[ubuntu-us-ma] Conference List

[Jordan Mantha]

On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 8:52 AM, Martin Owens<doctormo at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-07-18 at 00:55 -0700, Jordan Mantha wrote:
>> I suppose we all have different views of the purpose of LoCos. I
>> personally don't feel like advocacy targeted towards end users is all
>> the important. I'd generally say advocacy towards software developers,
>> OEMs, and ISVs is vastly more important. It seems like users will
>> pretty much find the best product if it's really the best product. A
>> LoCo can help by making Ubuntu the best product. I'm not trying to put
>> down advocacy per se, it's just my personal view the a lot of end-user
>> advocacy can be a waste of resources.
>
> Fortunately we don't need to have a differing of opinion on the exact
> nature of what Local Community groups do. Because while most groups are
> pushing advocacy as a priority there are opportunities to carry out
> development, translations and other work.

Right. I'm not trying to say that advocacy shouldn't be done at these
"external" events and certainly not that my view of advocacy is the
only way, I was just curious about the reasoning behind the
anime/sci-fi thing.

> As for OEMs and ISVs, unless your a business or even a registered
> organisation (we are not) then the only thing we can offer them is
> advice, when and if they ask for it. Contact with random public groups
> isn't a known priority for OEMs or ISVs.

Well, advice is good, but I was thinking more along the lines of
withing a persons sphere of influence that advocacy to OEMs and ISVs
can go a long way towards moving Ubuntu forward. Also NGOs are a big
target for advocacy. I'm thinking things like schools and community
organizations. It just seems to me that long-term relationships with
organizations/people that make a long-term impact on software choices
is a worthwhile effort. If I were to have to choose between helping a
school roll-out/demo Ubuntu/Edubuntu and flinging CDs at a Sci-Fi
convention, I'd go with the former hands down. I'm not suggesting
everybody would or should, it's just my opinion, hence the curiosity
about the Events wiki page.

>> Fair enough. I wonder how long it will last but hopefully the success
>> will continue.
>
> Please don't FUD the work we do, that sounded too passive aggressive.

I really wasn't intending FUD, I'm just a bit skeptical of the
street-corner type of advocacy that generally goes on at conventions.
You can give away a lot of CDs (good) and make connections with people
(good), but I wonder what the real return on the investment is. I
could be totally wrong and people are converting into long-term
users/contributors in droves, I'm not saying I know how this works.
It's just been my experience that "shallow" advocacy can produce great
initial interest but not as much long-term. The value in such advocacy
is raising general awareness of Ubuntu, which is definitely good,  but
I wouldn't discount more "traditional" advocacy either. I personally
believe we really do need both.

>> I'd rather see resources going into making
>> Ubuntu a better product in the first place. No biggie, to each his
>> own.
>
> Of course you would, because this does mean a better OS for everyone.
> But the barrier we have is not technical. It's social, educational and
> market forces (and a small amount of legal). Making the OS better for
> who? for your average user who it already serves very well? If the last
> 5% need better software then shouldn't they be paying for it to be made?

I guess I would disagree here. I think the most pernicious barriers to
Ubuntu adoption are technical. The #1 reason I hear from people for
not switching to Ubuntu is that there is Windows software that they
want/need that either can't be run on Linux or doesn't have a Linux
port/equivalent. The #2 reason is hardware support. Those are both
very much technical barriers. I think if the legal issues and the
Microsoft monopoly were suddenly to disappear, there would still be
significant barriers to adoption.

We need to make Ubuntu better for everybody. I'm not sure that it does
serve all that many people "very well" right now. There are a lot of
things that need improvement (just look at all the bugs on Launchpad
and support requests on the forums) and lots of work that goes in to
maintaining the current level of usability and stability.

I honestly wasn't trying to start a lengthy discussion on
advocacy/LoCo philosophy so I'll just shut up and let people move
along.

-Jordan