Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 03:01:41 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Guess we've lost the server market too...? Message-ID: <4.1.19990303025641.03ef9ba0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9903030103480.687-100000@thelab.hub.org> References: <4.1.19990302210116.009fe670@localhost>
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At 01:04 AM 3/3/99 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote: >> If folks would like to see FreeBSD go ANYWHERE in terms of >> market share, reputation, and installed base, it's time >> to strategize. I've got a plan; who's with me? > >My all ears... OK, I'm traveling this week, so I'll need to outline this in several steps. The first thing is to form several teams out of those who are active on these lists. Here are the four I envision. (Each will appeal to certain personality types, as you'll see.) 1) The Raving Loonies. This is the fun one. You get to go totally over the top on public forums, starting flame wars, bashing and baiting the competition. Think "Team OS/2," but even more out of control. The more fuss this "lunatic fringe" makes, the better. The purpose of this group is really not to sell the product but merely to draw attention to it; after that, the next group takes over. So, it needs to be the most slavering, slobbering, fanatical, over-the-top kind of "advocacy" -- advocacy which sometimes backfires but GETS ATTENTION. Asbestos underwear required to endure flames. 2) The Voices of Reason. These folks also speak in public forums, but apologize for the activities of the loonies. They then offer carefully chosen studies and data showing that the product really is superior. They present papers at conference describing the superior technical features of the product. Jordan Hubbard would be an excellent member of, or leader for, this contingent, since he is already doing some of this. But we need more. 3) The Salespeople. These people sell the product to OEMs, VARs, and retailers. The idea: to promote FreeBSD as an installation option on new PCs and to get it carried in bookstores and computer stores. These people will be empowered to offer free Web listings -- essentially, ads -- to vendors that sign on. They'll also have a budget of free CDs to hand out. They work with the next group to generate mentions of these vendors in the press. 4) The Press Release Writers. This group generates one press release per week about the product. The press releases are essentially "pre-written" articles that are easy for magazines to drop into the space they must fill in their publications -- especially when there's a tight deadline. This group uses a "shotgun" approach; it's unpredictable which press releases will actually be printed in what publications. But they need to keep them coming -- again, once a week -- and posting them and mailing them as widely as possible. Netxt, I'll want to discuss what each of these four groups should start doing. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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