Re: [Fsfe-uk] affs strategy [long]

[Marc Eberhard]

Hi!

On Thu, Mar 21, 2002 at 03:54:19PM +0000, Richard Smedley wrote:
[...]

I too agree to what's being said.

> In other fields (e.g. education) we need to take some 
> time to work out what we can achieve as a group, and 
> then do it - simple really :-)

Being at a university, I try to change things locally first and then promote
it as a positive example. But as universities tend to move slowly, I'm not
very far yet. That's also one reason of me being rather quiet. I want to
have something to show, before making a fuss about it.

> We could also think about the wider perception of affs.
> If we want to build mass support for our campaigns we
> need to think clearly about how to present ourselves
> outside the 'hacker community'.

I would propose as "good friends from around the corner living next to you"
or so. That means a rather low profile, unless we really have something to
present. Anyway, I don't think, that we ever want to impress with a
corporate identity produced by a customized Microsoft Powerpoint version.
Apart from the typical consistent inconsistencies of British people of
course! Yes, MJ Ray, you can shoot me now... only Brits are allowed to say
that. :-)

In terms of presenting stuff, I'm quite used to speak and to educate people,
as you might have guessed already... surprise, surprise! However, I do
normally have the advantage of giving marks to the students forced to listen
to me. I know, it's unfair, but that's life! And it surely helps them not to
fall asleep. But keep in mind, that English is not my mother tongue and that
I don't like to wear suits (my web page is only there to fool everyone, the
stone age old vgetty pages (http://alpha.greenie.net/vgetty/) clearly show a
more realistic view). That being said, I probably kicked myself from your
list of candidates too. :-)

> [alliances]
[...]
> Red Hat, to name one distributor, are quite active in
[...]
> IBM and Sun are intensely busy pushing "Linux" and
[...]

I'd be rather careful here. None of them promotes pure Free Software, but
usually "value added" Free Software or however they would call it, probably
Open Source. So it's important to make clear from the beginning, what we
stand for and what not. We surely don't want to be mixed up with some Open
Source stuff.

Bye,
Marc
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