Marketing Meeting 2009.12.10
This normal meeting is Thursday December 10th 07h00 UTC (Wednesday pm in some regions).
Agenda
Note meeting dates recently changed to 2nd week of month instead of first
- Roll call
- Review previous minutes: Marketing Meeting 2009.11.12
- Add other items to agenda - open for discussion
- Update on main projects:
- Website concepts - Website design (Daniele)
- Bringing branding to the OSGeo site. Addressing website flow and accessibility, etc.
- Follow up from discussions back in February
- current situation email
- Applying similar ideas to making the wiki more user friendly...
- Marketing expectations from/to OSGeo software projects
- Events
- AGU 2009... (Alex)
- AAG 2010...(Alex)
- FOSS4G2009 final thoughts re: marketing (Cameron)
- FOSS4G 2010 future thoughts (Tyler)
- Google Adds grants for Foss4g?!?
- Others...
- Marketing Material Samples (Tyler)
- Exhibition Pack (Alex/Tyler)
- Website concepts - Website design (Daniele)
- Other...
- Review time/date for next meeting
Minutes
- Full log of meeting here at 21:54 (server time)
- Attending: Jody Garnett, Cameron Shorter, Alex Mandel, Wolf Bergenheim, Tyler Mitchell ( Chair )
- Review previous minutes: Marketing Meeting ## MOTION: Tyler moves to adopt these, Alex seconds, all in favour
- Review agenda: Cameron requested discussion of project focused marketing.
- Marketing expectations from/to OSGeo software projects
- Following from email thread on marketing list.
- Discussed how to invite and engage projects in providing input/helping
- Some ideas included: having a list of things projects can to do proactively market, have a clear value proposition, as is live dvd project, reach out to companies/orgs using projects for case studies
- Jody: "Best way to get the flyer updated is to show the community what the flyer looks like today. The other one is to bring the flyer into their code base where they can see it"
- Cameron: start by setting up a schedule, identifying when we will be using material, and when we need it by.
- LiveDVD continuing, with 2 releases for next year, will invite missing projects
- Template for marketing flyer needs to be released
- TODO: Tyler to point Jody to flyer template for conversion into open formats, Cameron to promote
- Website concepts...
- Summarise here in two pieces, Branding and content.
- Some designs are here (see draft2a.jpg). Positive feedback all around.
- This concept is a portal launching point, the secondary is the 'normal' page with more info on it, which we don't have designs for yet
- Other thing to consider is secondary websites; for example project website; or local chapter websites.
- TODO: Tyler coordinate templates, work with Wolf to publish in Drupal
- Discussed site map mindmap diagram of Site organisation and content... discussion here and diagram here
22:41:14 sigq: Title: osgeo - Revision 2770: /marketing/website/sitemap ( at svn.osgeo.org )
22:41:19 TylerM: hope your browser likes svg .. sorry
22:41:58 jgarnett: if not inkscape is good ( and you can zoom in and read the diagram )
22:42:00 TylerM: I also put in a rough outline of our current site.. and made sure each page was somehow represented in the new ideas ( right side ) in the diagram
22:42:26 TylerM: In the end, there really doesn't seem that we need very many new pages
22:42:37 TylerM: mainly ones that aggregate info for particular use cases.
22:42:47 wildintellect: the black are new pages?
22:43:15 TylerM: yes, and I'll assume we will want to refactor some of the others as well, but the black to begin with
22:43:28 jgarnett: I almost find the words in brackets more clear ...
22:44:02 TylerM: yeah, I added them for clarity. ... the titles used in the blocks were completely arbitrary but do track our brochures.
22:44:24 TylerM: So the exercise from here out is to make sure that all your use cases are covered by such a layout.
22:44:43 jgarnett: for things like common pages; some of those are only common to us ( the members of the foundation ). Example is committees. I would rather "pull" up public facing committtees like Education and Journal, and push down the internal running of the foundation.
22:44:58 wolf_b: I like the fact that we would have distinct sections
22:45:18 wolf_b: it helps the visitor to build his own mind-map of the site
22:45:27 TylerM: Please try to approach the sitemap with a view of making sure that User X or Developer Y that you know. ... and how he would approach it.
22:45:36 jgarnett: actually education may wish to have a seperate page for their committee; and a different one for education professionals visiting the site.
22:45:40 TylerM: what they'd need etc.. and fill in or write me with your comments.
22:45:53 TylerM: Education was a tricky one, imo
22:46:01 jgarnett: yep
22:46:01 wolf_b: this kind of two-level hierarch helps also the visitor to keep to the part that interests her
22:46:27 wildintellect: well we should refine and expand the user cases on the Site Focus page and walk through the mental map with each
22:46:31 jgarnett: could we ask a member of the education committee to review the site map ...
22:46:36 TylerM: i ended up putting education in as users, more or less, in my mind at least
22:47:12 TylerM: jgarnett: not a bad idea..
22:47:15 jgarnett: one question - I like seeing some sign of life on an initial home page ... a feed of news stories or something.
22:47:23 jgarnett: there is not a space for such a thing in the proposal...
22:47:47 TylerM: wildintellect: right, I think if we can each go through it and make sure the top 5+ points for each section are covered, it'd be a good exercise.
22:48:00 wildintellect: I agree and disagree about sign of life
22:48:07 TylerM: jgarnett: I'm conflicted about that too...
22:48:15 jgarnett: as am I
22:48:16 TylerM: wanting a 'commnunity' page that has more of that stuff...
22:48:28 TylerM: versus having it be part of the first thing people see
22:48:51 TylerM: but that is also somewhat of where i'd see 'connect' leading people to
22:48:55 jgarnett: ( just reviewing eclipse / apache etc... now
22:49:02 wildintellect: for me, when I go to a new FOSS project the 1st thing I look for is last release date
22:49:06 TylerM: a small feed could fit into a block possibly
22:49:52 wildintellect: but it drives me nuts when the homepage is news, and I don't even know what the project does
22:50:30 wildintellect: I think that's the reaction I had 1st time I visited OSGeo - "What is this?"
22:50:33 TylerM: i hear ya.. it's a good use case to capture too
22:50:59 jgarnett: wildint I wonder if a low trafic feed; like "events" would cut it ...
22:51:15 wildintellect: either that or latest project releases
22:51:36 wildintellect: events is kinda tricky
22:51:40 jgarnett: this is a case where everyone is correct; and we should roll play the result on the site map ( see if any of our prospective visitors think like wildintellect )
22:51:47 jgarnett: and see what the result looks like visually
22:52:09 wildintellect: since sometimes it's just events that people in OSGeo are interested in, not OSGeo officially attending
22:52:11 jgarnett: wildintellet I also check for any date on the home page to see of an organsiation is active.
22:52:36 jgarnett: the trick is to make whatever feed matter to our target audience.
22:52:40 TylerM: interesting perspectives
22:53:10 wildintellect: are we in agreement on who the target audience for the 1st page is?
22:53:19 TylerM: since in this design idea we have compartments for the 3 'main' user groups .. plus community and advocacy.. everything should fit *somewhere* I'm hoping
22:53:30 TylerM: *audiences*
22:53:34 jgarnett: I had 3 people interested in the 1st page; I assume that was why we had clear jumping off points.
22:53:40 jgarnett: one for each target audience....
22:53:51 TylerM: "users", "developers", "integrators/govt/education"
22:54:15 TylerM: plus "community/connect" and "advocacy/members" .. more or less.
22:54:37 jgarnett: gis professional with esri background looking to switch
22:54:37 jgarnett: government
22:54:37 jgarnett: education
22:54:43 jgarnett: developers use google, not the front page
22:54:54 wildintellect: well so it may not be possible to pick feed that works for all of those
22:55:08 wildintellect: maybe the 2nd tier pages would have feeds oriented towards each audience
22:55:17 TylerM: i would expect that
22:55:19 jgarnett: what helps is that only some of those people will come through the front door...
22:55:52 TylerM: right
22:56:18 jgarnett: okay - the plan is still clear. Review the site map with an eye towards each target audience. And then compare notes?
22:56:25 TylerM: So i suggest we take this offline and individually review the site map with 1 or 2 use cases in mind.
22:56:32 TylerM: right-o
22:56:43 TylerM: to the mailing list.
22:57:28 TylerM: then discuss further and, ideally, edit the map if you can
22:57:42 TylerM: using freemind software
22:58:25 TylerM: ### TODO: Each member review the sitemap and provide feedback from perspective of potential use case from site focus page.
22:58:41 TylerM: Anything else on website stuff?
22:59:14 TylerM: Thanks for the discussion, feels we are on the same page more or less
22:59:36 TylerM: and want the same biggest bang for the buck from a marketing perspective.
22:59:51 TylerM: I'm also hoping to take a crack at creating some of those 'missing' pages.
23:00:11 TylerM: If anyone else wants to take one on, feel free. I certainly prefer prototypes over nothing : )
23:00:24 TylerM: If that's all on website, we can switch to the next item..
23:00:31 jgarnett: thanks
23:00:36 TylerM: ---------
23:00:47 TylerM: # Events: AGU 2009 http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/AGU_2009
23:00:49 sigq: Title: AGU 2009 - OSGeo Wiki ( at wiki.osgeo.org )
23:01:06 TylerM: not much to discuss here I think.. booths were no longer available, as few of us are speaking
23:01:33 wildintellect: the only question here is, how can we implement better long term planning around event coordination?
23:01:42 TylerM: I'll be meeting with Landon and Alex and Brian while in the area.
23:01:57 TylerM: wildintellect: good question
23:02:20 wildintellect: I think the wiki is inefficient at tracking calendars
23:02:33 TylerM: I was hoping we'd have a list of our top 3-5 events for the year lined up 6+ months in advance. Seems we really _have_ to for getting booths, etc. lined up properly.
23:03:07 TylerM: related challenge is that unless someone comes to us and asks to support them at an event, it's up to us to find the best value for our dollar
23:03:07 wildintellect: should we ponder a shared calendar of some kind, or wiki macro
23:03:37 TylerM: you mean some sort of wiki form? the shared marketing calender might be enough?
23:03:40 wildintellect: something that allows us to put the deadlines for prep in one color, and the actual events in another
23:04:05 wildintellect: shared ical/webdav etc is fine with me
23:04:16 wildintellect: since that's how we want people to view it anyways
23:04:36 TylerM: I think we've done good having the upcoming events on the agenda for the meetings, but with a quiet spring/summer it was easier to miss a few things
23:04:58 TylerM: Sure, any event will logically be date stamped, so feel free to use it.
23:05:00 TylerM: Oh...
23:05:09 TylerM: wondering if you guys are able to even edit the calendar!
23:05:19 wildintellect: I don't think we can
23:05:55 TylerM: ## TODO: Tyler to look at options for hosting a shareable group calendar - either opening up the current webdav-based one or using drupal
23:06:23 TylerM: I forget how the user/pass is set up on the webdav at present, but could just share a group password - likely easiest.
23:06:48 wildintellect: it would be great if it could just be managed by the LDAP or something like that
23:06:49 TylerM: but we could also store them in drupal too.. hmm
23:07:14 TylerM: yeah.. let me look into it and see what options we have
23:07:21 wildintellect: as long as a calendar subscription and web view is available those are my only requirement
23:07:22 TylerM: not too many on the ldap side i'll bet
23:07:40 TylerM: k
23:07:49 TylerM: ------
23:07:54 TylerM: Events: AAG 2010
23:08:05 TylerM: I'm tentatively booked a booth for it.
23:08:24 TylerM: they are pressing for payment. It sounds like many OSGeo folks will be there and able to man the booth.
23:08:37 wildintellect: Eric Wolf agreed to be in charge on site
23:08:47 TylerM: And based on good feedback from last year, I think it's an easy win for us.
23:09:00 wildintellect: and Andrew Turner is backup + will work to find local funding
23:09:12 TylerM: excellent
23:09:50 wildintellect: budget is about the same as last year $1250 I think
23:10:07 TylerM: it sometimes feels like it's spending a lot.. but when you look at how much else it leverages ( e.g. 10 people who travelled there and volunteered time ) it starts to make more sense
23:10:12 TylerM: yup, okay
23:10:37 wildintellect: well, this one is in D.C. so we better make a good showing
23:10:45 TylerM: ## MOTION: Tyler moves that we support a booth and local presence at AAG 2010, with OSGeo members manning the booth.
23:11:10 wildintellect: anyone else still here?
23:11:11 TylerM: any further discussion on it?
23:11:26 TylerM: hehe - I don't think so : )
23:11:28 jgarnett: +0
23:11:49 TylerM: thanks
23:12:10 TylerM: no worries.. let's move on
23:12:15 TylerM: ---------
23:12:46 TylerM: ## Events: FOSS4G 2009 - and parting comments on this. We covered some last month, just left this recurring in case Cameron had more thoughts.
23:12:51 TylerM: but anyone else ?
23:13:25 TylerM: we also talked about 2010 ideas too and I was to follow up and try to get a Barcelona rep to commit to work with Marketing Committee for the event ahead of time.
23:13:29 TylerM: ---------
23:13:38 TylerM: ## Events: FOSS4G 2010...
23:13:48 TylerM: who added Adwords comment in agenda?
23:14:08 TylerM: ahh Lorenzo di
23:14:09 TylerM: did
23:14:34 TylerM: I have some google vouchers sitting around for free adwords.. will coordinate with him to use them for FOSS4G 2010.
23:14:54 TylerM: TODO: coordinate adwords with Lorenzo for FOSS4G 2010
23:15:01 TylerM: I bet the rest of you are fading like me ; )
23:15:07 wildintellect: looks like we still need a link on foss4g.org to 2010
23:15:39 TylerM: uh yeah, good point, something else lorenzo and I were talking about.
23:15:40 wildintellect: does http://foss4g.org need some sprucing up
23:15:40 TylerM: thanks!
23:15:41 sigq: Title: OSGeo Events ( at foss4g.org )
23:16:08 TylerM: yes, we need to change it to it's own page instead of using the conference mangement system..
23:16:16 wildintellect: ah
23:16:33 TylerM: TODO: Tyler to follow up with Lorenzo, Jeff re: foss4g.org
23:16:38 TylerM: -------
23:16:46 TylerM: # Marketing Materials....
23:16:55 TylerM: as noted last month, we're pretty much wrapped up on this front
23:16:57 wildintellect: I think we should probably also clear up how conference info will be archived and retrieved
23:17:17 TylerM: wildintellect: Jeff takes care of it in a systematic way..
23:17:25 TylerM: or were you talking website?
23:17:29 TylerM: websites
23:17:34 wildintellect: web accessible
23:17:52 wildintellect: past conference proceedings are great things as PR
23:18:14 TylerM: gotcha
23:18:37 TylerM: I'm in the middle porting our marketing material over to the website in a meaninful way...
23:18:45 TylerM: starting a sort of index at: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Material_Samples
23:18:47 sigq: Title: Marketing Material Samples - OSGeo Wiki ( at wiki.osgeo.org )
23:19:02 TylerM: with links from each item to a wiki page..
23:19:14 TylerM: it's 2009 and I finally got to learn to use image maps ;- )
23:19:35 wildintellect: that's old school
23:20:00 TylerM: it all comes around eventually ;- )
23:20:11 TylerM: though I guess I should have used javascript somehow ;- )
23:20:11 jgarnett: Tyler I am still looking for more out of these materials;
23:20:15 wildintellect: I guess the next step is to start working on getting materials out to places
23:20:21 jgarnett: font selection, color, logo useage etc...
23:20:48 wildintellect: jgarnett, you mean you want a standards doc
23:20:51 TylerM: my priority here is getting the 'current' deliverables 1 ) publicly accessible, 2 ) in usable formats, 3 ) with some guidance on how to update
23:21:09 TylerM: not past #1 yet.. but obviously some help with #2 would be useful : )
23:21:14 jgarnett: fair enough; and I will help get it into usable formats - but right now I am making stuff up
23:21:31 jgarnett: but yes lets continue.
23:21:33 TylerM: I can barely spend a CPU cycle on anything new ; )
23:22:08 TylerM: once I'm done this task then I'm going to get a web-based template up and running for us to easily customise new versions of the docs.
23:22:30 wildintellect: that seems to feed into the templates for projects
23:22:30 TylerM: but I'm also sure there will be critique and feedback all through #1-3 : )
23:22:38 TylerM: wildintellect: right...
23:23:09 jgarnett: fair enough ( your color for your colormap picture is not coming through and matching the other materials - this is why I bring it up )
23:23:16 TylerM: call me idealistic, but I don't want to have to be emailing text snippits around and then having 'editors' save them into SVN somewhere and paste them into openoffice..etc
23:24:07 TylerM: jgarnett: colormap picture? sorry i don't follow
23:24:21 jgarnett: http://wiki.osgeo.org/images/6/69/Market_2009.jpg
23:24:53 TylerM: sry, i don't see anythign wrong there
23:25:12 wildintellect: the on screen color is not the same as the printed color
23:25:25 TylerM: but of course : )
23:25:30 jgarnett: understood; it is not matching the other pictures on that page ...
23:25:36 TylerM: ah, ok
23:25:36 jgarnett: hense my confusion.
23:25:44 jgarnett: nor the color swatches
23:25:47 TylerM: yeah i'll turf the rest of that page eventually
23:25:50 TylerM: old stuff really
23:26:07 TylerM: try this... open that jpg in safari, IE and firefox..
23:26:15 TylerM: and enjoy the differences in rendering colours too :P
23:26:20 jgarnett: opened it in a couple paint programs just now
23:26:26 wildintellect: yes that green looks wrong, until icc color profiles are applied
23:26:28 jgarnett: it is just a different color
23:26:44 wildintellect: which ones are different?
23:26:55 jgarnett: that could be it
23:27:11 TylerM: looks better in safari than ff
23:27:12 TylerM: for me
23:27:14 TylerM: : )
23:27:35 wildintellect: probably because the Icc wasn't embedded
23:27:43 wildintellect: firefox 3.5 uses icc now
23:27:57 TylerM: oh i'll upgrade now i'm curious ;- )
23:28:06 TylerM: nothing much more on materials side
23:28:18 TylerM: unless any other want to be involved in the work to get it up to par
23:28:20 TylerM: and more accessible.
23:28:33 TylerM: otherwise, I'll update next month again.
23:28:36 TylerM: -----
23:28:46 TylerM: # Exhibition Pack
23:28:50 TylerM: anything to add here Alex?
23:29:29 wildintellect: don't think so
23:29:34 wildintellect: we haven't done anything new
23:30:01 wildintellect: not really sure if other chapters have expressed interest in the same setup
23:30:28 TylerM: not recently.. but when events pop up i'm sure they will
23:30:32 TylerM: -----
23:30:36 TylerM: # Any other items to discuss?
23:31:02 wildintellect: wrangling the wiki sprawl as an image issue?
23:31:29 TylerM: hmm
23:31:49 TylerM: is it bad p.r. to be using a wiki as such a major part of our face? : )
23:32:00 wildintellect: yes and no
23:32:02 jgarnett: depends who your target audience is
23:32:07 wildintellect: it's good because it shows community
23:32:13 jgarnett: gains cred for being open; loses cred for being offical
23:32:18 wildintellect: it's bad because people are getting lost and not finding stuff
23:32:38 TylerM: i'm always using the search :/
23:32:47 TylerM: you'd think i'd learn about bookmarks by now
23:32:55 wildintellect: well that only sometimes works
23:32:55 jgarnett: took me forever to search for the maketting agenda
23:33:04 jgarnett: and you had posted it in IRC before I found it
23:33:28 wildintellect: it's the biggest downside to a wiki - without some sort of standards - it sprawls out of control
23:33:54 TylerM: I do a fair bit of refactoring for the committees I'm on..
23:33:56 wildintellect: you'll remember I noted we have more than 500 orphaned pages
23:34:03 TylerM: wowza
23:34:23 TylerM: jgarnett: next time http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing - I always link to meetings there
23:34:25 sigq: Title: Marketing Committee - OSGeo Wiki ( at wiki.osgeo.org )
23:34:31 TylerM: Marketing_Meetings : )
23:34:42 TylerM: speaking of which...
23:34:47 TylerM: next meeting schedule...
23:35:11 wildintellect: well this one seemed to get people, so month from now?
23:35:13 TylerM: January 13/14th
23:35:36 TylerM: does the web calendar feed show it right for you guys?
23:35:44 wildintellect: usually
23:35:53 TylerM: http://osgeo.org/calendars/Marketing.ics - i think
23:35:58 wildintellect: yes it's correct
23:36:03 wildintellect: in thunderbird
23:36:04 TylerM: okay, cause we switched from 1st week to 2nd
23:36:11 TylerM: and one of my apps had a fit
23:36:16 TylerM: great
23:36:33 TylerM: some apps do edit webcal very well it seems
23:36:57 TylerM: Well, made it through another meeting, with no shortage of more things to talk about : )
23:37:03 TylerM: Thanks very much for making the time guys!
23:37:15 TylerM: corner me online any time
23:37:49 wildint: TylerM, https://developer.mozilla.org/En/ICC_color_correction_in_Firefox
23:37:50 sigq: Title: ICC color correction in Firefox - MDC ( at developer.mozilla.org )
23:37:51 TylerM: I call the meeting to a close after 1h43 minutes