Fwd: [libreoffice-marketing] MARKETING PLAN: Some Proposals

Forwarding the message to the mailing list, as it was sent just to me.
This is a LibreOffice user, who is tangent to the community, and he
provides the POV we should be addressing with the label.


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:        Re: [libreoffice-marketing] MARKETING PLAN: Some Proposals
Date:   Mon, 9 Nov 2020 18:14:30 +0000
From:   James Harking <james.harking@gmail.com>
To:     italo@libreoffice.org



Hello all,

I have followed these discussions for a number of months now. I am just
a user of LibreOffice and not as well connected as clearly you all are.

In my opinion I believe that an 'average' user that downloads
LibreOffice does not care about the label much at all. It's secondary
for almost every user to the fact they get a free (as in beer) office
suite. It is the organisations you need to be concerned about.

You are in reality saying how can I make them feel 'guilty' or
'oblidged' to stop being freeloaders and put something back. I think the
personal label does that for the reasons stated by Italo. I like
community edition also but it doesn't feel as explicit. Community can
mean different things to different people.

If it was me I would have the branding in multiple places. I would make
it prominent. It doesn't change the licence, it doesn't put restrictions
on users but it does inform on a purpose and it is unlikely you would
put typical users off from using the software. 

The choice as I see it is what will keep development going for the long
term if the people who fund this development were to stop through no sales? 

If the choice is possibly upset some sensibilities in a small group of
community members or see the project stagnate? Then that's no choice at
all. Do you wish to continue as you have for the last ten years or make
a bold change.

Just my opinion anyway,

James

On Mon, 9 Nov 2020, 15:06 Italo Vignoli, <italo@libreoffice.org
<mailto:italo@libreoffice.org>> wrote:

    So far, I have not participated to the discussion, hoping that this
    could help others in pushing forward their proposals. Unfortunately,
    this has not happened, so I am trying to share some thoughts and
    proposals for the following action item:

    1. Product Label for the community supported version provided by TDF

    First of all, it should be clear that this label is not targeted to
    community members, but to the outside world of LibreOffice users (so,
    probably to 99.9% of all users). Rejecting a label because it is not
    seen as appropriate for community members is not helping the decision,
    because we need to improve the positioning for all those people who do
    not contribute at all to the project (apart from donations, which are
    not seen as contributions for this decision).

    The unfortunate reality is that the majority of enterprises is using
    LibreOffice for free - is their right, but they usually save a rather
    substantial amount of money by replacing MS Office licenses with
    LibreOffice - without giving back anything, while they should support
    the project at least in the same proportion of individuals who donate
    (because they recognize the value of the software).

    So, we need to exert some moral suasion on enterprises by making it
    clear - with a label - that the LibreOffice version they are using is
    not targeted to enterprises, as it is not supported professionally, or
    it is not packaged according to the needs of enterprises deploying
    LibreOffice on a large number of PCs.

    Proposals in line with the objective:

    COMMUNITY: makes the Community happy, but does not communicate to users
    the right message, as Community is the feature-limited version of open
    core projects (best case, competent users or 1% of all users), or the
    organization where you treat addictions (worst case, or 98.9% of all
    users). IMHO not applicable.

    PERSONAL: does not make the Community happy because Personal is not
    interpreted in the right way by OSS advocates (Personal as in personal
    computer or personal productivity), on the contrary is rather clear for
    users outside the community ("I can use it for free on my PC"), and is
    providing the right message to enterprises (by the way, a label will not
    stop anyone from using LibreOffice for free on hundreds or thousands of
    PCs, but will give us a reason for a strong message). IMHO the best.

    ROLLING: Rolling is a techie term for OSS advocates, based on several
    Linux distros, although not popular amongst users provides a feeling of
    something which is not perfectly stable, and as such could be used - but
    the deployment should be carefully studied - to provide a message for
    enterprises. IMHO sub-optimal but probably acceptable.

    CLASSIC: Classic is a typical branding term used by very large brands to
    label the "original" product, when there are variants available. As such
    it could work, although the message for enterprises should be carefully
    crafted and added. IMHO sub-optimal but probably acceptable.

    BASIC: this is the closest label to "home" or "unsupported", which were
    suggested by ecosystem members (but have a negative meaning which is not
    appropriate for a quality product such as LibreOffice), it is not the
    most elegant solution but it could be deployed with some extra care, and
    some specific message targeted to enterprises. IMHO the last resport, if
    nothing else works.

    Looking forward to other proposals, possibly with a rationale.

    Of course, please remember the planned meeting on Wednesday, November
    11, at 2PM UTC.

    2. Where to position the label: title bar, about box, start center

    I would like to get some ideas also for the positioning of the label. I
    am not sure that adding it to the Start Center would make a difference,
    because most users do not read what they have on the screen, and so the
    enterprises.

    Of course, we have to find a place where to add the label, in addition
    to the About Box (which is the natural place for it).

    In any case, the effectiveness of the label will be related to the
    communication effort around it, which will be based on specific actions
    and messages. We will have to educate enetrprises, which are not trivial
    to educate as a target. On the other hand, if enterprises do not give
    something back to the project, the sustainability is at stake.

    Sorry for the long message, happy to read other contributions.

    --     Italo Vignoli - LibreOffice Marketing & PR
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-- 
Italo Vignoli - LibreOffice Marketing & PR
mobile/signal +39.348.5653829 - email italo@libreoffice.org
hangout/jabber italo.vignoli@gmail.com - skype italovignoli
GPG Key ID - 0xAAB8D5C0
DB75 1534 3FD0 EA5F 56B5 FDA6 DE82 934C AAB8 D5C0

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