OSGeo to investigate improved website presence.
>
> Perhaps the answer is simply "We can't afford it." This is also
> obviously a reasonable response.
>
> None of these responses would be out of line from the Marketing
> committee, or OSGeo as a whole. However, I thought it would be
> worthwhile to bring up the possibility that OSgeo's current community
> site is inefficient at turning first time visitors into people who walk
> away not knowing what OSGeo is -- in my opinion -- for consideration of
> some group of people larger than myself.
>
> I apologize, again, for upsetting people with the tone of my email. I'll
> be honest and say that I don't really understand why this would be
> upsetting, but hopefully this better explains why I think that none of
> what I said should be seen as a criticism/failure of any existing group
> within OSGeo.
>
> Best Regards,
> --
> Christopher Schmidt
> MetaCarta
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:56:10 -0800
> From: "Jason Birch" <Jason.Birch at nanaimo.ca>
> Subject: RE: [Marketing] Marketing Calendar on the Web
> To: "Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)" <tmitchell at osgeo.org>
> Cc: OSGeo Marketing <marketing at lists.osgeo.org>
> Message-ID:
>        <8E468917B01800408B91984428BE03DD0A8FB995 at starfish.nanaimo.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
> Works fine in Outlook 2007.
>
> Tyler, you're a sturdy man to be awake for those meetings, especially
> once we hit daylight savings time...
>
> Jason
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
> Subject: [Marketing] Marketing Calendar on the Web
>
> Please don't ask me to put it into some online google application,
> but feel free to do so if that's your preference. :)  You can also
> read it with Mozilla Sunbird (free) or Apples iCal, plus numerous
> other apps.  Not sure how much Outlook likes it.
>
>    webcal://www.osgeo.org/calendars/Marketing.ics
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of Marketing Digest, Vol 15, Issue 13
> *****************************************
>

-- 
Researcher @ Osaka City University
Graduate School for Creative Cities
http://gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/gistrends
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