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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    [kde-promo] Re: KDE in top 1.5%
From:       Jonathan Singer <jsinger () genome ! wi ! mit ! edu>
Date:       2002-02-22 15:02:02
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From: Mark Bucciarelli <mark@easymailings.com>


> I figured.  How do you picture this events toolkit?  And how would you 
> want to deal with money issues; for example, if the kit included
> - t-shirts for sale, or
> - brochures that were mailed to you, or
> - brochures you printed yourself (on high-quality paper 
> using a high-quality color ink-jet), or 
> - business cards for you, or
> - KDE 3 CD's for sale?


First, about money: I already paid over $100 to travel to LWE and most of the others \
there also had hotel bills. If worst comes to worst, paying an extra $20 to print \
brochures isn't out of the question. T-shirts and CDs are another issue.

Next, what I would have liked to have had in a kit is:

* Brochures -- OK, I'll do this one myself, as soon as the documentation rush for 3.0 \
ends in a couple of weeks. Andreas, can you send me (or better, provide a URL) the \
existing file? Also, do you have connections at any of the KDE League member \
companies who could get their marketing people to provide a little pro bono feedback \
on it? 

* Image files for posters -- This is a one time project. Artists, can you make a few \
options that exhibitors can download and print?

* Image files for T-shirts -- This probably already exists.

* Demo tools -- I've never done a demo before and things like sample scripts and \
kpresenter screenshows would have been helpful. Also nice would be a couple of \
eye-catching themes. Come to think of it, maybe the best thing is to make a tarball \
of a $KDEHOME directory that's flashy and demonstrates useful KDE features. If you're \
the kind of person who submits screenshots of your desktop to theme sites, consider \
this.

* CD's -- This sounds great, but is difficult in practice. It's expensive (Ximian was \
_selling_ boxed sets for $40, IIRC), needs to be continuously updated and what would \
you put on it? My sense is that the typical Windows user knows that when you go to a \
booth, they give you a CD that you go home and run on Windows. Trying to explain to \
them, "We make software and other people distribute it. You already have KDE or you \
can go to the Red Hat or Mandrake booth and get a CD from them. If we gave you \
something, it probably wouldn't work on your system anyway." just confuses them ("I \
don't understand. Don't you make Linux?") but it's still true.

Note that none of this is a KDE-Zine type deal -- it needs to be done once and \
sporadically reviewed. The key things are 1) to do it and 2) to put it someplace \
convenient.

Finally, regarding the KDE League: Andreas -- it should be clear now that there's a \
serious problem with the League's perception in the KDE community. Unfortunately, not \
telling people about anything you're doing is indistinguishable from doing nothing. I \
know about your work in organizing the KDE booth and media interviews and everyone \
knows about the Microsoft settlement comment. But beyond that, you seem to be \
expecting people to take on faith that all sorts of important secret stuff is being \
done and they're not going to.

If it were simply a matter of you doing things on your own time, than it's no one \
else's concern. But you've set yourselves up as the leaders of KDE promotion and have \
traded on KDE's name to collect money from companies, and if you want to occupy that \
position you need to maintain your credibility.



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