[CentOS-promo] Some thougts about the ToDo List

[wonderer]

Dag Wieers schrieb:
> On Mon, 16 Jun 2008, wonderer wrote:
>
>> I read over the ToDo List and have some points to mention and hope 
>> its ok:
>
> Certainly, I made that list to encourage anyone to help out. So I 
> guess you were my target audience :)
>
>
>> The following tasks needs one or more owners:
>>
>>   * Create appealing screenshots for the website, articles or events
>>
>> additional: take pictures from events...
>
> Right, we have pictures of events taken, but none of them have been 
> put online in a structured manner :) So where do we want to put those ?
A Gallery within the wiki, if this are not to many pictures they can put 
in directly, etc.
>
> Is the wiki a good place to put a few photo's of every event ?
For the first shot, yes! Then we can see if there is a need for a more 
and more structured Picture Archive.
My experiences with other OpenSource Projects told me there will be up 
to 3 or maybe 5 Images per Event that fit in an "Online Gallery of the 
Event"...
But as you say: if nobody do it, it would not be done ;-)
>
>>   * Feed information to journalist as an incentive to write a CentOS 
>> article
>>
>> That could be very dangerous if it is not planned good enough...
>
> Not sure what you mean with dangerous. As long as we do not want to 
> spin anything I do not think we have to fear. As long as we give 
> proper information to when CentOS is good, and in what situations 
> CentOS is not suitable we at least educate people.
No, not to fear, but if person a says to the journalist "CentOS 5.3 will 
come on the 4th, july 2008" and person b tells another journalist 
"CentOS 5.3. will come on 13th, August 2008" this can be worse...
- who may act in the name of CentOS?
- are there an official promo department or does this work over the 
community?
- who is responsible if some press stuff came in?
- who are the contact persons?
>
> I think we should do education more than promotion. Most people have 
> no clue what Enterprise Linux is and why they should pay attention to it.
Thats the other part:
some ideas on articles or better HowTos:
- wich Enterprise Linux should I choose  - why, how?! (HowTo and 
Presentation for Event)
- how to use CentOS for Business (Presentation for Events)
- how to build a CentOS Intranet (HowTo)
- what do I need for my personal CentOS Desktop?
- any other ideas?
>
>
>>   * Contact magazines for CentOS related articles or include CentOS 
>> media
>>
>> Therefore CentOS should have ready made press kit (could work out 
>> something).
>
> Yes, we need a press-kit.
>
Ok, I will work a draft version out, ok?! :-)
Therefore I need maybe some more infos about CentOS itself. Who can I 
"interview" about that?
>
>>   * Contact publishers (of Fedora/RHEL books) to include CentOS on 
>> cover, in print or as media
>>
>> additional: contact Writers and ask to work out the CentOS related 
>> parts.
>
> Right, go over the current RHEL and Fedora books and make sure we can 
> improve the part about CentOS.
Additional question: Do we have a ready made VMWare Image elsewhere 
online? If not shall we build some and put it on VMWare?
>
>>   * Sell and ship branded goods on the website and at events 
>> (stickers, mugs, posters, media)
>>
>> idea: build up a little spreadshirt shop (see 
>> http://www.spreadshirt.com/us/US/T-Shirt/Spreadshirt-1342/ ) and look 
>> how it goes. Selfmade shops  are expensive in  costs and time to 
>> administer it...
>
> I think we are blocked in this area as well. There have been meetings 
> where this as popped up but none of them really were decisive. As long 
> as we do not have a good plan about what we are using money for, I do 
> not think we should be collecting money at all.
Hmm, may I ask how CentOS supports People on events? Travel and 
Accomondation costs, etc. ?!
I knew several Europe wide Events where I can build up booth and talks, 
but that needs some funding...
>
>
>>   * Provide a wiki page that contains paid-for support and services 
>> for CentOS
>>
>> Question: Who are the Supporters? How many people are in the Crew?
>
> First of all that list should start off with a good explanation towhat 
> CentOS is and what Red Hat's role is. You cannot be honest and not 
> mention Red Hat's role.
sure.
>
> Secondly we probably should make a distinction between different 
> service-providers. You have consultancy, support, products, training, 
> development, ...
>
> Giving a single list without at least some guidance will do us (or our 
> users) no good.
But I think some Infos would be good that the users don't step in the 
dark...

So, if who-ever wants to build up a paid support Crew has first to have 
some Supporters ;-)
>
>
>>   * Create a CentOS Weekly News that summarizes BLOG articles, 
>> events, progress, etc...
>>
>> idea: could the blog used to improve the idea? Because of archiving 
>> articles and redirect from the Newsletter...?!
>
> Yes, I like the way Fedora Weekly News works. In general it contains 
> links to useful threads on the mailinglist or forums, it points to 
> interesting blog articles, it reports about some progress or about 
> some technology, it talks about the people involved in the projects.
>
> All of that is very useful to build a community and to have people 
> involved. As soon as we have something like this, I am sure that 
> people start paying attention to interesting stuff that could go in 
> the CentOS Weekly News.
>
> And if there is a slow week, it may be a shorter CWN than on a busy week.
>
> Having the CWN appear on LWN or Distrowatch would be very good to get 
> some more attention.
>
>
>>   * Create and maintain pages about how to install CentOS on your laptop
>>
>> additional: Install CentOS under VMWare.
>
> Yes, both are probably not really part of the promo SIG but I 
> considered it important :) I started it, but it is not as successful 
> as it could be. Maybe new additions to the Laptop page could make it 
> to CWN as well to drive that a bit too ? :)
>

Yes :-)

Ok, I see a bit clearer. So my thought is (I hope I'm right about that) 
that there are several parts to deal with (I did'nt think that my little 
question will make such waves..)
- Artwork SIG: make some more Pics like http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/centos/
 -> Question: can we move these banners over to CentOS (wiki)?

- Promotion: make an updated ToDo List with prioritys and people who can 
work on it
- work on presentations and promo stuff
- presskit (myself, its ok with you all...?)
- Flyers, Posters

Are there any "Projects" for / with CentOS we can promote more? any 
Cluster or school project or so?


cheers
Henrik