One of the biggest challenges facing the MeeGo venture will be creating tangible interest around its (eventual) offerings. iOS and
Android enjoy the buzz right now, the latter now benefiting more than the former. At some point MeeGo as a product (or family of products) needs to establish the same sort of excitement if it is to seize significant market share.
It’s only natural to assume that any corporate entity utilizing MeeGo in some manner would craft unique marketing campaigns for their implementations. But grassroots or community-led marketing is something else entirely.
Grand Canyons
As shown on MeeGo’s wiki page for marketing, there is no shortage of activities and areas needing attention from the MeeGo community. Some parts are already gaining traction, such as the local meetups (and even one national), but there are still gaps looking for filler.
The biggest potholes lie between idea and execution, and questions around funding expose the most noticeable hole. That was a major hangup for Maemo outreach. Volunteers traditionally don’t mind spending time on an effort in which they believe, but expensing materials, travel fare and hotel rooms can be a blocker. Following email list discussion on this topic, a “bug” report was created yesterday to get this rectified for MeeGo community outreach. Hopefully the recent addition of A Linux Foundation employee chartered to manage policy and process will go a long way toward addressing this need. More on that in a future article.
Echoing Examples
Funding aside, presentations are a relatively easy method of sharing the MeeGo story. Generic and reference examples already exist to get speakers started, and surely more will come. I have in mind a multi-part series that starts with the development of community marketing resources and processes, and then guides hopeful community marketeers down the road to compelling presentations. The plan is to share this series of successes, ideas and iconic practices at various MeeGo-relevant events throughout this year as well as on the usual venues such as this blog and Slideshare. Feel free to reuse or reference any materials I create for this purpose.
Getting Grounded
MeeGo advocates need to be prepared to face a significant amount of cynicism, especially while the solution is so immature. Tempering enthusiasm with solid facts and maybe a little humility should help defuse that sort of response. Still, passion is an important part of effective marketing so don’t lose the fire completely!
Stay tuned for a continuation of this subject, and I hope to see you at future events!
Filed under: Into Outreach, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Write Stuff, Views and Reviews Tagged: community, forumnokia, grassroots, Linux Foundation, market, marketing, MeeGo, open source, outreach 
