[Marketing] OSGeo Marketing Strategy part 2

[Jeroen Ticheler]

Hi all,
Thanks for the supporting messages! I really want this thing to be a  
successful process with a lot of consensus, so if at any time you  
feel I am missing the boat or ignoring relevant issues, please let me  
know immediately!

I had a lunch meeting on the topic again with the marketing/design  
people I work(ed) with. I tried to explain what I thought were some  
of the key objectives OSGeo should achieve in the coming year. I'll  
list those here for comments and further discussion/refinement. We  
agreed we'll get a first proposal together to assess what is  
reasonably achievable considering the available budget. I have  
indicated that in this whole process I need the community support and  
as such the implementation of the work will be different then when  
they deal with just me and a small GN community.

Here's what I put up as goals (as I see them, considering what we  
discussed in Victoria etc...)

- In rough terms we have two groups OSGeo serves. (1) the developer  
communities of the different projects, and (2) the user broader  
community of geospatial applications. Both have a business component  
to them; the first is to have a healthy community and thus product,  
the second is a good, professional image that helps drive business.
- We take fairly good care of ourselves for what the developer  
community concerns
	I suggested we do not forget this part of the community, but not  
focus on it at this stage from the Marketing point of view.
- We have to transfer a message of trust and professionalism to the  
user community (the people, businesses and governments that buy the  
services/ use the tools)
	Ingredients:
	- Healthy, well established projects that work in a professional  
manner (PSC, workplans, release strategy, bug reporting and fixing,  
etc..)
	- Intellectual Property issues are closely monitored and have been  
evaluated for all core projects
	- High quality software, use of standards etc...
	- Coherence and collaboration between projects
	- Support and training from professional companies
	- Free and Open Source Software is not just source code, it is about  
participation and true open collaboration. Hell with fake open  
source ;-) , OSGeo is about real Free and Open Source Software. Users  
have to be made aware of this in clear terms.

	I may have forgotten some things now...

- We have to improve the visual identity that is reflected in the web  
site, OSGeo journal, articles, flyers and conferences. This goes  
beyond the OSGeo logo I think. (just to be clear, I will not try to  
touch the logo because it is very good already!).

Goals:
	- Have a message we can deliver to users that is convincing and  
clear. They have to directly understand the benefits of using OSGeo  
software over other solutions :-)
	- Be able to use the marketing materials to convince potential  
sponsors of the benefits of joining OSGeo as a sponsor. "This is what  
you get when you support in OSGeo", "Professionalism and quality that  
benefits your business".
	- Be able to add at least 5 (!?) new, substantial OSGeo and/or  
project sponsors to the list in the coming year.
	- Have a common visual identity (see above) with at least a folded  
A3 size flyer that gives the key messages/ overview.
	- The materials will have to be available for translation by the  
different local chapters. We have to be able to maintain / update  
these materials.

OK, I talked for an hour on this, so I for sure miss things in this  
email, but I think I got the main components.

I have suggested that when we get started, they (Birgit and Ines)  
join the mailing list to participate in some of the discussion.

Once I have an initial proposal from them, I'll get this back to the  
list.
Ciao,
Jeroen