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On Thu, 2005-09-22 at 10:27 +0200, Paul de Vrieze wrote: |
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> On Wednesday 21 September 2005 18:13, Corey Shields wrote: |
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> |
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> > The question then is where does the PR budget land? I would like to |
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> > see the Foundation handle most of the PR and promotion of Gentoo, since |
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> > it just seems easier to keep it close to the source. Again, this is |
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> > just a personal idea/opinion. |
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> |
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> I think a PR (and infra) budget would be a good idea. Even for |
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> expenditures that need to be requested. I feel that for this budget a |
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> year plan should be made with the PR activities and their expected costs. |
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> This would ensure that there is budget left at the end of the year. |
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We would absolutely want to make sure that we have money left-over. |
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It's never a good idea to spend everything you bring in as quickly as |
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you bring it in. |
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> On the topic of PR I also feel that the mean purpose private persons |
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> donate money for is to further the development of gentoo. PR does not |
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> directly relate to that goal. If we look at other sources of donations |
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> such as genesi and other companies, they would probably be interested in |
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> PR. I feel the budget should reflect this, and not all money left after |
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> legal fees and infra should go to PR, but some way should be found to use |
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> it to help development of the distribution. And of course some part |
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> should go to reserves. |
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I do agree that private persons primarily donate to further development. |
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I also agree that corporate entities are probably more interested in PR. |
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Perhaps we could keep the amounts separated in some way? Try to use |
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private funds primarily for development-related costs, such as developer |
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boxes and Foundation expenses while trying to use the corporate funds |
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primarily for PR. This doesn't mean that money couldn't be shared, but |
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that money would go into the budget where it is most likely to appease |
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the person/company donating. |
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I feel that PR is vastly important, as it raises awareness of Gentoo |
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which serves us in many ways. It can increase our user base, which in |
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turn increases our developer base. It can increase our ties with other |
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companies, and can potentially bring in more donations. I don't think |
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we need to get into the business of "marketing" ourselves so much as |
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having professional looking presences when we make showings at trade |
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shows. I think the fliers that we had at LWE-SF were great. They |
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looked good and weren't just something printed up on a piece of paper, |
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but rather nice looking color fliers. We really *need* to have some |
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release media at these shows, even if we are only able to have a limited |
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amount and are only able to give them to select people (partners, media, |
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etc). For example, AMD asked me for one of our 2005.1 CDs when I was at |
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LWE-SF, and I had to tell them that I didn't have anything to give them. |
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If we want to foster some of these relationships, then we need to have |
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materials available for them. |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Release Engineering - Strategic Lead |
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Games - Developer |
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Gentoo Linux |
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