[OT] TV, Internet, and Democracy

[Scott Elcomb]

On 5/25/07, JoeHill <joehill-R6A+fiHC8nRWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Christopher Browne left a post-it on the fridge:
>
> > On 5/25/07, John Van Ostrand <john-Da48MpWaEp0CzWx7n4ubxQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2007-05-25 at 09:56 -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> > > > I may be sorry to mention this, but an excellent example of this mistake
> > > > (IMO) was the reaction of some on the community to the Microsoft Vista
> > > > launch. Stand on the corner across the street, demonstrate, inflate a
> > > > big penguin, and hand out CDs. It certainly made the participants feel
> > > > good (look how many brochures we burned through!) and was great for peer
> > > > recognition (participants later judged the event a success because
> > > > photos of it found their way onto social websites). But the net real
> > > > effect of that event, to get more open source use in Toronto, was near
> > > > zero. Make no mistake, this event was done for the benefit of the people
> > > > doing it, not the target audience -- it served a purpose, to be sure,
> > > > but not the one stated.
> > >
> > > It's unfair to say that the Vista launch demonstration was ineffective
> > > because it had little effect. Virtually all individual ads have little
> > > effect. It's the sum of many ads that make the difference. The more
> > > people that see the inflated penguin pop-up, the more they will think of
> > > it when they see Linux. It's reinforcement.
> >
> > No, I think Evan is right about this.
>
> No, I think Evan has a pathological fixation, cannot let go of something that
> happened 4 months ago, and is in need of serious help, (much unlike me) ;)

FWIW, I think Evan has made some valid observations.  Perhaps not
"correct" to your point of view, but valid at least.  I for one value
Evan's input, along with all the others' - such as your own.

What I would really like to see (and, as I'd hoped to point out in
another branch of this conversation) is for the various, outspoken,
components (alternatively, proponents) of our community working
together to find an effective way to advertise our interests and
concerns to the general public.

-- 
Scott Elcomb

"Our Founders' faith in the viability of representative democracy
rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry,
their ingenious design for checks and balances, and their belief that
the rule of reason is the natural sovereign of a free people." - Al
Gore (The Assault on Reason, 2008)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  - Benjamin Franklin

'"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting
on its shoes."  - Mark Twain
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