Marketing Team/Meetings/03-03-2009

Agenda

by Sean Daly

1) Make SL press-contactable We still have no telephone(s) solution and this is getting hot. I am currently looking at an answering service solution which can provide a local dedicated phone number to voicemail in Boston or NYC with e-mail alert for under $10 per month. Advantages: stable phone number and cost, any phone message can reach several people so no single point of failure. Disadvantage: journalists prefer speaking with humans instead of recordings of humans. We do need a solution this week. Side issue, but urgent: we need to be able to send the press releases (en, fr, es, de, pt) from the pr@sugarlabs.org alias. How will that work?

2) 0.84 Marketing talking points. What new features of the Sugar Learning Platform do we want to talk about in the press release? Let's hit-parade them. Input please! My feeling is to prefer talking up Activities over the platform, but perhaps there is platform news we just can't keep to ourselves?

3) 0.84 Press release draft - how shall we handle? I had been asked to do a brief on the fuzzy science of creating a press release (distributing it and placing it is a separate subject!). We need to start with the skeleton (letterhead, About Sugar Labs). But, I'm not at all sure if we want to circulate actual title & draft text prior to the launch. However, the goal of asking the translation team for help requires some lead time - the sooner they have the text, the better. Your point of view regarding this workflow is requested.

4) Launch countdown It's not quite clear to me how we pick the magic date & time when the release goes out, the final version is published, and hopefully journalists take notice. If we can work out a coordination protocol (e.g. Walter decides, or Simon decides the release date/time), we can work together to the countdown. Let's work together on this.

5) Printable PDF brochure (was: elevator pitch for teachers) The more I think about it, the more this resembles a condensed version of text from the new static site. So I think we should put energy into that over the next couple of days, and the PDF will come out on the rebound in time for the launch.

6) Sugar Stories Can we try to put together at least 3 and hopefully 5 stories about Sugar contributors? Before we all nominate each other (joke) let's think about how we can do this quickly. The goal being to encourage prospective volunteers to the fun & satisfaction of working on Sugar. maybe as simple as asking everyone to update their page on the wiki with "Why I Contribute To Sugar"?

7) Sugar on a Stick (SoaS) Update on where we are with ordering sticks, but we also need to decide shipping address! Fabulous idea from Carol: include a SoaS USB maker in Sugar & on the liveCD.

8) Other topics?

Log

(05:01:15 PM) SeanDaly: Hi, Sean here, anybody yet?
(05:01:35 PM) caroline: I am
(05:01:45 PM) SeanDaly: Hi Caroline!
(05:01:53 PM) dfarning: is this marketing?
(05:02:09 PM) caroline: hi DAve, are you paying $5 a hour?
(05:02:10 PM) SeanDaly: dfarning: Sure is but haven't started yet, about to
(05:02:23 PM) dfarning: sounds good
(05:02:43 PM) jt4sugar
[i=ad6e094d@gateway/web/ajax/mibbit.com/x-4e8f622c1742b150] entered
the room.
(05:02:59 PM) SeanDaly: Hi jt4sugar!
(05:03:14 PM) jt4sugar: hI sEAN
(05:03:42 PM) dfarning: No, but the food is free.
(05:03:54 PM) SeanDaly: Shall I start?
(05:04:03 PM) dfarning: ahh.  No, we have the free logon
(05:04:04 PM) tomeu: hi all!
(05:04:25 PM) SeanDaly: Hi Tomeu!
(05:04:40 PM) SeanDaly: #start-meeting
(05:05:07 PM) SeanDaly: Lots of topics today but don't let me do all
the talking :D
(05:05:51 PM) SeanDaly: Why don't we start with the phone number problem
(05:06:16 PM) SeanDaly: Reminder, the idea is for Sugar Labs to have a
journalist-facing phone number
(05:06:38 PM) dfarning: Is astrick a possiable solution?
(05:06:38 PM) SeanDaly: useful for those times (like hopefully next
week) when there is "news"
(05:07:10 PM) tomeu: geeks love to propose asterisk, but I don't see
that working very often
(05:07:13 PM) SeanDaly: I had pinged Bernie about the asterix
possibility but no reply  :-( 
(05:07:36 PM) caroline: asterix seems like a very big hammer for this job
(05:07:51 PM) homunq [n=chema@189.132.31.201] entered the room.
(05:07:53 PM) caroline: we have used it for a client project and it
took quite a bit of work to set up by an expert
(05:07:54 PM) SeanDaly: So I found this: #LINK:
http://www.efls.com/voicemail.html
(05:08:04 PM) mchua
[n=mchua@pool-71-184-185-189.bstnma.east.verizon.net] entered the
room.
(05:08:22 PM) SeanDaly: Greetings mchua & homunq
(05:08:32 PM) mchua: Hey, sorry I'm late.
(05:09:05 PM) SeanDaly: They propose a voicemail box with local Boston
number and e-mail forwarding of voicemail for 10 USD per month
(05:09:14 PM) ***homunq doesn't know what meeting this is...?
(05:09:28 PM) homunq: :/
(05:09:29 PM) SeanDaly: homunq: "Marketing"
(05:09:36 PM) homunq: ok
(05:09:37 PM) dfarning: That looks reasonable.
(05:09:46 PM) caroline: Sean what does it give us for $10 that
GrandCentral doesn't give us for free?
(05:09:59 PM) SeanDaly: They offer other US cities local numbers
(05:10:07 PM) tomeu: maybe the people that are going to answer the
phone get to decide by themselves?
(05:10:19 PM) SeanDaly: Caroline: GrandCentral piggybacks on an
existing phone number
(05:10:19 PM) caroline: does it ring your number?
(05:10:51 PM) caroline: hmm, I didn't think so I thought it gave me a
new number, and a 617 number.
(05:10:58 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: no, "Follow Me" is more like $49 per
month + charges
(05:11:14 PM) SeanDaly: is 617 Boston I guess?
(05:11:19 PM) caroline: yes
(05:11:25 PM) caroline: will this one ring your phone in Europe?
(05:11:40 PM) SeanDaly: No, $10/month is a voicemal box only
(05:11:56 PM) dfarning: I have a cell phone which I only use for SL,
we can send calls to it for now.
(05:12:01 PM) caroline: huh, seems like GC gives us voicemail +email for free
(05:12:16 PM) SeanDaly: GC USA only  :-( 
(05:13:03 PM) SeanDaly: dfarning: do you mean we could put that number
on press releases?
(05:13:05 PM) caroline: only people from teh US can call into a GC nuber?
(05:13:09 PM) caroline: really?
(05:13:38 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: any number can call the US number
linked to GC, but GC will only forward to a US number
(05:13:40 PM) caroline: want to try to call mine? I'm pretty sure I've
had calls from teh UK and France
(05:13:56 PM) dfarning: SeanDaly, Yes, we can start with that number
and move it to other service as we grow.
(05:14:01 PM) caroline: but if the $10 a month one won't forward to a
non US phone then how is it better?
(05:14:21 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: better than nothing  :-) 
(05:14:41 PM) caroline: can't we get teh same thing by getting a free
GC number and having it not forward?
(05:14:56 PM) SeanDaly: Remember, a phone number on a press release
may be noted by a journalist and called back months later...
(05:15:26 PM) caroline: hmm am I the only one confused, cause if
everyone else gets it i'll shut up  :) 
(05:15:32 PM) SeanDaly: Perhaps I don't understand completely how GC
works, my understanding is that you come to it with a number already
(05:15:39 PM) caroline: no you don't
(05:15:42 PM) caroline: it will give you a number
(05:15:53 PM) caroline: seems to be out of 617 numbers right now
though. but how important is that?
(05:16:04 PM) caroline: http://www.grandcentral.com/home/reserve
(05:16:21 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: I'm sure though that it won't
forward outside the US, they list that as part of their "expansion
plans"
(05:16:54 PM) caroline: yes they don't forward outside the US
(05:17:07 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: that link bounces me to a "you are
not in USA, you don't exist" page
(05:17:09 PM) caroline: and if we can pay $10 a month to forward
outside the US thats great
(05:17:16 PM) ***mchua notes that it's almost 1/3 of the way into meeting time
(05:17:18 PM) caroline: opps  :) 
(05:17:26 PM) caroline: ok lets me and Sean take tis offline
(05:17:31 PM) walterbender: +1
(05:17:33 PM) SeanDaly: Well, this is hot & we need a solution
(05:17:40 PM) SeanDaly: OK for offline
(05:17:41 PM) caroline: Sean maybe you can call my GC number after and
we'll work it out.
(05:18:01 PM) SeanDaly: Next: marketing talikg points
(05:18:07 PM) dirakx left the room (quit: Read error: 110 (Connection
timed out)).
(05:18:11 PM) SeanDaly: talikg -> talking
(05:18:34 PM) SeanDaly: So... start with... what are the "three" key
great new things about Sugar?
(05:18:36 PM) jt4sugar: SeanDaly:  check these out
later-http://www.voicestick.com/
http://www.uwtcallback.com/call_my_us_number.html
(05:18:53 PM) SeanDaly: jt4sugar: thanks will do
(05:19:22 PM) walterbender: SeanDaly: 3 new things baout 0.84?
(05:19:24 PM) dfarning: action# caroline and SeanDaly resolve phone
issue by next meeting
(05:19:50 PM) tomeu: maybe the biggest is that Sugar runs in lots more
places than before?
(05:19:53 PM) mchua: dfarning: SeanDaly has to say the #action for
meetbot to pick it up
(05:19:54 PM) SeanDaly: dfarning: sooner than that I hope... by 0.84
media blitz date
(05:20:07 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: good suggestion!
(05:20:32 PM) mchua: tomeu, you and the other developers would know
better than most of us, I think (too bad erikos isn't around)
(05:20:45 PM) mchua: Is there a list of shiny new features somewhere
around the development section of the wiki?
(05:20:49 PM) SeanDaly: #action resolve phone issue with Caroline & Walter
(05:20:51 PM) walterbender: and the Journal interface is much simpler, cleaner
(05:20:53 PM) mchua: or major closed bugs in trac?
(05:20:57 PM) dfarning: Are we ready to promote activities?  It will
be running in a few days
(05:21:03 PM) tomeu: well, the points we choose depend on the audience
(05:21:07 PM) erikos [n=erikos@e178225065.adsl.alicedsl.de] entered the room.
(05:21:09 PM) tomeu: so it's not a matter of just developers
(05:21:10 PM) erikos: hello
(05:21:10 PM) walterbender: and lots of new activity features
(05:21:28 PM) tomeu: maybe TAP?
(05:21:31 PM) walterbender: erikos: too bad you are not around  :) 
(05:21:31 PM) mchua: erikos! hey. SeanDaly was just asking what the 3
biggest new features in 0.84 are that we should be announcing.
(05:21:35 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: closing bugs, while laudable, is I'm
afraid rarely if ever a marketing priority  :-) 
(05:21:56 PM) walterbender: universal view source?
(05:22:02 PM) SeanDaly: because the idea is, bugs are "supposed" to be fixed
(05:22:04 PM) erikos: walterbender, hehe
(05:22:30 PM) erikos: mchua, walterbender view source is one
(05:22:31 PM) SeanDaly: I like improved Journal + universal view
source, because these are strong points exclusive to Sugar
(05:22:37 PM) erikos: resume by default another one
(05:22:47 PM) walterbender: the resume by default doesn't sound sexy,
but it is a major usability enhancement
(05:22:50 PM) erikos: and journal yes!
(05:22:55 PM) SeanDaly: erikos: Yes that's a good one
(05:23:03 PM) dfarning: runs on more platforms, runs more activities
easer to use
(05:23:09 PM) tomeu: the journal and resume by default could be
conflated in one?
(05:23:15 PM) walterbender: we could add the portfolio to the mix as well
(05:23:21 PM) mchua: SeanDaly: aye, but some bugs (or enhancements)
are major user-facing features, so that's another place to find 'em.
(05:23:25 PM) erikos: tomeu, yup - good point
(05:23:36 PM) mchua: (though this seems to be way more efficient.:)
(05:23:41 PM) SeanDaly: Resume by default is a big one, because many
Mac users reboot once a month and suspend/resume the rest of the time
while on Windows it's iffy
(05:23:58 PM) walterbender: maybe highlight things like infoslicer as
a tool for teachers and content creators?
(05:24:04 PM) tomeu: mchua: but perhaps saying we fixed major
deficiencies is like saying "we suck less", which may be less
important for marketing purposes
(05:24:08 PM) mchua: SeanDaly, I think he meant Activities resume by
default, not suspend/resume
(05:24:09 PM) SeanDaly: (referring to typical teacher & parent
experience of resume)
(05:24:22 PM) mchua: tomeu: point taken... yeah.
(05:24:32 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: oh, it's not resuming the machine
(05:24:33 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: Ahhh yes without cluttering up the Journal oops
(05:24:41 PM) tomeu: right  ;) 
(05:24:51 PM) erikos: yup - i was not really clear :/
(05:24:59 PM) walterbender: nor I
(05:25:00 PM) mchua: SeanDaly, got enough stuff for your list?  ;) 
(05:25:16 PM) walterbender: addons is a big deal too
(05:25:21 PM) SeanDaly: erikos: Well, that's we're here for - to make
a clear case for trying "new improved" Sugar  ;-) 
(05:25:29 PM) erikos: SeanDaly, i can update you with a url that
should have all the new features listed soon
(05:25:37 PM) SeanDaly: erikos: Many thanks
(05:25:38 PM) mchua: oh sweet, release notes!
(05:25:38 PM) caroline: should addons be a separate press release?
(05:25:46 PM) erikos: mchua, yeah
(05:25:49 PM) mchua: +1 addsons as separate
(05:25:59 PM) cjb: mchua: fun photo of you on the olpcnews front page  :) 
(05:26:23 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: when I say "press release" I mean
the "main" press + educators release... not very technical
(05:26:35 PM) jt4sugar: Activities-List a few- Infoslicer-teachers,
etoys-kids, Portfolio/Journal-helps teachers and students and parents
(05:26:50 PM) caroline: Sean, agreed but do we want to have more of
them or less of them?
(05:26:58 PM) caroline: we certainly coudl do 2
(05:27:01 PM) SeanDaly: jt4sugar: Yes - I want to do star marketing on
Activities
(05:27:20 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: more of what?
(05:27:22 PM) erikos: the development release notes do contain good
information as well already
http://sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/Release/Roadmap#Schedule
(05:27:31 PM) erikos: each has a link in the schedule
(05:27:41 PM) SeanDaly: Now, I'm sorry I'm not up to speed but what is
Portfolio?
(05:27:45 PM) walterbender: addons is not very well populated yet...
we should hold off on that press release until we migrate more
activities into it.
(05:28:15 PM) walterbender: portfolio is a way to make portfolio
presentations from Journal entries... an assessment ool
(05:28:22 PM) walterbender: ^ool^tool
(05:28:40 PM) tomeu: also, activities.sl.o may need a new look before
advertising widely
(05:28:42 PM) caroline: Portfolio is goign to be the most interesting
of the 3 things to eductors
(05:28:54 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: interesting, amplifies the
usefulness of the Journal
(05:28:57 PM) caroline: yeah, I agree activities.so isn't ready to
publicize yet.
(05:29:48 PM) SeanDaly: The static site will I think do an excellent
job of introducing Sugar
(05:29:55 PM) jt4sugar: If we can make release Kid/Teacher Centric I
think it will be big Win!
(05:30:31 PM) SeanDaly: jt4sugar: that's why I compiled the 75+
education press/portal/journals links  ;-) 
(05:31:27 PM) erikos: tomeu, we had a designer for this if i remember correctly
(05:31:37 PM) SeanDaly: OK i propose to start a marketing list thread
so we can hit-parade the marketing taliking points in the next day or
so, OK?
(05:31:44 PM) tomeu: erikos: yeah, but takes time to make stuff actually happen
(05:31:52 PM) erikos: tomeu, sure
(05:32:18 PM) SeanDaly: #action: marketing list thread to hit-parade
marketing talking points for press release
(05:32:32 PM) erikos: SeanDaly, sounds good
(05:32:45 PM) SeanDaly: I'd like to jump to item 4 in the agenda
#link: http://sugarlabs.org/go/MarketingTeam/Meetings
(05:33:22 PM) SeanDaly: Is it possible today to pick a day for the
media launch? Or, alternatively how can we pick that day/time?
(05:33:34 PM) walterbender: Ides of March?
(05:34:02 PM) walterbender: we can hold a toga party for the release party  :) 
(05:34:15 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: "beware the Ides of March"...
(05:34:42 PM) SeanDaly: Seriously, March 15th? will give us loads of
time I thought would be sooner
(05:35:16 PM) walterbender: we could do sooner... what day of the week
is most likely to get us coverage... a slow news day
(05:35:37 PM) SeanDaly: By tradition, slow news day is Monday morning
(05:36:20 PM) walterbender: so next MOnday morning?
(05:36:31 PM) SeanDaly: But, our news is a tad less high-priority for
journalists than the economy, the US president, etc so any day but
Friday would be all right I think
(05:36:51 PM) mchua: +1 ides of march, actually - that's around the
time we'll be deploying Sugar here in Boston, and coinciding press
releases might be handy.
(05:37:09 PM) SeanDaly: Monday morning the 16th?
(05:37:22 PM) walterbender: education should be at the heart of every
solution to every pre...oblem we fac
(05:37:47 PM) walterbender: I think we should issue a challenge to
educate in our press release...
(05:37:51 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: do these deployments involve being in school?
(05:37:52 PM) walterbender: we are the solution...
(05:37:58 PM) jt4sugar: Everyone will forget us the next day on St
Pattys. might wait till they all sober up
(05:38:20 PM) mchua: SeanDaly: yeah, but it's a small first-world
(Boston) deployment, so it might not matter as much. and i don't have
an absolute "Sugar will be here on X date" date for that.
(05:38:44 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: actually I really like talking
about "passionate Sugar volunteers on a mission to educate"
(05:39:20 PM) walterbender: SeanDaly: yes.
(05:39:21 PM) SeanDaly: jt4sugar: I'll bring me bit o' the ol' irish luck in  ;-) 
(05:40:04 PM) SeanDaly: Are we OK for March 16th?
(05:40:14 PM) walterbender: sounds like a plab
(05:40:17 PM) tomeu: ok
(05:40:22 PM) walterbender: ^plab^plan
(05:40:27 PM) SeanDaly: I like that date because we will have time to
translate the PR too
(05:40:34 PM) mchua: walterbender, that reminds me - that would be a
good date to coincide the "1-year vision roadmap for SL" post with.
(05:40:48 PM) SeanDaly: #action: press release date March 16th
(05:40:55 PM) tomeu: for March 16th, I hope we have a good soas for
people to try
(05:41:17 PM) walterbender: mchua, almost wrote it for this week, but
decided the release too precedence.
(05:42:05 PM) mchua: yay!
(05:42:09 PM) SeanDaly: OK, now... what time on the 16th? I propose
the morning EST, say 9:00 AM?
(05:42:29 PM) walterbender: gives you Europeans a chance to sleep in  :) 
(05:42:51 PM) SeanDaly: Of course, it's possible no journalists will
care or telephone, but I'd rather we (mostly) be all awake
(05:43:23 PM) SeanDaly: OK let's discuss the PR draft process
(05:44:08 PM) SeanDaly: i take exception to drafting it online in a
web-facing list... any alert journalist will just pick up a draft and
link to it & blog it.
(05:44:31 PM) walterbender: google docs?
(05:44:38 PM) SeanDaly: I mean, it would be great to have the
exposure, but it's better if we can plan for it.
(05:44:49 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: +1
(05:45:03 PM) caroline: +1
(05:45:14 PM) walterbender: or Write in Sugar?
(05:45:27 PM) SeanDaly: I guess we can darft a shared document in the
start.sugarlabs.org?
(05:46:09 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: wow... if we manage to dogfood
it we will have to brag about that  ;-) 
(05:46:38 PM) walterbender: SeanDaly: maybe the two of us can get
started that way atleast...
(05:46:54 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: Google Docs, or Write?
(05:47:02 PM) walterbender: Write...
(05:47:19 PM) walterbender: then we can legitimately say we aate the dogfood!!
(05:47:37 PM) tomeu: ok, don't forget to enter tickets when you find bugs  ;) 
(05:47:41 PM) SeanDaly: OK only thing is I only have XO connectivity
at home with ethernet adapter
(05:48:09 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: cannot use soas is any other computer?
(05:48:46 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: have downloaded ISO a couple of times,
but have not succeeded yet in flashing USB stick  :-( 
(05:48:48 PM) walterbender left the room (quit: Read error: 104
(Connection reset by peer)).
(05:49:06 PM) walterbender
[n=chatzill@209-6-218-51.c3-0.nwt-ubr2.sbo-nwt.ma.cable.rcn.com]
entered the room.
(05:49:11 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: that's a big problem
(05:49:29 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: we need to understand why people are
having problems with that
(05:49:38 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: maybe we can talk in #sugar?
(05:50:06 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: because house full of aging Macs none
of which can run SoaS... I have a fairly recent PC I built a couple of
years ago with a wrecked Win install on it, might install a new hard
drive & work with a GNU/Linux distrib
(05:50:27 PM) tomeu: ok
(05:50:38 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: I'll mail you offline & "expose" my problem
(05:50:39 PM) tomeu: hopefully not a lot of people will be like you  ;) 
(05:51:05 PM) dfarning left the room (quit: Read error: 110
(Connection timed out)).
(05:51:16 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: I'm afraid it might be worse: I know
the command line & have worked with computers for 20 years  :-( 
(05:51:38 PM) caroline: we should find a way to create sticks on the mac
(05:51:52 PM) dfarning [n=dfarning@82-204-82-216.fttx.bbeyond.nl]
entered the room.
(05:52:04 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: in fact it's easier on recent
(Intel) Macs, but I don't have one & no plans
(05:52:16 PM) SeanDaly: I have an EeePC though
(05:52:22 PM) tomeu: sebastian is our man here, he's in contact with
the people that try to solve the same issue for plain fedora
(05:52:36 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: soas runs well on an eeepc here
(05:52:39 PM) SeanDaly: And was thinking of obtaining a classmate or
small Dell or HP
(05:52:55 PM) ***mchua notes we have 5 minutes left in scheduled meeting time
(05:52:58 PM) tomeu: but as mchua would say, we are losing focus
(05:53:02 PM) tomeu: damn, she beat me
(05:53:07 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: offlist you'll tell me how to use EeePC
(05:53:11 PM) tomeu: ok
(05:53:21 PM) ***mchua grins
(05:53:29 PM) SeanDaly: OK on the brochure: I'll wait until static site is up
(05:53:53 PM) SeanDaly: I want to take this opportunity to thank
Christian and everyone who worked on the site I really like it now
(05:54:17 PM) ***walterbender thins about how to get Sean an OLPC XO
(05:54:17 PM) tomeu: yeah, I'm quite happy as well
(05:54:23 PM) SeanDaly: Let's talk SoaS in the last few minutes OK?
(05:54:37 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: I have two XOs  ;-) 
(05:54:47 PM) SeanDaly: G1G1x2
(05:55:09 PM) SeanDaly: SoaS: I haven't ordered them yet
(05:55:28 PM) SeanDaly: It seems most of them are made in Taiwan & Shenzen
(05:56:14 PM) SeanDaly: I found a company that can do nice 1 Gb sticks
with logo... from Hong Kong including shipping to US, but *not*
customs
(05:56:31 PM) SeanDaly: At $6.40 per stick
(05:56:37 PM) caroline: good price
(05:56:45 PM) tomeu: cool
(05:56:50 PM) caroline: how is the brochure for me to go begging wtih going?
(05:56:50 PM) tomeu: I have 20
(05:56:54 PM) tomeu: I want 20
(05:56:59 PM) walterbender: SeanDaly: I wonder if someone at OLPC
could handle the customs business for us?
(05:57:24 PM) SeanDaly: i also found a supplier who does plastic USB
sticks as red candy wrappers!
(05:57:29 PM) ***mchua looks skeptical about banking on OLPC for customs
(05:57:38 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: could we investigate?
(05:57:56 PM) tomeu: would be bad if happened the same as with pizzas
in the sugarcamp
(05:58:09 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: re PDF brochure, I want to do that
once the static site is up (next couple of days)
(05:58:11 PM) walterbender: seandaly: I will ask them
(05:58:45 PM) SeanDaly: Where will the sticks be shipped to?
(05:58:47 PM) caroline: great thanks!
(05:59:09 PM) caroline: me?
(05:59:17 PM) walterbender: tomeu; mchua: I'll ask Robert Fadel, a
singularity of effiiency
(05:59:46 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: OK.. I know I can count on you to
not fling them into the crowd (since they are not cheap)
(05:59:53 PM) tomeu: yeah, robert has always delivered
(05:59:54 PM) mchua: oh my. yes, robert is amazing.
(06:00:03 PM) caroline: yup
(06:00:31 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: please ask them if promotional
materials have an exception... I think they do if you list the time &
place of a "trade fair"
(06:00:32 PM) sdziallas [n=sebastia@p57A2B5E0.dip.t-dialin.net]
entered the room.
(06:01:11 PM) SeanDaly: Re SoaS preloading: most suppliers claim to do it
(06:01:32 PM) ***sdziallas is late for the meeting, sorry
(06:01:53 PM) caroline: can we yum update?
(06:01:54 PM) SeanDaly: But most of them can't preload a bootable
GNU/Linux image since they use Windows-specific software
(06:02:00 PM) walterbender: SeanDaly: can you email a summary of your questions?
(06:02:30 PM) SeanDaly: #action SD will email Walter list of importing
questions for SoaS USB sticks
(06:02:41 PM) SeanDaly: caroline: ??
(06:03:01 PM) caroline: yes?
(06:03:12 PM) SeanDaly: what is a yum update?
(06:03:23 PM) caroline: its a one step update of the whole system
(06:03:23 PM) sdziallas: caroline: yum update on soas?
(06:03:37 PM) caroline: is that the right terminonogy?
(06:03:39 PM) andresambrois left the room (quit: Read error: 131
(Connection reset by peer)).
(06:03:55 PM) caroline: basically if we preload it woudl be good  to
be able to update if we need to.
(06:03:57 PM) SeanDaly: i'm afraid I have no advice to offer about the
best way to individually flash sticks
(06:04:01 PM) tomeu: caroline: yum update would update a running
system to newer versions of packages
(06:04:40 PM) tomeu: I guess flashing is their business, but it's true
that not too many people might be asking for bootable linux images
(06:04:44 PM) ***mchua notes that we're 6 minutes over meeting time  ;) 
(06:04:50 PM) SeanDaly: I have researched a shell-script solution
using dd which would allow my PPC Macs to write the ISO out to a USB
stick
(06:05:10 PM) caroline: I think the first batch we'll have to get
volunteers to help.
(06:05:15 PM) SeanDaly: OK one more item agenda: Sugar STories!
(06:05:18 PM) ***mchua wonders whether she could replace herself with
a meetbot code addition that periodically called out how much time we
had left.
(06:05:22 PM) caroline: Mel wanted free admission to the FLOSS conference  ;) 
(06:05:41 PM) andresambrois
[n=aa@r190-135-175-99.dialup.adsl.anteldata.net.uy] entered the room.
(06:05:55 PM) mchua: Stories! SeanDaly, I can get you a profile on the
CFS deployment folks by press release date for sure.
(06:06:18 PM) mchua: (with some "and a bunch of high schoolers from IL
came to help us out" thrown in on the side because the IMSA kids are
awesome.)
(06:06:23 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: sounds great!
(06:06:40 PM) erikos: FLOSS - reminds /me of FLOSS Manuals (i guess we
need to coordinate an update here as well)
(06:06:42 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: remind me what CFS is...?
(06:06:53 PM) mchua: SeanDaly: the grassroots deployment in boston,
cambridge friends school
(06:07:04 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: gotcha
(06:07:05 PM) mchua: another profile might be the SoaS team -
caroline, sdziallas, etc
(06:07:32 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: good ide, because our next "big" press
release will be SoaS I guess
(06:07:41 PM) SeanDaly: s/ide/idea
(06:07:42 PM) mchua: oh, okay. I'll wait for that, then.
(06:08:17 PM) SeanDaly: mchua; no, don't wait - we are mentioning SoaS
already, as "under active development"
(06:08:24 PM) walterbender: maybe dsd? insight into the Paraguay deployment?
(06:08:41 PM) tomeu: hmm, I saw the stories thing as something more
individual, so that current lurkers could get an idea of the process
through which proven contributors found their way
(06:08:59 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: nice idea since brings in the
intternational aspect
(06:09:01 PM) walterbender: maybe Christian and Eben for a designer's
perspective?
(06:09:01 PM) caroline: I like the team story idea
(06:09:03 PM) mchua: is there an educator we can profile?
(06:09:18 PM) SeanDaly: walterbender: +1
(06:09:28 PM) mchua: Ok, what I'll do is start a queue of interviews
on the wiki, shout it out to the marketing list, and people can push
stuff onto the queue
(06:09:37 PM) tomeu: well, christian and eben got involved into sugar
in a way that casual contributors won't get
(06:09:47 PM) SeanDaly: mchua, it would be great if you could work on
Sugar Stories
(06:09:47 PM) mchua: I'll work through the queue as far as I can
before press release date, and other people can also help work through
the queue
(06:09:48 PM) walterbender: Bill Kerr would be great or Tony Forster?
(06:09:58 PM) tomeu: not saying it's not interesting, just that it
won't probably inspire more people to actually do stuff
(06:10:00 PM) jt4sugar: mchua: you should interview Evangeline
(06:10:11 PM) SeanDaly: Sugar Stories will help us attract new volunteers
(06:10:19 PM) walterbender: How about Dongyun Lee?
(06:10:23 PM) walterbender: and Mike Lee?
(06:10:29 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: you don't think so?
(06:11:00 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: what I mean is that there are several
dozens of people that are already interested in sugar, they lurk in
#sugar and the mailing lists, but they haven't found yet the way to
contribute
(06:11:21 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: a very small part of these people
managed at some point to overcome that barrier and became successful
contributors
(06:11:26 PM) jt4sugar: Should ask community members how and why they
got involved-the answers will speak for themselves
(06:11:38 PM) tomeu: my original idea was to replicate that movement
from lurker to doer
(06:11:40 PM) SeanDaly: jt4sugar is right
(06:12:09 PM) tomeu: it may be two very different things: individual
interviews to "proven contributors" and success stories
(06:12:11 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: and I was in that category too... an
IAEP list subscriber woondering how to contribute
(06:12:21 PM) jt4sugar: And the answers should include who helped them along
(06:12:25 PM) tomeu: SeanDaly: right, you are a good candidate to be
interviewed in that way
(06:12:39 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: tee hee I'll interview meself
(06:12:42 PM) tomeu: I also don't know how caroline and dfarning
decided one day to actually do stuff
(06:12:54 PM) tomeu: but they have done really good stuff
(06:13:15 PM) SeanDaly: It's true that the mystique & jargon around
coding can be daunting
(06:13:19 PM) tomeu: if we can explain how this varied array of people
found their way to contribute, we increase the chances that this
process happens inside more people
(06:13:48 PM) walterbender: there are lots of folks out there among
the developer ranks as well...
(06:13:54 PM) walterbender: and in deployment circles...
(06:13:54 PM) SeanDaly: there is a common thread... we want kids to
have a better education
(06:13:55 PM) tomeu: in #sugar there's typically 80 people, but nobody
there explains how they decided to submit their first patch
(06:14:19 PM) dfarning left the room (quit: Connection timed out).
(06:14:36 PM) SeanDaly: back to my agenda idea, perhaps each of us can
write up a few phrases: "Why I contribute"?
(06:14:50 PM) dfarning [n=dfarning@82-204-82-216.fttx.bbeyond.nl]
entered the room.
(06:14:54 PM) jt4sugar: For each team we should have a "why I got
involved page" "What led me here"
(06:15:12 PM) mchua: add more suggestions for interviews to the queue
at http://sugarlabs.org/go/MarketingTeam/Sugar_stories, but note that
I *can't* get to all these groups in <2wks
(06:15:17 PM) tomeu: I was thinking rather about "how did I got
started into doing stuff"
(06:15:34 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu: well, it's true that it's a personal choice
(06:15:48 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: 3 to 5 stories would be grand enough
(06:16:03 PM) tomeu: but that's because I'm thinking about how to
further involve people that are already in the sugarlabs community,
but still as observers
(06:16:08 PM) mchua: I might struggle to hit that number, but it's a
good ambitious target. I'll see what I can do.
(06:16:14 PM) tomeu: it's true that growing the community is also important
(06:16:35 PM) mchua: Can I suggest a community growth focus for
the-release-after-this-next-one? (0.88?)
(06:16:46 PM) caroline: afk
(06:16:50 PM) SeanDaly: tomeu has a point... it's probably tha case
that most active contributors started out as lurkers
(06:16:51 PM) tomeu: that's one year  ;) 
(06:17:02 PM) mchua: tomeu: 6 months.
(06:17:06 PM) mchua: we need more things for new people to do, more
mentors to help them, and so on, before we go "floodgates! open!"
(06:17:28 PM) tomeu: mchua: true, we'll start working on 0.88 in 6 months
(06:17:49 PM) mchua: my focus for the 0.86 release is to help teams
build community participation infrastructures, now that we have some
good solid teams
(06:17:53 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: actually what I'd like to see is
teacher particpants sharing how they use Sugar in the classroom... cf
the feedback topic of 2 wks ago
(06:18:27 PM) mchua: SeanDaly, if someone can get me in touch with
teacher participants willing to talk for an hour or two, I'll gladly
interview 'em and write up nice profiles.
(06:18:33 PM) SeanDaly: we need volunteers to manage volunteers
(06:18:46 PM) SeanDaly: mchua: that's where local Labs can come in
(06:19:12 PM) tomeu: mchua: do we already know that a mentor plus a
given project is the best way for people to get started? I think it's
not the case that sustained contributors had those conditions before
starting to contribute
(06:19:12 PM) SeanDaly: But this week I wanted to talk priority about
the PR which is why I left that off  ;-) 
(06:19:39 PM) mchua: nope, but that's a good thing to find out.
(06:19:41 PM) walterbender: mchua: there is a teacher from Uruguay who
has been active lately:
(06:19:50 PM) jt4sugar: mchua: best shot is to talk to SJ and have him
put you in touch with Birmingham deployment
(06:19:55 PM) mchua: walterbender: awesome! can you pop them on the
http://sugarlabs.org/go/MarketingTeam/Sugar_stories list?
(06:20:04 PM) SeanDaly: i think part of what motivates people to
contribute is the feeling that their contribution will be valuable,
will "make a difference"
(06:20:07 PM) walterbender: mchua: Oneyda Ortega is starting to get
his students to document their work
(06:20:09 PM) tomeu: mchua: that's why I would like to read about how
people got to do sugar stuff
(06:20:22 PM) tomeu: mchua: normally it was by taking an area of responsibility
(06:20:32 PM) walterbender: mchua: maybe a good interview subject... in Spanish.
(06:20:46 PM) tomeu: a mentor might take a bit of responsibility out
from the new volunteer
(06:20:58 PM) tomeu: thus making the commitment less strong and lasting
(06:21:49 PM) mchua: walterbender: send me his contact info offlist
and I'll try to find someone who speaks Spanish to do the interview -
my es is terrible.
(06:22:04 PM) mchua: okeydokey. SeanDaly, anything else?
(06:22:17 PM) SeanDaly: I think we've hit the high notes for this time?
(06:22:46 PM) SeanDaly: going once, going twice...
(06:23:22 PM) SeanDaly: #end-meeting
(06:23:26 PM) mchua: SeanDaly: no hyphen
(06:23:37 PM) SeanDaly: zut! #endmeeting
(06:23:52 PM) mchua: SeanDaly: no zut!  ;) 
(06:23:55 PM) jt4sugar left the room (quit: "http://www.mibbit.com
ajax IRC Client").
(06:24:04 PM) SeanDaly: #endmeeting
(06:24:52 PM) ***mchua scratches head
(06:24:53 PM) mchua: #startmeeting
(06:24:53 PM) meeting: mchua, There is already a meeting in progress.
(06:24:56 PM) mchua: hm.
(06:25:06 PM) SeanDaly: oh no did I mess up?
(06:25:48 PM) mchua: Don't worry about it, just ask someone to
copy-paste their logs to the wiki.
(06:25:57 PM) mchua: Meetbot seems to be a bit awry.
(06:26:10 PM) mchua: (Nothing you did, Sean - looks like a bot problem.)
(06:26:30 PM) mchua: dogi, ^^^ - meetbot doesn't seem to be pushing
logs to http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/ right now
(06:27:16 PM) SeanDaly: actually I think i did hashstart-meeting with
a hyphen  :-( 
(06:27:33 PM) mchua: Don't worry about it - now we know for next time.  :) 
(06:27:37 PM) SeanDaly: i tried to log locally but messed that up tpp  :-( 
(06:27:43 PM) SeanDaly: tpp -> too
(06:27:49 PM) mchua: caroline or someone with logs, can you post to
wiki (or forward to me and I'll do it)?
(06:27:54 PM) mchua: and thanks for driving this forward, SeanDaly!
You've got a tough job especially because most of us are new to this
marketing thing.
(06:28:00 PM) mchua: so it's great to be able to watch and listen to
you and learn.
(06:28:23 PM) SeanDaly: I do my best but the real test will be if we
manage to get any atttention at all on the 16th  ;-) 
(06:28:30 PM) mchua: (my marketing education prior to this consisted
of reading one chapter in "the 10 day mba" for a required class.)
(06:29:01 PM) mchua: I'm bracing myself for the flood of press.  :) 
It's going to be fantastic.
(06:29:32 PM) SeanDaly: there might not be a flood... or even a
trickle... it can happen that we work hard and nothing happens
(06:29:59 PM) SeanDaly: Press coverage is extremely random as any
marketing/PR person can tell you
(06:31:04 PM) mchua: Even if it's a trickle, it gives us a good base
of materials to work with for ongoing marketing/outreach.
(06:31:49 PM) SeanDaly: one of the "secrets" to getting press coverage
is if an influential journalist covers the subject... there is a
"lemming effect"
(06:33:12 PM) SeanDaly: the Holy Grail is a wire service: the
slightest mention in AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP, even specialized
like IDG means dozens of articles
(06:33:53 PM) SeanDaly left the room (quit: ).
(06:34:23 PM) SeanDaly
[n=seandaly@29.254-136-217.adsl-static.isp.belgacom.be] entered the
room.
(06:34:39 PM) SeanDaly: OK mchua signing off now many many thanks
(06:34:59 PM) SeanDaly left the room (quit: Client Quit).
(06:36:33 PM) tomeu: mchua: still looking for the logs?
(06:36:38 PM) mchua: tomeu: yes, please!