[libreoffice-marketing] Re: international DVD/stick [was: Re: Are there any BrOffice people on this list?]

Hi Bernhard:

Le 2011-02-28 12:42, Bernhard Dippold a écrit :
> In my personal opinion most of the content of a DVD is far more likely
> to be language dependent than regional.
>
> For regions with more than one main language it might be reasonable to
> provide combined versions of two (or three) languages, but most of the
> people in the world use one main language.
>
> Even multi-language DVD share a large portion of content that doesn't
> need to be translated. So it's just a partial work to be done on top of
> the similar work for single language DVDs.
>
> Combining the right files and creating ISO files from the right content
> is probably a task that takes some time to be done without much manual
> interaction. Files have to be flagged for language (or multi-language),
> searched and included in the ISO, the UI needs automatic marking /
> hiding of links to files not translated in the target language.
>
> There might be a part of the DVD kept free for local additions, but I
> agree with Charles, that one officially supported version of a DVD and
> USB-stick has a larger impact on international marketing than single
> regional activities, allowing special groups to create their own DVD,
> while users in any other parts of the world don't have access to such
> resources.

Unfortunately, this is where perhaps the North American model does not 
work. Perhaps the language model works best in Europe.

In Canada for example, we have 2 official languages English and French 
Canadian. As far as I know, any disks deployed for example to 
educational systems are given preference to disks with combined 
English/French on the disk. Also, French language residents are spread 
over all the country and it would be more practical to offer a combined 
disc at conferences rather than language based disks.

As far as I understand, in many regions, many American states are 
(although unofficially) English and Spanish language based. In all 
practicality, a bilingual EN-ES disc with files for the US market should 
include both EN and ES on the disc.

From a marketing point of view, imagine arriving at either a Canadian 
or US conference with both EN and FR or ES on separate disks. It would 
certainly look very strange if you ran out of either EN or FR or ES 
discs and have either language group find that you are not supporting 
their language with discs not being available.

It is far more "marketing wise" to offer these discs with languages 
offered on the same disc. Not doing so would be a serious error in 
judgement for the North American market. Drew has already mentioned that 
some of the Hispanic community has let it known that they feel let down 
with no support (SCALE conference).

As for Central and South America, perhaps there are fewer problems with 
languages. Brazil, as you know, is BR-PT and the rest of the other 
countries are Spanish. Perhaps there, a language based DVD would be 
applicable. So, Brazil-PT would be found on the LibreOffice PT version 
of the disc. All other countries would be found on the LibreOffice ES 
DVD. I imagine this would be up to discussion with the Central/South 
American membership. You may find however that they may prefer a 
regional DVD for South America supporting ES and BR-PT on the same disc.

Again, the offer to support Central/South America was due to some 
interest from some members and as the North American DVD was being 
planned for ES support, it was just as easy to add ES support for them. 
The offer went out as there seems to be very little movement on the ES list.

IMO, we need to treat the DVD destined to N.America more as a regional 
disc. We (N. Americans) can/will find member support for the DVD upkeep 
for both the US and Canada.

> > So, IMO, regional DVD/USB sticks for the LibreOffice project would be
> > more practical for the North/Central/South American regions.
>
> I think that a common effort by the international marketing leading to
> English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German versions of the DVD
> could be more practical for the entire community...
>
> Combining the language dependent content to English/French or
> English/French/Spanish versions might be appropriate for certain
> markets, but as you already stated, free space on DVD is restricted.

Yes, but it looks like it is possible to do so for all of these 
languages destined for use in the Americas.

> > And yes, any help with the DVD/USB projects would be most welcome.
>
> +1
>
> If I understood Drew right, the North American DVD is based on the
> German LibreOfficeBox, so the effort has already been shared.
>
> Perhaps there is a possibility to improve this interaction even more...
>
> Best regards
>
> Bernhard

Yes, I believe the LibreOfficeBox effort is remarkable. They have done 
an excellent job on the DE disk. We have used their model and are 
applying it with some tweaks for our DVD. I would definitely agree that 
closer support would be advantageous. Yes, Tim and Drew are our main 
leads and contributors to the project.

BTW ... we are also looking for space on a server for our ISO as well as 
possibility to ftp into the server account.

Cheers

Marc


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