Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Lets go public - CeBIT 2011

I just wanted to send a huge "WhooHoo" to everyone who's done such
hard work to bring LibO to market and CeBIT is going to be another
huge step in the right direction. Due to illness, I've not bee n able
to participate as I would have liked (that will change soon - getting
better every day), but the team has been amazing.

One thing I'm concerned about though is the green thing. As Thomas
said in his email below, there's nothing technically spectacular that
sets LibO apart from OOo yet and I believe that could be a problem.
Don't get me wrong, I think the separation itself is a technical
achievement as it will allow some amazing opportunities in the future,
but right now, admittedly, nothing is spectacular.

I'm a bit concerned about pushing the "it's green" aspect. I mean, so
what? I don't think people care what their office suite looks like
aside from being usably well designed and how that impacts UI design.
Saying "it's green" doesn't impact the user experience, doesn't affect
their work flow, doesn't make using thing easier. It's a ho-hum "we're
kinda reaching" kind of statement.

Now I know some of you are thinking "Look what Microsoft did with the
damn ribbon" and that's true. the ribbon *isnt* a technical
achievement but rather an asthetic one. But Microsoft's own UI studies
show that the organization of the ribbon makes workflow a bit easier
in addition to some aesthetic niceness. So really they aren't just
saying "it looks good" but focusing on how it can help you work
better.

Shouldn't usability be the focus of LibO marketing; how it makes the
user life easier and faster? I fear that focusing on the colour aspect
really is the wrong thing to focus on. If there are no technical
achievements, what about focusing on the freedom and "what's to come"
because of that freedom?

Please don't take this as criticizing. I'm just airing my $0.02.

Thanks,
Anthony Papillion
United States

On 1/16/11, Thomas Krumbein <thomas.krumbein@documentfoundation.org> wrote:
> Hey,
>
> In March (01. to 05.) the CeBIT show will be in Hannover, Germany.
> "CeBIT is the digital industry's biggest, most international event" -
> see www.cebit.de
>
> We will have a booth there and we (the german community) will exhibit
> LibreOffice on three demo-points, so we will have all platforms (Linux,
> Windows, Mac OS). The booth is paid by OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V.
>
> If someone wants to share - or just visit us - please contact me or
> someone else from the german community.
>
> I believe, this is a very good point to go public with LibO. We will
> have some marketing-material, which is prepared now, and wie will have a
> DVD. So, we just need a final version ;-)
> I hope, it will be finished latest first week of Feb - otherwise it is
> too late for producing DVDs.
>
> We will produce German marketing material, but it may be a good idea to
> have even some english infos. So feel free to spend ideas.
>
> I will publish links to German material here as soon as we will have
> first layouts.
>
> At this point I think about some "slogans" for getting startet. I will
> share my ideas:
>
> What is really new? Well, we have some nice improvements, but are the
> really spectacular? I don`t think so. It is jsut another office-suite
> and when we start again with "free", "OfficeSuite", "undependent", "odf"
> and all this technical stuff, who really wants to read this?
> So, I believe, we have to be emotional. Just for this start. Bring
> people to look at us, to try our software.
>
> Let`s go back: What is really new (in comparison to OOo)? I found one
> point: the color :-)   From blue to green.
>
> So I created a very easy slogan for a small flyer:
>
> "neu ... grün ... sympatisch"  - this is German, in translation it will
> sounds like:  "new ... green ... sympathetic"
>
> In Germany the combination between "green" and "sympathetic" is not
> really new, but still positiv used.
>
> So - we will create a postcard flyer - in front just these three word on
> a green field, backsides some short information about LibreOffice and an
> invitation to visit our booth.
>
> That`s a first idea.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Best regards
> Thomas
>
>
>
> --
> ## Marketing deutschsprachiges Projekt
> ## http://de.libreOffice.org  - www.LibreOffice.org
> ## Vorstand OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V.
> ## Mitglieder willkommen: www.OOoDeV.org
>
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Anthony Papillion
Lead Developer / Owner
Advanced Data Concepts - "Enabling work anywhere"
(918) 919-4624

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