Homegrown Linux/FOSS Adverts

[Scott Elcomb]

On 5/30/07, Richard Dice <rdice-e+AXbWqSrlAAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> As always I appreciate your enthusiasm.  Do you have a target market and a
> corresponding message identified for the campaign?  Do you have a desired
> outcome identified?  I.e. something that would fill in the blank for the
> statement "We will know if our advertising efforts were successful if we
> notice that _______ happened afterwards."

At the moment, I'm just testing the waters.  I haven't gone too deep
with any ideas as yet, but it's been nagging at me since the FSOSS
conference last year.

Every time I see one of those commercials on TV featuring characters
representing Mac and PC, I have to ask myself where is Tux?

> Also, I'm curious regarding what it is with the current state of the world
> that you find unappealing such that you want to influence it?  Is it Linux
> desktop adoption?  iPods dominate the mp3 player market rather than
> Linux-based players?  Insufficient interoperability of Linux / FLOSS systems
> with systems provided by commerical vendors?  What exactly are you unhappy
> with?  Figuring out answers to these questions will probably make easier
> answering the questions I asked in the first paragraph.
>
> My impression of the software world is that it's working out pretty well for
> FLOSS in recent years and that the battles are mainly political and legal
> now. (E.g. DRM, patently unfair-and-getting-worse copyright regimes creeping
> across the world, patent policy with regards to software.)  As long as the
> legal regime can be kept (or made) balanced then FLOSS will come out a
> winner in most avenues of interest and pretty much all places where it
> should.

I agree with you entirely on the second paragraph - things do look
good for the acceptance of  Linux and FOSS in general, so long as we
keep pushing.

What I find unappealing in the current state of the world...  I'm more
than a little surprised at this question since it truly cuts directly
to what makes me want to "make a difference."   It has very little to
do with software though.  Rather, the enthusiasm that you (and others
in the past have) mentioned is powered by the social aspects of FOSS.

To fully answer your question, I would have to digress into topics
that might not be appropriate.  I'll touch on it a bit, being as brief
as possible to avoid potential invocations of Godwin's Law; it is
precisely the current state of the world that I worry about.

I recall reading, many years ago, about the state of the world prior
to the World Wars - and see a number of similarities with todays
world.  (I'm not trying to foretell the future or any such thing, but
Man has a habit of becoming complacent and not being prepared for
trying experiences.  That, and the old adage about history repeating
itself.)

I remember reading Orwell in school.  I remember many conversations
with Vets.  There are dozens of related topics I could mention, but
basically it comes down to the fact that the more people communicate
the better.

Communication is something that the Open Source community excels at,
IMO.  The more we advertise, the more the general public becomes aware
of what we do and how, the more people learn how to reach out to one
another.

Obviously it's not the only way, but it does seem to me that it is a
very effective approach - encouraging the sharing of ideas and
benevolence to one another.

-- 
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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