Re: Arabeyes Marketing/PR Project Proposal

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

Salam all - this is a topic dear to my heart since I know its importance
and know first hand its impact.  I will address the various emails sent
with regard to this topic in order to hopefully bring forth some semblance
of order and most importantly ACTION and direction.

On 2003-08-19 at 10:45, Isam Bayazidi wrote:
> Below is a new project proposal, that need alot of polishing/definition
> and so by all those who can help:
> 
>  -- Arabeyes Marketing/Public Relations Team/Project

I don't see this as a project per se.  Its an initiative and/or an entire
meta-project requirement (yup, requirement - without it we're missing
a large chunk of our mandate).

--- Kamal Dalal wrote:
> Arabeyes Mission:
> 
> Obviously Arabeyes is here to promote arabic in linux applications.
> Describe what is the problem for people ? Are they programmers
> (vim/emacs) are they word processor users ? what are the typical
> applications that they use.

We've tried to address this in multiple areas - mailing-lists, in the
about blurbs, in the project categorization; but I agree, its an area
that needs to be stressed further to newbies and new-comers and the
media in general.

> How would you measure the mission success ? media coverage ? number
> of arabic related bugs reported weekly ? number of external project
> "hot-threads" that are discussing arabic-related issues ?

We don't have any means to measure.  The more widespread Linux becomes
due to our efforts the more successful we are - how you go about getting
that info is rather beyond our abilities at the moment.

> What is the (detailed) plan to achieve the goals. Trnaslate & Hack ?

I'll give my suggestions at the bottom of this email (and you thought
you'd get off easy :-)

> Tools that arabeyes has : Website , Email lists, IRC.
> 
> Website:
> 
> Profile of visitors and see whether website meets expectation.
> 
> Why did they come in the first place ? Where are they coming from ?
> What do we want them to look at ?
> 
> Define what arabeyes wants visitors to do with the website.

Agreed, this is an area our web-developement team (Arafat.M and Youcef.R)
need to look into and report back on.

> Email Lists:
> 
> Readers Writers ratio.
> 
> Not clear what is considered on topic and what not. Take developer
> list for example. what do people on the lists expect ? do newbie
> developers expect to learn new things ? again, profile and see
> expectations.

Don't see how that would help - this is a refinement of our internal
process you are getting at, where-as we are looking in Public-Relations
and Marketing (primarily to those that are NOT on our lists and most
likely never will be).  Meaning, we are looking to spread the word
and to educate people about Open-Source/Linux and how Arabeyes.org
facilitates that quest.

> other resources:
> 
> money . is raising money a goal? what will the money be used for.
> identify organizations, companies that have a stake in arabeyes. Find
> ways to make them want to pay or else they will loose money. If
> arabeyes is not attractive enough, or still not mature enough in their
> eyes, find out why and what will it take to make it such.

Money can play a big role in helping that's for sure.  Is it a must ?
NO.  Can it make things easier ?  Absolutely.  Here's a scenario.  There
are various consortiums out there that meat to discuss issues that relate
closely to Arabic (Unicode, OpenI18n, etc).  Not only do you have to be
a paying member (in most groups) to really make an impact (ie. fee-dues),
but it would be great if some Arabeyes representatives were able to really
join those effort and meet with whomever and have all those minimal
expense taken care of (to make it possible in other words).  There are
other areas where money can help - but in all its nothing we should
obsess about.  For the record, this topic at this stage is mere noise to
the PR agenda (so let's not dwell over it - if you want more details,
start a new thread specific to this topic).

> Of course arabeyes is not a commercial company, and one should
> remember that working with volunteers is like herding cats ;)

Nope, we're actually looking to incorporate as a Non-profit foundation
soon enough given the various legal details are worked out (you know
the viruality of the whole thing -- people on different continents, etc).

--- Ra'id Al-Jamali wrote:
> On Tuesday 19 August 2003 11:45, Isam Bayazidi wrote:
> The same themes have been stirring up in my mind for the last
> couple of weeks (since I registered)... thanks for providing
> me with a springboard to finally jump in!

Heheheh and I really hope you don't jump-out anytime soon.  The water
is lovely :-)

> OBJECTIVES (or Goals)
> What are PR efforts required for? And in what priority?
> In other words, is it to get more brains working on the project 
> (developers, documenters, etc)? To secure material resources (web
> hosting, bandwidth, etc)? Get products distributed (via Debian,
> Red Hat, Mandrake, etc)? Is there a special issue that requires
> participation of other parties, such as definition of and agreement
> on a certain standard? This has already been touched upon, but I
> believe we need to be more specific in deliverables, and prioritise
> them in importance.
>
> Objectives should be tangible, clear and directly contributing to
> the bottom line. They will also serve as a metric by which success
> of the PR process is measured.

Excellent points/questions - now we're getting somewhere :-)

Well, the objectives we can agree upon quickly (I won't tag importance or
levels of importance to any of this just yet), but my take on the PR group's
objective and goals are to,

 + Put forth some documentation/articles that non-techies can learn from
   - Pamphlets
   - Hand-outs (background, history, benefits, etc)
   - Presentations
 + Raise Awareness in the general public at large
   - and computer users specifically
 + Push for an easy means to show-case Linux (Arabic Knoppix - Arappix ??)
 + Get Universities and professors interested
   - Universities should offer linux related topics/projects/know-how
   - Professors should teach and enlighten students with said-topic
   - Professor/Students should join Arabeyes for collaborations
 + Approach high-schools about Linux and about educating that segment
 + Get the pulse of local businesses on their needs/requirements
 + Get "linux-pushing" business/companies onboard
   - Its in these .com's best interest to help the movement grow
 + Attain and publish credible market studies (projections, etc)
 + Get the major distros involved and committed
   - Establish a means to bully/pressure distros into knowing lack of support
 + Attain some sponsorship to broaden Arabeyes' reach and ensure its existence
 + Fully study and recommend means to sustain current/future community
   - LUG consolidation, coordination, cooperation, etc
   - Portals ?

In short, the objective is to,

  ``Educate Arabs everywhere about Open Source, Linux and Arabeyes
    (to not only use, but to develop and learn from) and get
    Open Source/Linux adopted in as many places as possible''.

How we attain all of this ?  Well, I'll be making suggestions in hopes
of us zero'ing in on and divide-up the required work to get going below.

> STAKEHOLDERS
> Who are the main stakeholders? How can they contribute to further the
> Arabeyes cause? How should each be approached (passive information,
> active engagement, etc..?

Well, including myself there are 4 people that have participated on this
thread - what is their commitment ?  I have no idea and here-in lies THE
major problem.  Without commitment from people to do things (and then
actually doing it), this PR effort (or anything else) will get nowhere
fast.  Simply put, "talk is cheap" and "action speaks louder than words".
I'm all for planning, but soon enough we need to know that people will do
what is agreed-upon without constant prodding and probing.  We need to not
just list issues and questions, but suggest means and solutions.  Alas,
I'll dampen and freeze that throbbing nerve ;-)

> I very much see this as an area where I can contribute to, both locally
> in Oman and as a member of Arabeyes. However, being a newcomer you can
> see that I currently have more questions than answers, and would therefore
> much appreciate steer and guidance from others members on these issues.

Ra'id, I'm very glad to hear that since I get the feeling you will be an
indispensable asset to push and realize all this.  What is needed, again,
is belief, commitment and action.  I commend you on a very well written
and thought-out email !!

Now, about what I have in mind to bring some semblance of progress the
"PR" effort is the following,

 1. Look over Arabeyes' current "Introductory Material" section
      http://www.arabeyes.org/about.php
    + Simple ?  Complete ?  Interesting enough ?
    + What's missing ?  What changes are required ?
 2. Assemble a list of all pertinent/relevant news publications/sources
    and contact points (emails/phone numbers/etc).
    + Newspapers
    + Magazines
    + Portals
    + TV/Radio shows
 3. Push for the creation of Arappix (project to come within Arabeyes) ASAP
 4. Assemble a list of various Universities that can be physically
    (ie. in-person) approached and the person willing and committing to
    approach them.
 5. Assemble a list of possible computer-centric businesses that have
    a large public random user-base and/or require cutting-edge features
    + Internet Cafes
    + Schools/Libraries
    + University computing labs/clusters
 6. Assemble a list of all the businesses that are marketing Linux
 7. Look into what is required to create/attain market research studies
    without any associated cost (ie. free).
 8. Assemble a list of contacts within distros to approach
    + Interface with 'distro' project with regard to certification and
      requirements list ("show distros what is missing").
 9. Assemble a list of all the LUGs and their main contact points

Now if you look at my "goals" outline and this list, it will be apparent
that I'm simply wanting to put forth a contact list for each category
so we can then divide-up the who does what (not between us, but between
whomever volunteers and commits - we have none now) and proceed.  If we
can tell people about Open Source, Linux and Arabeyes and show them what
we are doing and talk about the benefits, etc, we're half-way there.
We'd just need them to get involved and associated to complete what we
are setting out to do.

Salam.

 - Nadim


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