content/editorial/ec12Sept.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <h2>Community  Articles: Opinions, Interviews, Analyses</h2>
 <p>Editor: <a href="../lspintro.html" target="_blank">Louis Su&aacute;rez-Potts</a>
 <br>
 <p>2001 September 11</p>
 <br>
 <h4>About Marketing in an Open Source Community </h4>
 <p><a href="#gian">-Gianluca Turconi</a></p>
 <br>
 <p>The idea of an OpenOffice.org Marketing project is born from the assumption
   that an Open Source community should know what the needs of its members are,
   so that it can resolve problems in a fast and fair way. The reaction of our
   community to the proposal was contradictory, even if encouraging. In fact, many
   people believe that marketing is applicable only to the free enterprise system
   and to the world of the corporations. </p>

 <p>Is the OpenOffice.org suite a product? Do the developers receive a suitable
   support from the community? Is the OpenOffice.org suite only for Linux? These
   questions and many others very similar were asked in OpenOffice.org lists in
   the last couple of weeks. The answers were very different, and they were sometimes
   incompatible. This example shows how an Open Source community can have several
   voices inside: the developer, the user, the researcher, the amateur, the professional.
   And everybody will have his or her own answer, because everybody has his or
   her own needs.</p>


 <p>Doing "marketing" in an Open Source community has an additional difficulty
   in comparison to the traditional market analysis. Normally, a corporation knows
   what its productive capabilities are, what it can afford and what it cannot.
   On the other hand, we need to know what we can do and only then, we will be
   able to define a strategy to achieve our goals. Several uncertainties can affect
   the success or the failure of an Open Source project. The most important among
   them is surely the consistency and quality of its members. But, how can we increase
   the number of our members without knowing the needs of those people who are
   currently part of our community and of the others who may join the community,
   if only. . . ?</p>
 <p>An OpenOffice.org Marketing project could be the solution. The working structure
   would be simple: Analysis, Interpretation, and Communication. </p>
 <p>On the internal side, this concept first means to understand the motivations
   of the members, how they express them in their work for the community, and how
   they would react to specific community behaviors. The &quot;Linux vs. MS Windows&quot;
   diatribe can be used as example. Many members are Linux users and a high percentage
   among them considers OpenOffice.org as a Linux project. They demand or propose
   improvements for Linux only, forgetting that one of the most important features
   of the OpenOffice.org suite is to be multi-platform. This is the Analysis phase.
   Now, we know that Linux users can have a monothematic vision of the OpenOffice.org
   Project. In the Interpretation phase, we should understand the reasons behind
   this behavior, by asking: Do they understand the full nature of the OpenOffice.org
   Project? Are they ignorant of the Project? Or, is this a problem related to
   their philosophical interpretation of Open Source? After we have a sure answer,
   we'll be able to communicate in the right way that OpenOffice.org is a
   multi-platform project. Nobody will be unsatisfied (which would risk member's
   defection) and the correct information will be received.</p>
 <p>On the external side, an OpenOffice.org marketing project would have to face
   a double challenge: How to gain new members and how to handle the growing success
   of our suite! Fortunately, whoever is a potential member of the community is
   also an potential OpenOffice.org end-user. So, the classical marketing techniques
   can be applied to both categories. The contradictory reactions, of which I was
   speaking above, were just about these topics. Must the OpenOffice.org community
   provide marketing, support, and other related services for the end-users? Some
   community members object that we are not ready to offer such kind of services.
   They say we lack the developers, the members; in a nutshell, the forces to meet
   the challenge. </p>
 <p>The secret of an Open Source community is that nobody knows its potential.
   Neither the founders nor the members. It can only be perceived by intuition
   or with a marketing survey. . . . The weekly increasing number of binaries downloads
   mean something: Out there, in the world, there are several thousand of latent
   OpenOffice.org members; and they are end-users. </p>
 <p>Another objection to an external marketing effort is that a lot of end-users
   are non-technical people (in a strict sense) and they could ruinously flood
   the OpenOffice.org web site and mailing lists. Put aside the fact that many
   non-technical people are already contributing to the Project, we have to understand
   that when an Open Source community achieves the success level OpenOffice.org
   has achieved, it has new needs that the developers cannot satisfy. Of course,
   using a technical terminology, the &quot;kernel&quot; of the Project will be
   the developing of the source code as essential priority, but the superstructure
   will be composed (and partially is already now) by non-technical members: lawyers,
   marketing experts, writers, and journalists. So, the source is the base, but
   law must protect it, it must be valorized in the software market and the world
   must know of its existence! </p>
 <p>Finally, the hardest objection made is that whatever expectation the end-users
   could have, no member can guarantee that the community will satisfy it. This
   problem can seem equal to the first one discussed in this article: the lack
   of available forces. Instead, it is quite different. Here, the focus is not
   pointing to the number of developers, but to their will. A programmer's motivation
   can vary considerably: study, amateur or professional interest, ambition (yes,
   even that!). What would happen if a group of core developers, who are working
   on a code Project, didn't want to change their program to follow a suggestion
   of the marketing project based on an end-users request? Well, it can be said
   that marketing management individualizes the problems, suggests the solutions,
   but doesn't solve them directly. The community is based on the collaboration;
   we'll find a workaround.</p>
 <p>In conclusion, an OpenOffice.org Marketing project has its pros and its cons,
   but seeing the enthusiasm raised from this proposal, there's no doubt that the
   benefits will be more than the costs. </p>
 <p>&nbsp;</p>
 <h4>About the author<a name="gian"></a></h4>
 <p>Gianluca Turconi is a writer living in Italy whose passions are law, literature,
   and competitive cycling. And, of course, OpenOffice.org, where he is a member
   of the <a href="http://whiteboard.openoffice.org/doc/">Documentation</a> project,
   the leader of the Marketing project, and a frequent contributor to the general
   discuss list. You can read his bio in our <a href="spotlight14.html" target="_blank">Spotlight</a>.<br>
   <br>
 </p>
 <p><a href="index.html" target="_blank">Previous articles</a></p>
 </body>
 </html>
	<html><head>
	<meta HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
	</head>
	<body>
	<h2>Community Articles: Opinions, Interviews, Analyses</h2>
	<p>Editor: <a href="../lspintro.html" target="_blank">Louis Suárez-Potts</a>
	<br>
	<p>2001 September 11</p>
	<br>
	<h4>About Marketing in an Open Source Community </h4>
	<p><a href="#gian">-Gianluca Turconi</a></p>
	<br>
	<p>The idea of an OpenOffice.org Marketing project is born from the assumption
	that an Open Source community should know what the needs of its members are,
	so that it can resolve problems in a fast and fair way. The reaction of our
	community to the proposal was contradictory, even if encouraging. In fact, many
	people believe that marketing is applicable only to the free enterprise system
	and to the world of the corporations. </p>

	<p>Is the OpenOffice.org suite a product? Do the developers receive a suitable
	support from the community? Is the OpenOffice.org suite only for Linux? These
	questions and many others very similar were asked in OpenOffice.org lists in
	the last couple of weeks. The answers were very different, and they were sometimes
	incompatible. This example shows how an Open Source community can have several
	voices inside: the developer, the user, the researcher, the amateur, the professional.
	And everybody will have his or her own answer, because everybody has his or
	her own needs.</p>


	<p>Doing "marketing" in an Open Source community has an additional difficulty
	in comparison to the traditional market analysis. Normally, a corporation knows
	what its productive capabilities are, what it can afford and what it cannot.
	On the other hand, we need to know what we can do and only then, we will be
	able to define a strategy to achieve our goals. Several uncertainties can affect
	the success or the failure of an Open Source project. The most important among
	them is surely the consistency and quality of its members. But, how can we increase
	the number of our members without knowing the needs of those people who are
	currently part of our community and of the others who may join the community,
	if only. . . ?</p>
	<p>An OpenOffice.org Marketing project could be the solution. The working structure
	would be simple: Analysis, Interpretation, and Communication. </p>
	<p>On the internal side, this concept first means to understand the motivations
	of the members, how they express them in their work for the community, and how
	they would react to specific community behaviors. The "Linux vs. MS Windows"
	diatribe can be used as example. Many members are Linux users and a high percentage
	among them considers OpenOffice.org as a Linux project. They demand or propose
	improvements for Linux only, forgetting that one of the most important features
	of the OpenOffice.org suite is to be multi-platform. This is the Analysis phase.
	Now, we know that Linux users can have a monothematic vision of the OpenOffice.org
	Project. In the Interpretation phase, we should understand the reasons behind
	this behavior, by asking: Do they understand the full nature of the OpenOffice.org
	Project? Are they ignorant of the Project? Or, is this a problem related to
	their philosophical interpretation of Open Source? After we have a sure answer,
	we'll be able to communicate in the right way that OpenOffice.org is a
	multi-platform project. Nobody will be unsatisfied (which would risk member's
	defection) and the correct information will be received.</p>
	<p>On the external side, an OpenOffice.org marketing project would have to face
	a double challenge: How to gain new members and how to handle the growing success
	of our suite! Fortunately, whoever is a potential member of the community is
	also an potential OpenOffice.org end-user. So, the classical marketing techniques
	can be applied to both categories. The contradictory reactions, of which I was
	speaking above, were just about these topics. Must the OpenOffice.org community
	provide marketing, support, and other related services for the end-users? Some
	community members object that we are not ready to offer such kind of services.
	They say we lack the developers, the members; in a nutshell, the forces to meet
	the challenge. </p>
	<p>The secret of an Open Source community is that nobody knows its potential.
	Neither the founders nor the members. It can only be perceived by intuition
	or with a marketing survey. . . . The weekly increasing number of binaries downloads
	mean something: Out there, in the world, there are several thousand of latent
	OpenOffice.org members; and they are end-users. </p>
	<p>Another objection to an external marketing effort is that a lot of end-users
	are non-technical people (in a strict sense) and they could ruinously flood
	the OpenOffice.org web site and mailing lists. Put aside the fact that many
	non-technical people are already contributing to the Project, we have to understand
	that when an Open Source community achieves the success level OpenOffice.org
	has achieved, it has new needs that the developers cannot satisfy. Of course,
	using a technical terminology, the "kernel" of the Project will be
	the developing of the source code as essential priority, but the superstructure
	will be composed (and partially is already now) by non-technical members: lawyers,
	marketing experts, writers, and journalists. So, the source is the base, but
	law must protect it, it must be valorized in the software market and the world
	must know of its existence! </p>
	<p>Finally, the hardest objection made is that whatever expectation the end-users
	could have, no member can guarantee that the community will satisfy it. This
	problem can seem equal to the first one discussed in this article: the lack
	of available forces. Instead, it is quite different. Here, the focus is not
	pointing to the number of developers, but to their will. A programmer's motivation
	can vary considerably: study, amateur or professional interest, ambition (yes,
	even that!). What would happen if a group of core developers, who are working
	on a code Project, didn't want to change their program to follow a suggestion
	of the marketing project based on an end-users request? Well, it can be said
	that marketing management individualizes the problems, suggests the solutions,
	but doesn't solve them directly. The community is based on the collaboration;
	we'll find a workaround.</p>
	<p>In conclusion, an OpenOffice.org Marketing project has its pros and its cons,
	but seeing the enthusiasm raised from this proposal, there's no doubt that the
	benefits will be more than the costs. </p>
	<p> </p>
	<h4>About the author<a name="gian"></a></h4>
	<p>Gianluca Turconi is a writer living in Italy whose passions are law, literature,
	and competitive cycling. And, of course, OpenOffice.org, where he is a member
	of the <a href="http://whiteboard.openoffice.org/doc/">Documentation</a> project,
	the leader of the Marketing project, and a frequent contributor to the general
	discuss list. You can read his bio in our <a href="spotlight14.html" target="_blank">Spotlight</a>.<br>
	<br>
	</p>
	<p><a href="index.html" target="_blank">Previous articles</a></p>
	</body>
	</html>