[Marketing] seeking a mandate 2

Committees Marketing
1

Thanks for feedback Astrid, Gert-Ja (and Jeff!).

Gert-Ja I am having trouble turning your feedback into a useful mandate to ask the board for. In a sense I want to answer your question of if we are a MarkCom or MarkComCom … not sure if I am being slow on the uptake, or if are answering a different question?

Let me try again in the form of a letter we can send to the board.

OSGeo Board:

The marketing committee is in the process of reforming and would like to ask for a mandate (similar to what has been provided in the motion to form the conference committee, incubation committee, …).

The revamped committee seeks responsibility for:

* growing our community with new users

* establish a marketing strategy

* providing support for events

Specifically for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for:

* Managing a RFQ process to reboot the OSGeo website

We should be clear that this is a marketing committee focused on user outreach. We are not taking responsibility for all OSGeo communication. The OSGeo board is expected to continue to issue press releases. OSGeo projects are expected to continue to offer release announcements for developers. Events are expected to handle their own publicity.

–
Jody Garnett

2

Hi Jody,

Glad to see this refinement! (a step we too often minimize).

Allow me to add a few ideas, as a devil’s advocate, with world-wide well-known Dutch rudeness :wink:

In order of appearance:

  1. I’d change “new users” to "new participants, both users and developers, with or without a geospatial or open source background

  2. “Establish a marketing strategy” isn’t a purpose on its own, but it aims at certain goals , I assume. Most likely these goals are the goals as laid out in the strategy as defined by the Board in the last year.

  3. “Providing support for events” can be fine-tuned as well. What do events expect from MarkCom anyway?

  4. The phrase "for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for managing a RFQ process to reboot . . " (read out loud!) doesn’t seem to be inspired by an overload of enthusiasm, nor does it hold the promise to a concrete result (what will happen after the RFQ?).

How about “the MarkCom takes responsibility for rebooting the OSGeo website, which includes ensuring it’s long-term maintenance”. To be established before the start of FOSS4G-2017.

  1. The last sentence, about not being responsible for all communications could be turned in a more positive objective by rewriting it like "an important objective of the MarkCom is to provide OSGeo.org (including it’s committees, projects and local chapters) with an infrastructure of communication channels through which their announcements, press releases etc. can be broadcasted. This infrastructure aims to place these individual announcements etc. in the broader framework of the entire OSGeo community.

(ha, being a policy maker for over 8 years seems to bear fruit in this sentence…)

Regarding 3) and 5): I think a revamp of OSGeo’s corporate design makes sense. If that’s too much for this year, at least a cleanup (hit the delete button!) of our documentation regarding the official logo, colors etc would be very useful.

As co-webmaster of a local chapter and as member of the FOS4G LOC I noticed that our “OSGeo.org style guide” is scattered across several documents in SVN.

This could be a concrete target mandate as well; be the house-keeper of the OSGeo corporate design. Which is somewhere between “MarkCom” and “MarkComCom”, I guess.

Kind regards,

GJ

Van: Marketing [mailto:marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] Namens Jody Garnett
Verzonden: donderdag 8 december 2016 21:12
Aan: OSGeo Marketing
Onderwerp: [Marketing] seeking a mandate 2

Thanks for feedback Astrid, Gert-Ja (and Jeff!).

Gert-Ja I am having trouble turning your feedback into a useful mandate to ask the board for. In a sense I want to answer your question of if we are a MarkCom or MarkComCom … not sure if I am being slow on the uptake, or if are answering a different question?

Let me try again in the form of a letter we can send to the board.

OSGeo Board:

The marketing committee is in the process of reforming and would like to ask for a mandate (similar to what has been provided in the motion to form the conference committee, incubation committee, …).

The revamped committee seeks responsibility for:

* growing our community with new users

* establish a marketing strategy

* providing support for events

Specifically for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for:

* Managing a RFQ process to reboot the OSGeo website

We should be clear that this is a marketing committee focused on user outreach. We are not taking responsibility for all OSGeo communication. The OSGeo board is expected to continue to issue press releases. OSGeo projects are expected to continue to offer release announcements for developers. Events are expected to handle their own publicity.

–

Jody Garnett

3

Okay let me try that – and then let’s continue this discussion on the board list (I already feel like I am days late if we want this sorted for our Dec 14th meeting). Are you comfortable taking further discussion to the board list? As you can see in the text below I have not taken on board all of your feedback …

Let me try again in the form of a letter we can send to the board - it will also help if you update the next in addition to making suggestions :slight_smile:

···

–
Jody Garnett

On 8 December 2016 at 13:06, Gert-Jan van der Weijden - Stichting OSGeo.nl <gert-jan@osgeo.nl> wrote:

Hi Jody,

Glad to see this refinement! (a step we too often minimize).

Allow me to add a few ideas, as a devil’s advocate, with world-wide well-known Dutch rudeness :wink:

In order of appearance:

  1. I’d change “new users” to "new participants, both users and developers, with or without a geospatial or open source background

  2. “Establish a marketing strategy” isn’t a purpose on its own, but it aims at certain goals , I assume. Most likely these goals are the goals as laid out in the strategy as defined by the Board in the last year.

  3. “Providing support for events” can be fine-tuned as well. What do events expect from MarkCom anyway?

  4. The phrase "for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for managing a RFQ process to reboot . . " (read out loud!) doesn’t seem to be inspired by an overload of enthusiasm, nor does it hold the promise to a concrete result (what will happen after the RFQ?).

How about “the MarkCom takes responsibility for rebooting the OSGeo website, which includes ensuring it’s long-term maintenance”. To be established before the start of FOSS4G-2017.

  1. The last sentence, about not being responsible for all communications could be turned in a more positive objective by rewriting it like "an important objective of the MarkCom is to provide OSGeo.org (including it’s committees, projects and local chapters) with an infrastructure of communication channels through which their announcements, press releases etc. can be broadcasted. This infrastructure aims to place these individual announcements etc. in the broader framework of the entire OSGeo community.

(ha, being a policy maker for over 8 years seems to bear fruit in this sentence…)

Regarding 3) and 5): I think a revamp of OSGeo’s corporate design makes sense. If that’s too much for this year, at least a cleanup (hit the delete button!) of our documentation regarding the official logo, colors etc would be very useful.

As co-webmaster of a local chapter and as member of the FOS4G LOC I noticed that our “OSGeo.org style guide” is scattered across several documents in SVN.

This could be a concrete target mandate as well; be the house-keeper of the OSGeo corporate design. Which is somewhere between “MarkCom” and “MarkComCom”, I guess.

Kind regards,

GJ

Van: Marketing [mailto:marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] Namens Jody Garnett
Verzonden: donderdag 8 december 2016 21:12
Aan: OSGeo Marketing
Onderwerp: [Marketing] seeking a mandate 2

Thanks for feedback Astrid, Gert-Ja (and Jeff!).

Gert-Ja I am having trouble turning your feedback into a useful mandate to ask the board for. In a sense I want to answer your question of if we are a MarkCom or MarkComCom … not sure if I am being slow on the uptake, or if are answering a different question?

Let me try again in the form of a letter we can send to the board.

OSGeo Board:

The marketing committee is in the process of reforming and would like to ask for a mandate (similar to what has been provided in the motion to form the conference committee, incubation committee, …).

The revamped committee seeks responsibility for:

* growing our community with new users

* establish a marketing strategy

* providing support for events

Specifically for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for:

* Managing a RFQ process to reboot the OSGeo website

We should be clear that this is a marketing committee focused on user outreach. We are not taking responsibility for all OSGeo communication. The OSGeo board is expected to continue to issue press releases. OSGeo projects are expected to continue to offer release announcements for developers. Events are expected to handle their own publicity.

–

Jody Garnett

4

On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 12:59 PM, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay let me try that -- and then let's continue this discussion on the board
list (I already feel like I am days late if we want this sorted for our Dec
14th meeting). Are you comfortable taking further discussion to the board
list? As you can see in the text below I have not taken on board all of your
feedback ...

Let me try again in the form of a letter we can send to the board - it will
also help if you update the next in addition to making suggestions :slight_smile:

The marketing committee is in the process of reforming and would like to ask
for a mandate (similar to what has been provided in the motion to form the
conference committee, incubation committee, ...).

The revamped committee seeks responsibility for:
* growing our community with new users
* establish a marketing strategy
* providing support for events

Specifically for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for:
* Reboot the OSGeo website in time for the FOSS4G Boston event

I don't see any reason to set an arbitrary deadline of FOSS4G Boston.
How long it takes to reboot the website should be determined based on
the dependencies (likely getting back information from the Board or
other Committees, contractor schedules, etc). There is not really any
harm is setting this date as a goal for completion but it does seem
arbitrary rather than based on an evaluation of the tasks.

I'm glad to see the Marketing Committee with excitement and energy.
Keep up the good work.

Best regards, Eli

Discussion:

The priority is set at growing our user base. Projects and code sprints are
already handling outreach to developers with or without a geospatial
background. Educational outreach is being handled by GeoForAll.

The market strategy is used to prioritize and guide our outreach activities.
It is expected we will need to identify user communities and address any
issues they have in adopting or migrating to an open source solution. A hey
aspect will be identifying metrics to measure performance of the marketing
strategy.

The website is a key component in outreach and a roadblock on many of our
ideas for a marketing strategy. With this in mind the marketing committee
(given a mandate by the board) is willing to take "point" on rebooting the
OSGeo website. Given the scope of the undertaking we would use our
volunteers to negotiate this work with an external agency, rather than rely
on volunteer labour. We expect to work in close collaboration with the
system administration committee in refining a "request for proposal" and
selecting the resulting organization.

The marketing committee focused on user outreach and will be using osgeo.org
as a communication channel for this end. We recognize that each OSGeo group
or committee is responsible for their own communication needs: the OSGeo
board provides press releases, projects offer release announcements, events
handle their publicity etc...

--
Jody Garnett

On 8 December 2016 at 13:06, Gert-Jan van der Weijden - Stichting OSGeo.nl
<gert-jan@osgeo.nl> wrote:

Hi Jody,

Glad to see this refinement! (a step we too often minimize).

Allow me to add a few ideas, as a devil's advocate, with world-wide
well-known Dutch rudeness :wink:

In order of appearance:

1) I'd change "new users" to "new participants, both users and developers,
with or without a geospatial or open source background

2) "Establish a marketing strategy" isn't a purpose on its own, but it
aims at certain goals , I assume. Most likely these goals are the goals as
laid out in the strategy as defined by the Board in the last year.

3) "Providing support for events" can be fine-tuned as well. What do
events expect from MarkCom anyway?

4) The phrase "for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for managing
a RFQ process to reboot . . " (read out loud!) doesn't seem to be inspired
by an overload of enthusiasm, nor does it hold the promise to a concrete
result (what will happen after the RFQ?).

How about "the MarkCom takes responsibility for rebooting the OSGeo
website, which includes ensuring it's long-term maintenance". To be
established before the start of FOSS4G-2017.

5) The last sentence, about not being responsible for all communications
could be turned in a more positive objective by rewriting it like "an
important objective of the MarkCom is to provide OSGeo.org (including it's
committees, projects and local chapters) with an infrastructure of
communication channels through which their announcements, press releases
etc. can be broadcasted. This infrastructure aims to place these individual
announcements etc. in the broader framework of the entire OSGeo community.

(ha, being a policy maker for over 8 years seems to bear fruit in this
sentence...)

Regarding 3) and 5): I think a revamp of OSGeo's corporate design makes
sense. If that's too much for this year, at least a cleanup (hit the delete
button!) of our documentation regarding the official logo, colors etc would
be very useful.

As co-webmaster of a local chapter and as member of the FOS4G LOC I
noticed that our "OSGeo.org style guide" is scattered across several
documents in SVN.

This could be a concrete target mandate as well; be the house-keeper of
the OSGeo corporate design. Which is somewhere between "MarkCom" and
"MarkComCom", I guess.

Kind regards,

GJ

Van: Marketing [mailto:marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] Namens Jody
Garnett
Verzonden: donderdag 8 december 2016 21:12
Aan: OSGeo Marketing
Onderwerp: [Marketing] seeking a mandate 2

Thanks for feedback Astrid, Gert-Ja (and Jeff!).

Gert-Ja I am having trouble turning your feedback into a useful mandate to
ask the board for. In a sense I want to answer your question of if we are a
MarkCom or MarkComCom ... not sure if I am being slow on the uptake, or if
are answering a different question?

Let me try again in the form of a letter we can send to the board.

OSGeo Board:

The marketing committee is in the process of reforming and would like to
ask for a mandate (similar to what has been provided in the motion to form
the conference committee, incubation committee, ...).

The revamped committee seeks responsibility for:

* growing our community with new users

* establish a marketing strategy

* providing support for events

Specifically for 2017 we are willing to take responsibility for:

* Managing a RFQ process to reboot the OSGeo website

We should be clear that this is a marketing committee focused on user
outreach. We are not taking responsibility for all OSGeo communication. The
OSGeo board is expected to continue to issue press releases. OSGeo projects
are expected to continue to offer release announcements for developers.
Events are expected to handle their own publicity.

--

Jody Garnett

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

5

I don't see any reason to set an arbitrary deadline of FOSS4G Boston.

Part of the challenge is not starting a project that takes an arbitrary
part of time as that erodes volunteer interest. Checking meeting notes,
Boston was suggested as a good way to cap this activity.

I'm glad to see the Marketing Committee with excitement and energy.

Keep up the good work.

Are you interested in taking part Eli?

6

On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 2:12 PM, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't see any reason to set an arbitrary deadline of FOSS4G Boston.

Part of the challenge is not starting a project that takes an arbitrary part
of time as that erodes volunteer interest. Checking meeting notes, Boston
was suggested as a good way to cap this activity.

Okay, it sounds like you've already discussed it then. I was just
commenting on the appearance as someone who hasn't stayed informed.

I'm glad to see the Marketing Committee with excitement and energy.
Keep up the good work.

Are you interested in taking part Eli?

I don't think so. I'm more focused on the Conference Committee.

Also, my Marketing ideas are not that sophisticated. I've long been a
proponent of no-cost or subsidized-cost OSGeo Logo materials (i.e.
OSGeo should fund the printing and distribution of as many OSGeo
laptop stickers as people are willing to put on laptops. And to some
extent t-shirts too. Also booth material for Local Chapters.) I've
seen big impacts come from relatively small investments like funding
stickers and pizza at Local Chapter meetings.

Best regards, Eli

7

> Are you interested in taking part Eli?

I don't think so. I'm more focused on the Conference Committee.

Also, my Marketing ideas are not that sophisticated. I've long been a
proponent of no-cost or subsidized-cost OSGeo Logo materials (i.e.
OSGeo should fund the printing and distribution of as many OSGeo
laptop stickers as people are willing to put on laptops. And to some
extent t-shirts too. Also booth material for Local Chapters.) I've
seen big impacts come from relatively small investments like funding
stickers and pizza at Local Chapter meetings.

These are all good ideas - indeed exactly the kind of thing discussed in
the marketing meeting.

I think the vision was a website to order "osgeo in a box" with what was
needed for a conference or local event.

My marketing ideas are also not sophisticated, I would like the "services
providers" to have better represented (since they employ so many of us) in
a format that highlight what they do in the community.