Re: Fwd: [libreoffice-marketing] BrOffice product and community will be called LibreOffice

On 4/23/11 6:41 PM, Riemer Thalen wrote:

> OK, here is the technical side of the marketing issue.

Hi Riemer, apart from the fact that inside TDF there are already several 
people with a decent marketing background, not only in the general 
marketplace but specifically in the free software ecosystem, your email 
shows little or no knowledge of the BROffice community.

Communities behave in a different - and sometimes weird - way, in 
comparison with the commercial marketplace. Also marketing is very 
different, and looking at technical manuals - something I would not 
suggest before having at least some "hands on" experience - might be 
misleading, when you have to deal with free software.

Your enthusiasm is fantastic, but - believe me, as I have been in 
marketing of technology products for the last 30 years, and of free 
software for the last eight - the community needs a helping hand and not 
a marketing lesson (I am teaching marketing and communications at 
several Italian universities, and in the past I have been a visiting 
professor in a couple of US universities).

I refer also to your previous message about running a survey to ask 
about features to people not using LibreOffice. Some past experiences 
show that these surveys are of little or no help (and sometimes they 
might even be misleading).

Apart from a very small group of people, software users do not have a 
clear idea of the development process, and therefore they do not know 
what to ask. The same applies to hardware users. Unfortunately, those 
who know which features to ask are the so called "power users", i.e. 
those who already know and use the product on a regular basis.

In any case, not even Apple - I remember your example - is using user 
surveys to determine new features (I have been a consultant to Apple for 
nine years, and I know several people they contract for testing 
prototypes). Sometimes they use focus groups.

Sorry for the lengthy answer. Best regards, Italo

--
Italo Vignoli
italo.vignoli@gmail.com
mobile +39.348.5653829
VoIP +39.02.320621813
skype italovignoli

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