New York Times advertisement for Ubuntu

[Benjamin Melançon]

It's a lot (probably too much) to ask any group or organization to be
the first, but we the people who give a damn about our human condition
have to break a dependence on media that help the unconscionable
become accepted.

I'll limit the political argument to an old post:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/5/27/92450/8788

So, what's the practical situation?

There are a few things that should be in place before any expensive outreach:

1.  Ability to take tax-deductible donations
2.  Constituent/donor relationship management tools
3.  Press and public outreach / inquiry handling... actually, a
comprehensive marketing strategy.  Probably (I may be wrong) more time
and effort has to be spent on that before any ad makes sense as *part*
of an overall marketing strategy.

What's the Ubuntu equivalent, for instance, to the GetFirefox.com site
of a couple years ago?

Is Ubuntu itself where Firefox was two years ago?  Hands-down better
than the Microsoft alternative in virtually every respect?  Damn
close, actually, but ... ?

Does anyone have records of adoption rates, media buzz, and donations
surrounding the Firefox NYT ad?  How much did it really do?

Furthermore we're asking people to change their operating system,
which despite the free live CD is a lot bigger request than
downloading a web browser.  This in itself may encourage the deeper
sort of interaction that may be possible with a more decentralized
campaign than a single high profile NYT ad.

What I, personally, want is a "PowerToUbuntu" web site where I, and
anyone else interested, can put up money toward our must-have
features– a funding model for free software that uses the strength of
openness to the greatest advantage for the software, its (potential)
users, and developers.  We'll be getting web sites like this up for
Drupal and GNU-Linux as soon as we can get around to it.

** ATTENTION: this idea is worth reading even if you hate everything else:

 Funding "adoption studies" to bring various people (inner city
schoolteacher, country mother, small-business owner, college student,
nonprofit executive, newspaper reporter, First Peoples reservation
family) into the Ubuntu universe *with* a sophisticated media strategy
to get as much free news attention as possible, which would be a hell
of a lot more than an ad, *and* with money to fund targeted
development for overcoming the sticking points any of these people
encounter–  well, yeah, we're probably over $250,000 now but we're
building something real and valuable and ours, and I would put $1,000
toward it.  Someone register the Ubuntu Project .com or something.

** ok you can go back to ignoring me now **

Taking the more narrow 'get a message in front of a lot of people' approach:

Alternative to NYT #1 (the big leap of faith)

Give a few key web developers (shameless plug:
http://AgaricDesign.com/ + http://MayFirst.org + ... ) $250,000 over
18 months and we'll build a democratic communication infrastructure
that will reach more than a million people more effectively than the
New York Times can.

You'll never be able to calculate in advance exactly how many people
you can reach for how much money in a communication system where
extent of distribution is decided democratically, but it's going to be
a very long time before Ubuntu could compete with Microsoft in
ad-buying power even if we wanted to.  Once an under-no-one's-control,
filtered-by-everyone (a bit at a time) media system is built, though,
it's free for everyone.

(And it could so have a powered by Ubuntu button on every page, or a
more general Free Software link that highlights Ubuntu if we stick
with Debian!)

Alternative to NYT #2 (building on what our allies for humanity are
already doing)

Contact Steve Anderson of http://coanews.org/  (CCd) and throw a
thousand dollars his way to survey COA News *many* affiliates (and
other independent media you think of, I've got a list growing in my
head) about taking an Ubuntu ad and what their reach is.  I think
you'll get a better audience at better cost than the New York Times.

Combine 1 and 2 a little and help Anderson's Center for Information
Awareness adopt and integrate independent media and support of free
software messages into just-adopted (as open source and nonprofit)
http://SocialWay.com

(Agaric Design Collective is serving as technical consultant, but
we're out of our league.)

Any Java developers out there?

In solidarity in any case,

benjamin melançon
http://AgaricDesign.com - open source free software web development

Did I mention that I thought that being 501c3 and taking donations was
important?  If you think any of these ideas are so crazy they just
might work, send a tax-deductible contribution to an organization
founded to build democratic communications technology and
infrastructure!   The *only* group officially recognized by the
commonwealth of Massachusetts and the U.S. government as:

People Who Give a Damn, Inc.
P.O. Box 241
Natick, MA 01760

(We'd take donations online but we don't believe in the Internet.  OK,
OK, it's coming.)