From kde-promo Wed Oct 15 15:05:40 2008 From: "Wade Olson" Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:05:40 +0000 To: kde-promo Subject: Re: [kde-promo] Changing how we market the workspace Message-Id: X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-promo&m=122408318432585 MIME-Version: 1 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--===============1492847802==" --===============1492847802== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_18951_8840978.1224083140758" ------=_Part_18951_8840978.1224083140758 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 2:32 PM, Aaron J. Seigo wrote: > On Sunday 12 October 2008, Cornelius Schumacher wrote: > > On Thursday 09 October 2008 03:52:21 Aaron J. Seigo wrote: > > > the Apache Apache webserver. that's not something to emulate, indeed. > of > > > course, we already have KDE KDE. ;) > > > > That sounds like a straw man argument. Nobody says "Apache Apache" or > "KDE > > KDE". The Apache community creates the Apache HTTP server, just like the > > KDE community creates the KDE platform and the KDE applications. Of > > course "Apache" is often used to refer to the HTTP server because it's > > which is the entire point, leading to the sorts of unfortunate confusion > regarding the Apache brand that people such as Stephen Kelly go through. > > using the term "Apache Apache" is meant to highlight the problem in clear > terms: because there is no "Apache Apache", people just say "Apache" when > really they mean the "Apache HTTP server" leading to the limiting of > perception to "Apache" being "that http daemon" and nothing else, or that > Apache products require "that http daemon they make". > > so "Apache Apache" is not a straw man, it's illustrative. just as nobody > really says "KDE KDE" though we've used that exact phrase to explain the > challenges we face. > > > concise and easily understood, just like "KDE" is used and understood to > > refer to the platform and core set of applications we release as "KDE". > > obviously, and this leads to market confusion. we get it, the rest of the > world tends not to and for very understandable reasons. > > haven't we already gone through all of this several times? > > > There are plenty of examples where the name of the creator and the name > of > > the product are the same. What's wrong, if "I use KDE" sounds like "I > drive > > a Porsche"? > > because Porsche actually wants you to primarily associate their brand with > the > car line, and because saying "I have a Porsche handbag" or "I have a > Porsche > laptop" doesn't cause people to think "You probably have to use that in a > Porsche car" and therefore prevent people from purchasing Porsche branded > products just because they don't have a Porsche car. > > the two examples are therefore not comparable in this situation. > > In reading this discussion, I think it's important to explicitly state one milestone to gain perspective. Based on all the text refining exercises, distill what KDE is down to the purest level. It's either: "Software created by people." or "People that make software." Then we go from there. I tend to believe that over the past couple of years the predominant thinking has slowly shifted from the former to the latter. And that's good. If you want to talk marketing: realize what the assets are and what the Competitive Advantage and the Unique Selling Proposition is. It's a metric shitload of great, smart people that get along just well enough to do great things together. Hence my first image was about different people but same vision. I only bring this up now to "level set". It's fundamental before building on it, and some of the posts seem to get distracted then when discussing how to frame other aspects of KDE (such as releases). This stance is really at the root of every forking conversation: if KDE community goes away, KDE withers. If the code goes away, who cares, KDE could just make more and better code. So if we take this pure, atomic statement of "People that make software" then we can build on it, which is exactly what Aaron did a little while ago in the rephrasing "KDE is an international technology team that creates Free Software..." Sorry if this has been covered already in some thread I haven't yet read. If everyone in this thread shares this stance, we'll have better luck with framing out ideas like "KDE releases KDE KDE..." ------=_Part_18951_8840978.1224083140758 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline


On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 2:32 PM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo@kde.org> wrote:
On Sunday 12 October 2008, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> On Thursday 09 October 2008 03:52:21 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > the Apache Apache webserver. that's not something to emulate, indeed. of
> > course, we already have KDE KDE. ;)
>
> That sounds like a straw man argument. Nobody says "Apache Apache" or "KDE
> KDE". The Apache community creates the Apache HTTP server, just like the
> KDE community creates the KDE platform and the KDE applications. Of
> course "Apache" is often used to refer to the HTTP server because it's

which is the entire point, leading to the sorts of unfortunate confusion
regarding the Apache brand that people such as Stephen Kelly go through.

using the term "Apache Apache" is meant to highlight the problem in clear
terms: because there is no "Apache Apache", people just say "Apache" when
really they mean the "Apache HTTP server" leading to the limiting of
perception to "Apache" being "that http daemon" and nothing else, or that
Apache products require "that http daemon they make".

so "Apache Apache" is not a straw man, it's illustrative. just as nobody
really says "KDE KDE" though we've used that exact phrase to explain the
challenges we face.

> concise and easily understood, just like "KDE" is used and understood to
> refer to the platform and core set of applications we release as "KDE".

obviously, and this leads to market confusion. we get it, the rest of the
world tends not to and for very understandable reasons.

haven't we already gone through all of this several times?

> There are plenty of examples where the name of the creator and the name of
> the product are the same. What's wrong, if "I use KDE" sounds like "I drive
> a Porsche"?

because Porsche actually wants you to primarily associate their brand with the
car line, and because saying "I have a Porsche handbag" or "I have a Porsche
laptop" doesn't cause people to think "You probably have to use that in a
Porsche car" and therefore prevent people from purchasing Porsche branded
products just because they don't have a Porsche car.

the two examples are therefore not comparable in this situation.

In reading this discussion, I think it's important to explicitly state one milestone to gain perspective.

Based on all the text refining exercises, distill what KDE is down to the purest level.

It's either:

"Software created by people." or "People that make software."  Then we go from there.  I tend to believe that over the past couple of years the predominant thinking has slowly shifted from the former to the latter.  And that's good.

If you want to talk marketing: realize what the assets are and what the Competitive Advantage and the Unique Selling Proposition is.  It's a metric shitload of great, smart people that get along just well enough to do great things together.  Hence my first image was about different people but same vision.

I only bring this up now to "level set".  It's fundamental before building on it, and some of the posts seem to get distracted then when discussing how to frame other aspects of KDE (such as releases).  This stance is really at the root of every forking conversation: if KDE community goes away, KDE withers.  If the code goes away, who cares, KDE could just make more and better code.

So if we take this pure, atomic statement of "People that make software" then we can build on it, which is exactly what Aaron did a little while ago in the rephrasing "KDE is an international technology team that creates Free Software..."

Sorry if this has been covered already in some thread I haven't yet read.  If everyone in this thread shares this stance, we'll have better luck with framing out ideas like "KDE releases KDE KDE..."
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