I've been to FOSDEM this weekend and noticed the small number of CentOS people at the booth.
The Ubuntu people work with Local Community Teams to support and promote the distro.
I think it would be beneficial for CentOS to setup a similar structure. At the moment it's mostly sysadmins who introduce/sneak CentOS into businesses. Local Community Teams can setup a booth at computer fairs and other events. This way the general public (small businesses, non-profit organisations, schools, ....) are exposed to CentOS.
Michel Daggelinckx wrote:
I've been to FOSDEM this weekend and noticed the small number of CentOS people at the booth.
Well, we weren't as much as Fedora had, but much more than OpenSuSE seemed to have :)
The Ubuntu people work with Local Community Teams to support and promote the distro.
I think it would be beneficial for CentOS to setup a similar structure.
Are there people who want to do that?
At the moment it's mostly sysadmins who introduce/sneak CentOS into businesses. Local Community Teams can setup a booth at computer fairs and other events. This way the general public (small businesses, non-profit organisations, schools, ....) are exposed to CentOS.
Again: Are there people who want to do that? I asked a few weeks ago about a computer fair in eastern germany and there weren't that many answers (well, to be exact there wasn't any).
If there are people willing to "man" those local groups, I don't see any problem CentOS should or will have with that.
Do you have a proposal how local groups like that could be worked out? How large/small areas those groups should cover? What needs to be done from the CentOS team to support those groups? Which infrastructure is needed?
Cheers,
Ralph
Ralph Angenendt wrote:
Michel Daggelinckx wrote:
I've been to FOSDEM this weekend and noticed the small number of CentOS people at the booth.
Well, we weren't as much as Fedora had, but much more than OpenSuSE seemed to have :)
The Ubuntu people work with Local Community Teams to support and promote the distro.
I think it would be beneficial for CentOS to setup a similar structure.
Are there people who want to do that?
At the moment it's mostly sysadmins who introduce/sneak CentOS into businesses. Local Community Teams can setup a booth at computer fairs and other events. This way the general public (small businesses, non-profit organisations, schools, ....) are exposed to CentOS.
Again: Are there people who want to do that? I asked a few weeks ago about a computer fair in eastern germany and there weren't that many answers (well, to be exact there wasn't any).
If there are people willing to "man" those local groups, I don't see any problem CentOS should or will have with that.
Do you have a proposal how local groups like that could be worked out? How large/small areas those groups should cover? What needs to be done from the CentOS team to support those groups? Which infrastructure is needed?
Cheers,
Ralph
CentOS-promo mailing list CentOS-promo@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-promo
Infrastructure needs: mailinglist for each team centos.org sub-domain and web space with a wiki
area size: 1 team for each country, subdivisions are possible, they operate under the national team.
For multilingual country's: Belgium, Swiss, ... where language is key refer to foreign teams, Belgium = French, Dutch and German so we refer German people to German team for support. Where location is key: fairs, meetings, ... the national team will be responsible and can cooperate with neighboring teams.
The teams are free to organise them self in the way they see most fit, cultural differences make it impossible to have a unified structure. Every team should have an "official" contact for communication between teams, the public, press and the global CentOS team.
Michel Daggelinckx wrote:
Ralph Angenendt wrote:
Do you have a proposal how local groups like that could be worked out? How large/small areas those groups should cover? What needs to be done from the CentOS team to support those groups? Which infrastructure is needed?
Infrastructure needs: mailinglist for each team centos.org sub-domain and web space with a wiki
Hmmmhmmm. Mailinglist aren't a problem at all. But rather than "webspace with a wiki" I'd like to see "Groupspace in the wiki".
For multilingual country's: Belgium, Swiss, ... where language is key refer to foreign teams, Belgium = French, Dutch and German so we refer German people to German team for support. Where location is key: fairs, meetings, ... the national team will be responsible and can cooperate with neighboring teams.
Sounds reasonable.
The teams are free to organise them self in the way they see most fit, cultural differences make it impossible to have a unified structure.
That depends on what you mean with "in the way they see most fit". I think there must be a set of rules conducting "wanted practice" when presenting at a fair/show/whatever. Same goes for content on websites.
Every team should have an "official" contact for communication between teams, the public, press and the global CentOS team.
Hmmmhmmmhmmmm again. That "press" thing doesn't go down to well with me. If someone on a regional team is going to do press, he has to be really well known to the core team.
But yeah, I like the idea in general, if someone wants to push that. Can you bring those three paragraphs up there into something which can go through as a proposal?
I like the idea, but I don't see the people doing that at the moment - if they are there I am more than glad to be proven wrong.
If others think that there is a chance for that to happen - please tell here.
I'm not speaking on behalf of the CentOS team though, yet, it's only my private opinion at the moment.
Ralph
Good Evening.
Do you have a proposal how local groups like that could be worked out? How large/small areas those groups should cover? What needs to be done from the CentOS team to support those groups? Which infrastructure is needed?
Infrastructure needs: mailinglist for each team centos.org sub-domain and web space with a wiki
I agree on that. CentOS should become a bit more international and we are already working on it. E.g. I am currently evaluating phpBB for localized forums (and any help on that is welcome).
The wiki already supports i18n and translators are really needed.
But Ralph, you are right. Who is going to do all that? We definitely need more supporters and make things easier for contributors and new members.
One step would be to open up the wiki and to establish the new forums (which may happen this year :)
On the promo site, it would be great if we could give away more promotion material for free (CDs, Stickers). I have noticed that not everybody is happy if he/she is asked for a fund to get a CD/DVD (especially if it's not the most current version of the distribution).
This should be possible due to funds.
Best Regards Marcus
The teams are free to organise them self in the way they see most fit, cultural differences make it impossible to have a unified structure.
That depends on what you mean with "in the way they see most fit". I think there must be a set of rules conducting "wanted practice" when presenting at a fair/show/whatever. Same goes for content on websites.
Every team should have an "official" contact for communication between teams, the public, press and the global CentOS team.
Hmmmhmmmhmmmm again. That "press" thing doesn't go down to well with me. If someone on a regional team is going to do press, he has to be really well known to the core team.
But yeah, I like the idea in general, if someone wants to push that. Can you bring those three paragraphs up there into something which can go through as a proposal?
I like the idea, but I don't see the people doing that at the moment - if they are there I am more than glad to be proven wrong.
I would think a structure as following can be used to solve some problems attributed here :
One worldwide promo leader with a backup person | each CentOS region with a regional leader (again with a backup leader) => both regional leaders need to know the worldwide promo leader and backup and have some "close" contact | promo team members
regions are based on language and country/county (based on the size of the country) as suggested already
Dear Michel,
The Ubuntu people work with Local Community Teams to support and promote the distro.
I think Ubuntu has a totally different approach. CentOS is a distribution targeted to the enterprise market. (Of course even your grandma can use it for daily business).
But when you notice the discussions on the MLs and the Forums, they are highly technical.
Ubuntu is more a social network. You are even welcome on most Ubuntu forums if you ask totally newb questions and will receive a friendly answer if you'll asks exactly the same dump question a few days later, again.
This is why Ubuntu is accpeted by linux newcomers.
I guess there aren't even so many CentOS contributors around (as Ralph said) that are willed to spend their time on promotion (maybe I am wrong).
Best Regards Marcus
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Marcus Moeller -
Michel Daggelinckx -
Ralph Angenendt -
Tosh