[Marketing] (Re) Introduction and proposed effort

Committees Marketing
1

Hello,

I just signed up for this list and was informed I’d signed up in the past, but I’ll re-introduce myself.

I’m Scott McHale and I organize and host the OSGeo Alberta Chapter meetup each month here in Calgary and online. I would like to offer whatever help I can in making interactions with our website and systems – particularly the UserID creation – simpler and more understandable for folks like me who are not particularly technical and for whom some of the interface and language feels a bit confusing.

I’ll admit I’m coming to this as a noob so, at the outset, I’m really just hoping to get impressions from others as to the value and interest in making changes in that regard as well as direction to any information I can take the time to consume myself to help me understand that system better before engaging others in the effort.

Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott.

2

On 2/15/24 16:57, Scott McHale via Marketing wrote:

Hello,

Scott - I saw this link promoted yesterday as a "Start Here" link to a new audience of geo-coders

https://www.osgeo.org/community/getting-started-osgeo/

not involved myself but I thought to mention that as a place to focus for onboarding+

best regards from Berkeley, California --Brian M Hamlin / MAPLABS

I just signed up for this list and was informed I’d signed up in the past, but I’ll re-introduce myself.

I’m Scott McHale and I organize and host the OSGeo Alberta Chapter meetup each month here in Calgary and online. I would like to offer whatever help I can in making interactions with our website and systems – particularly the UserID creation – simpler and more understandable for folks like me who are not particularly technical and for whom some of the interface and language feels a bit confusing.

I’ll admit I’m coming to this as a noob so, at the outset, I’m really just hoping to get impressions from others as to the value and interest in making changes in that regard as well as direction to any information I can take the time to consume myself to help me understand that system better before engaging others in the effort.

Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott.

_______________________________________________
Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

3

Thanks for joining us Scott, and welcome!

While Brian has shared the getting started page, you can see that it is serving many different target audience (new members, new service providers, and so on).

The actual new member sign up page is very much in need of help:
https://id.osgeo.org/ldap/create

While I was able to make some improvements in early January to workflow (order of things to do on the page now matches the order are they presented, the “mantra” is now explained as a short phrase, “enter mantra” and “continue” replaced the small “ॐ” button, etc…), … Improvements are not a “rethink” which is where I hope your strengths are directed :slight_smile:

The page is still serving many competing needs with different levels of complexity and is not setup to welcome new users.

I very much look forward to your thoughts on this! (And I may just be having the assumption that this page was where you found trouble based on my recent experience trying to sign up new users).

···

–
Jody Garnett

4

Thanks, Jody.

Yes, this is the page I find most disorienting, to be sure. Mapping all the roads to that page will also help in consolidating some of the value messaging, I would think.

I’m not certain whether your comment, “Improvements are not a “rethink” which is where I hope your strengths are directed :),” is suggesting your preference is for further improvements or a rethink, but my approach will be to get as full an understanding as possible of what we’re aiming to get out of it and how we are ( or are not ) getting that now, and then to help us generate some potential changes which we can decide upon and prioritize.

I hope that’s aligned with the rest of the group.

Thanks,

Scott.

From: Jody Garnett jody.garnett@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2024 12:02 AM
To: Scott McHale scott.mchale@shaw.ca
Cc: marketing@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Marketing] (Re) Introduction and proposed effort

Thanks for joining us Scott, and welcome!

While Brian has shared the getting started page, you can see that it is serving many different target audience (new members, new service providers, and so on).

The actual new member sign up page is very much in need of help:

https://id.osgeo.org/ldap/create

While I was able to make some improvements in early January to workflow (order of things to do on the page now matches the order are they presented, the “mantra” is now explained as a short phrase, “enter mantra” and “continue” replaced the small “ॐ” button, etc…), … Improvements are not a “rethink” which is where I hope your strengths are directed :slight_smile:

The page is still serving many competing needs with different levels of complexity and is not setup to welcome new users.

I very much look forward to your thoughts on this! (And I may just be having the assumption that this page was where you found trouble based on my recent experience trying to sign up new users).

–

Jody Garnett

On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 5:04 PM Scott McHale via Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

Hello,

I just signed up for this list and was informed I’d signed up in the past, but I’ll re-introduce myself.

I’m Scott McHale and I organize and host the OSGeo Alberta Chapter meetup each month here in Calgary and online. I would like to offer whatever help I can in making interactions with our website and systems – particularly the UserID creation – simpler and more understandable for folks like me who are not particularly technical and for whom some of the interface and language feels a bit confusing.

I’ll admit I’m coming to this as a noob so, at the outset, I’m really just hoping to get impressions from others as to the value and interest in making changes in that regard as well as direction to any information I can take the time to consume myself to help me understand that system better before engaging others in the effort.

Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott.

Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

5

Hello again Scott,

Hunting down some examples, but really I am interested in your thoughts / insight and directions. Frankly it does not matter quite so much what folks had envisioned in the past if they are not present today volunteering to see improvements made.

I did an okay “service provider” welcome here: https://www.osgeo.org/community/getting-started-osgeo/add-service-provider/

I would love to see something similar for new users, ideally written for “GIS Professionals / GIS Enthusiast”. It may be my personal bias, but I expect that “IT Professionals / IT Enthusiast” have more experience joining a community given how pervasive free and open source is in general.

···

Jody Garnett

–
Jody Garnett

6

Hello Scott

and welcome to the team.

I like your mission :slight_smile:

I guess this is you. maybe you could try to make your user page a bit more informative and give feedback whether that was a challenge or not
https://www.osgeo.org/member/mchale/

I guess this is the Local Chapter page. It looks very good.
https://www.osgeo.org/local-chapters/alberta-chapter/

Your monthy event could be promoted at the event page
https://www.osgeo.org/events/

The page is open for Local Chapter events. Maybe you can try that too and give feedback.

And in the end we/you could share your experience with other local chapters and users. Maybe we could work together on mails/news items to encourage other community members to join and share their activities,

--
Best regards

Astrid Emde

Am 16.02.2024 01:57 schrieb Scott McHale via Marketing:

Hello,

I just signed up for this list and was informed I'd signed up in the
past, but I'll re-introduce myself.

I'm Scott McHale and I organize and host the OSGeo Alberta Chapter
meetup each month here in Calgary and online. I would like to offer
whatever help I can in making interactions with our website and
systems - particularly the UserID creation - simpler and more
understandable for folks like me who are not particularly technical
and for whom some of the interface and language feels a bit confusing.

I'll admit I'm coming to this as a noob so, at the outset, I'm really
just hoping to get impressions from others as to the value and
interest in making changes in that regard as well as direction to any
information I can take the time to consume myself to help me
understand that system better before engaging others in the effort.

Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott.

_______________________________________________
Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

7

Hi Scott,

I was referring to my “improvements” to that page being temporary, what is needed is a “rethink” and a fresh pair of eyes on the problem.

I have a lot of empathy for how that page was constructed, and you are wise to view it as the start of a map.

···

–
Jody Garnett

8

Sounds like we’re all on the same page. I’m getting excited.

From: Jody Garnett jody.garnett@gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 9:57 AM
To: Scott McHale scott.mchale@shaw.ca
Cc: marketing@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Marketing] (Re) Introduction and proposed effort

Hi Scott,

I was referring to my “improvements” to that page being temporary, what is needed is a “rethink” and a fresh pair of eyes on the problem.

I have a lot of empathy for how that page was constructed, and you are wise to view it as the start of a map.

–

Jody Garnett

On Feb 20, 2024 at 6:20:09 AM, Scott McHale <scott.mchale@shaw.ca> wrote:

Thanks, Jody.

Yes, this is the page I find most disorienting, to be sure. Mapping all the roads to that page will also help in consolidating some of the value messaging, I would think.

I’m not certain whether your comment, “Improvements are not a “rethink” which is where I hope your strengths are directed :),” is suggesting your preference is for further improvements or a rethink, but my approach will be to get as full an understanding as possible of what we’re aiming to get out of it and how we are ( or are not ) getting that now, and then to help us generate some potential changes which we can decide upon and prioritize.

I hope that’s aligned with the rest of the group.

Thanks,

Scott.

From: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2024 12:02 AM
To: Scott McHale <scott.mchale@shaw.ca>
Cc: marketing@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Marketing] (Re) Introduction and proposed effort

Thanks for joining us Scott, and welcome!

While Brian has shared the getting started page, you can see that it is serving many different target audience (new members, new service providers, and so on).

The actual new member sign up page is very much in need of help:

https://id.osgeo.org/ldap/create

While I was able to make some improvements in early January to workflow (order of things to do on the page now matches the order are they presented, the “mantra” is now explained as a short phrase, “enter mantra” and “continue” replaced the small “ॐ” button, etc…), … Improvements are not a “rethink” which is where I hope your strengths are directed :slight_smile:

The page is still serving many competing needs with different levels of complexity and is not setup to welcome new users.

I very much look forward to your thoughts on this! (And I may just be having the assumption that this page was where you found trouble based on my recent experience trying to sign up new users).

–

Jody Garnett

On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 5:04 PM Scott McHale via Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

Hello,

I just signed up for this list and was informed I’d signed up in the past, but I’ll re-introduce myself.

I’m Scott McHale and I organize and host the OSGeo Alberta Chapter meetup each month here in Calgary and online. I would like to offer whatever help I can in making interactions with our website and systems – particularly the UserID creation – simpler and more understandable for folks like me who are not particularly technical and for whom some of the interface and language feels a bit confusing.

I’ll admit I’m coming to this as a noob so, at the outset, I’m really just hoping to get impressions from others as to the value and interest in making changes in that regard as well as direction to any information I can take the time to consume myself to help me understand that system better before engaging others in the effort.

Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott.

Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing