TWiki Marketing Meeting, 26 Nov 2007

Attendees

• ArthurClemens
• CarloSchulz
• EugenMayer
• KennethLavrsen
• KoenMartens
• MartinCleaver
• MichaelCorbett (Minutes)
• PeterThoeny (Facilitator)
• RodBeckstrom
• SvenDowideit

Place & Time

• IRC Server chat.freenode.net, channel #twiki_marketing
• 21:00 GMT

0. Release of 4.2

• Kenneth says that RC2 looks very good and there is a 50% chance that the release could come before Xmas.
• This has got implications for marketing since the release of 4.2 has to be accompanied by press announcements etc. These are not ready yet so it would be better to delay. Also, the first few weeks of January would be better from a marketing point of view as press announcements around Xmas tend to get buried or ignored.

• Possible solutions discussed:
  1. - have a soft launch where 4.2 would be available for download before Xmas but not announced until after Xmas. This is not preferred – it just makes it look like TWiki.org can’t get their marketing act together.
  2. - make 4.2 availalble as a RC3 “ready for production” release and then release properly in the New Year. This is similar to 1 but is easier to justify to the outside world. It also has the advantage that it provides an opportunity for minor bugs to be picked up therefore making 4.2 even more better.

• The meeting decided that option 2 is better.
  • Given that Sven, Crawford, Arthur and Kenneth have put a lot of effort into getting 4.2 ready they need to be consulted about scheduling the release date for 2008-01-07 for the sake of marketing impact.
  • Peter to send an email to them.
  • Koen to make contact with Sven and Arthur.
  • Michael to contact Crawford and Kenneth.

1. Blogging

• Champion: KoenMartens
• Supporting topic: TWikiBlogAndNewsletter
• There have been 17 blog posts since August.
• If you would like to post a blog entry you need to be on the TWikiCommunityGroup. If you are not on this group send an email to anyone in the TWikiAdminGroup. Once on the group you can simply go the Blog page and click on the "Write New Post" link on the left hand side.

2. Home Page Redesign

• Champion: ArthurClemens
• Co-Champion: PeterThoeny
• Supporting topic - TWikiOrgHomepageRedesign2007 & WebPageAudience & WebPageAudienceSiteStructure

• Arthur not in the meeting. Discuss next time.

3. Testimonials

• Champion: RodBeckstrom
• Supporting topic: YouTubeDemoContest2007
• Rod not in the meeting so not discussed. However Peter says that TWIKI.NET will help coordinate the contest (as well as putting up the prize money).
• Info from previous meetings: Contest to create YouTube videos
  • TWIKI.NET has agreed to sponsor a TWiki video contest, budget $3K in prizes
  • Let customers tell their story
  • Let community vote on 6 finalists for best video; TWIKI.NET will select the winners
  • Contest will be open for 30 days

4. TWiki.org Performance

• Champion: PeterThoeny
• Supporting topic: NewTWikiOrgServer2007

• Major step forward! Peter says that we we will get a sun x4500 storage server from sun as a loaner, cost is $35k. There are also two t2000 servers on the way. Both should arrive somewhere around the Xmas time.
• It will be hosted at the datacenter of plug and play tech center in Silicon Valley (this is where TWIKI.NET are based). There will not be any cost to TWiki.org.
• Who can do the Setup: Peter has one person local plus GMC has volunteered.

5. Press Releases

• Champion: PeterThoeny
• Co-Champion: MichaelCorbett
• Supporting topic: TWikiAdvocacy04x02
• This has become much more important given the readiness for release of 4.2.
• Michael has made a commitment to provide something on TWiki.org by the end of the week.
• Peter to chase up Nokia re the possibility of using a quote from them.

6. Usability

• Champion: CarloSchulz
• Supporting topic: UsabilityIdeas, NewNavigationModellForTWikiOrg

• Not many comments received
• Carlo has done some work on WebPageAudienceSiteStructure since last meeting
• Carlo would like – comments on WebPageAudienceSiteStructure and
• There was discussion as to whether we need to capture usability issues separately or just using bugs?
• We decided that we would continue to use the existing system. Small items can be tracked using the bugs system. Bigger issues should have a new feature request. (There is scope on the feature request to mark the feature request as relating to usability.)

7. Merchandising

• Champion: KoenMartens
• Supporting topic: TWikiMerchandise

• Not discussed at meeting, defer this meeting topic until 4.2 has been released

8. TWiki Meetups

• Champion: AmirShobeiri
• Supporting topic - TWikiMeetUps

• Info: TWikiMeetUpInSiliconValley will happed on Thu, 2007-11-29. Big success, around 60 people attended.
• Info: TWikiMeetUpInHolland will happen on Thu, 2008-1-25.

IRC Log

• TWikiMarketingMeeting2007x12x10.txt: TWiki Marketing Meeting IRC log 2007-12-10

Previous/Next meeting: TWikiMarketingMeeting2007x11x26, TBD

Back to: TWikiMarketing

-- PeterThoeny - 09 Dec 2007

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