Re: Marketing/PR cont'd

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Ra'id Al-Jamali <rjamali at omantel dot net dot om> wrote:
> Yes, I'm pathetically late.

Better late and committed then never (just keep at it and buy yourself
a better watch/calendar :-)

> In short, these are:
> 
> 1. Assemble contact lists (a-e)
> 2. Create / adapt various tools to act as marketing hooks (f)
> 3. Search for various market studies (g)
> 
> If I were to prioritise: highest to 2, then 1, then 3.

Agreed.  You want to show those contacts something, so you better have
content to start with.

> Why do I perceive number 2 highest?
> Creating existing tools (such as Arabbix), or adapting existing ones
> (such as translating the current website, adding user-oriented
> FAQs/screenshots/etc..), this is the essence of public relations. The
> content is already there, but the message to be fine-tuned to achieve
> better leverage. All the tools need to be complementary and aligned such
> that they provide a marketing "hook".

How about the following as concrete steps forward (more below),

 1. Furnish Anmar with his list of documents that he wants included (and
    translated) for inclusion into Arabbix 1.0 ASAP.
 2. Suggest to Anmar other content for inclusion ASAP.
 3. Suggest concrete/detailed content for the newbie presentations.
    Ossama.K, you have had content with newbies about linux and had
    taught/presented on the topic; could you lend a hand in terms of
    content and what sort of areas people gravitated towards and what
    they wanted to know more about.

> What kind of "hook"? We're not going fishing are we?
> Seeing for many is believing, and when Arabbix is out (and properly
> distributed!) it should hopefully be a powerful lure to Arabeyes. The
> challenge then will be to capitalise on these 15 mins of fame. First
> port of call will be the website - this is, after all, a 'net community!
> We need therefore to ensure that there are sufficient hooks there for
> each slice of our audience. For the intrepid newbie, sufficient help
> docs, user FAQs, screenshots. For university staff, perhaps a message to
> promote the user of Free & OSS , and a plea to help tackling Arabization
> technical issues within their institutions. For government officials and
> national standards organisations, perhaps a request to throw their
> weight in various standards consortia. For commercial organisations,
> share with them our plans and 'to-do's, establish Arabeyes credibility
> in adding genuine value to Arabizing the *nix environment, and put forth
> some sponsorship aims both materially or otherwise. You get the idea:
> for each mouse, some cheese and a trap :)

You're RIGHT (I think we touched on all of this before).  Now let's list
out what we like to include (number of docs, outline, content, etc) and
get cranking on writing them and preparing them for review.

 4. Segment docs/presentations into expertise levels.
    a. For Newbie
    b. For University people
       i. students
      ii. profs/lecturers/deans
    c. For Governments and their agencies
    d. For Companies

> Ok so what do we do next?
> Each Arabeyes project should have an expanded page which is
> user-oriented (read more newbie than developer). The template for each
> page should be consistent: A number of fixed headings + subsequent
> paragraphs and a screenshot (or more if necessary). The headings should
> answer simple questions like: what does the project do / aim at? What
> are the technical issues (layman's terms)? Where are we now? What is the
> plan ahead? This sort of thing. Remember the aim here is to lure and
> hook, so simple questions followed by simple answers, and a picture is
> worth... you know!

This is more difficult esp. since we are having major commit problems from
our website admin - until such a time that he snaps out of his comma :-)
we'll need to shelf this idea (I'll keep it in mind - its good).  Alot of
what you mention is already there btw (so maybe we need to revamp how we
present the data).

> Did I mention Arabising the content?
> No, but does something that obvious need to be stated? Isn't this whole
> project about arabeyes-ing the unix environment anyway? :)

 5. Translate Arabeyes.org's website into Arabic (again we need
    volunteers to do this and we need our website Admin get jolted back
    to action)

> OK... but I'm still talking and not doing, am I?
> That's right. As mentioned, the tools of PR are top priority for me.
> Currently this means two things: Arabbix and Website. I'm quite eager to
> see Arabbix up and running, and even offered Anmar my help in that
> regard. As for the website, what do those in charge feel about my
> comments? I'm eager to work with you guys to get something going...

OK, as noted Anmar posted a need for various documents - probe him
further on what he needs and suggest what you'd like to see and let's
run with it.

Ra'id, I will mail you a list of 9 people who have registered with
Arabeyes.org with "PR" as their area of interest (off-list).  Do please
contact them all and see if they are interested in helping.  If they
are assign them a task and track 'em if you can please.  I think we've
done enough of "help us" begging and its time now to simply farm out
the work, assign it to people and track it.

We also need to finish/create the PR Guide document so I'll tag you with
that as well.

 6. Complete the PR HOWTO/Guide document (similar to the 'developer'
    and 'translator' guides) so that newbies interested in this area
    that are wanting to help, can pick-up and contribute without any
    loss or confusion.  Within we ought to have our goals/mandates,
    plan and anything else that might be of interest to future
    contributors in this area.

      http://cvs.arabeyes.org/viewcvs/doc/guide/

Again, I think we are all on the same page and agree on 99.99% of issues,
now is the time to jump on all of this and show content and progress.

As noted, I'll mail you the list of people off-list for you to probe 'em.

Salam.

 - Nadim


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