Marketing/US/Meetings/2014/April

=Prep=

Pre-meeting
 - Saturday April 12 2014, 06:00:45 PM -

colonelqubit:.

- Algot has joined the room Algot: Good evening, Robinson.

colonelqubit: :-)

colonelqubit: it's rather quiet in here...

colonelqubit: let's wait a couple more minutes

colonelqubit: Algot: how's it going?

- Guest65631 has joined the room Algot: Busy. Just back from a social studies conference and trying to finish taxes. UGLY!

Guest65631: Hi this is Morgan Johnstone.

* colonelqubit waves

colonelqubit: ah, good, people arriving

Algot: Good evening, Morgan.

colonelqubit: Algot: ah yes, taxes

Guest65631: Good evening :-) How do I change my nick?

colonelqubit: "/nick newname"

Guest65631: Not working, oh well

colonelqubit: remove the quotes

Algot: It will be good to do something routine in IRC. I need practice.

* colonelqubit. o O (....such as...)

Algot: I don't actually spend much time using IRC. Not a coder on any projects.

colonelqubit: ah, gotcha

colonelqubit: Okay, let's see if anyone else appears by 6:15, then start

- js__ has joined the room colonelqubit: aha!

* colonelqubit waves at js__

Agenda
 colonelqubit: Okay, 6:16pm, let's get started

Guest65631: Ok

Algot: Yessir!

colonelqubit: Hi, I'm Robinson Tryon, I do a bunch of different things for LibreOffice

Algot: I'm Algot Runeman, a user of LO.

colonelqubit: But for this meeting and when going to conferences, etc..., I'm mostly acting as an ambassador

colonelqubit: Morgan?

Guest65631: Hi, I'm Morgan and I am new. :-)

colonelqubit: an appropriate sentiment

colonelqubit: There are a number of people in the US who work on the project -- we've got a board member in California and a spreadsheet hacker in NC, and I'm in Vermont

colonelqubit: ...but the LibreOffice US Community is pretty young. I'm hoping that you'll help us build up this group

Algot: I'm in MA

Guest65631: I'm in MA also.

colonelqubit: js__: want to introduce?

colonelqubit: (lurking is okay, too :-)

- js__ has disconnected (Quit: Page closed) Algot: Oops

colonelqubit: scared him away, I guess....

colonelqubit: must be my face

- jslozier has joined the room * colonelqubit waves

Algot: I just tried to link to the Etherpad you linked from the agenda. No permission.

colonelqubit: Algot: yeah, we haven't gotten that set up yet

Algot: Gotcha.

- Guest65631 has disconnected (Quit: Lost terminal) colonelqubit: So for anyone who hasn't added themselves yet, please make an entry on the regional roster page here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Marketing/US/Members

colonelqubit: Don't worry if you accidentally disconnect, I'll put the IRC minutes up on the wiki page after the meeting

colonelqubit: (the meeting page, that is)

Welcome

 * Some ODF icons - https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument/spread

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Welcome

colonelqubit: okay, I think we did that

colonelqubit: there are some nice ODF icons here: https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument/spread

colonelqubit: we're currently working on making up some web badges/buttons for TDF (The Document Foundation), LibreOffice, and our new project, The Document Liberation Project

colonelqubit: anyone here an artist?

Algot: I work in Inkscape, but cannot claim artistic status.

Algot: Though I am always game to give such things a try.

colonelqubit: :-)

Algot: Are their guidelines to follow?

colonelqubit: I'll be pinging the Design Team for help, but it would be great to have more people involved

Algot: Are "there" guidelines...

colonelqubit: Algot: I kind of winged it when making icons for DLP; I'm sure if we do something crazy, the Design guys will tell us what we did wrong...

colonelqubit: I'll ask them for input ahead of time...

Algot: DLP is LibrePlanet?

colonelqubit: Document Liberation Project

colonelqubit: documentliberation.org/

Algot: I'll go look at that

colonelqubit: That's the sister project to LibreOffice

colonelqubit: ACTION: Robinson will ask Design Team for help w/icons for TDF, LO, and DLP (including guidelines)

Newcomers

 * We have a state-by-state roster of our team members
 * Please add your name/contact info so we can get in touch
 * Having local contacts makes outreach possible

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Newcomers

colonelqubit: We touched on the state-by-state roster

colonelqubit: If you have friends that live elsewhere in the US that you think would be interested in being more involved with LibreOffice/open standards, please let them know. Having someone in each state is a good goal for us

Infrastructure

 * Etherpad: http://pad.documentfoundation.org/p/libreoffice-us


 * Website: http://us.libreoffice.org
 * Status of silverstripe?
 * Who can work on it?


 * #libreoffice-us IRC channel


 * Wiki
 * Rename base page from  Marketing/US-Marketing/...  ->  Marketing/US/... 

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Infrastructure

colonelqubit: So as pointed out previously, we don't have Etherpad up and running yet

colonelqubit: we do have an IRC channel, and we do have @LibreOfficeUS on twitter

colonelqubit: identi.ca isn't accepting new registrations, but I'll register @LibreOfficeUS on a separate pump.io server soon

- jslozier has disconnected (Ping timeout: 240 seconds) colonelqubit: ACTION: Robinson will register a pump.io account for @LibreOfficeUS

colonelqubit: We're losing men out there!

colonelqubit: Let's see... we now have control of http://us.libreoffice.org

colonelqubit: I haven't put any content up there yet, but Morgan expressed interest in working on that

Algot: What's the back end?

colonelqubit: Algot: Interested in working on the website?

colonelqubit: Algot: Right now it's just plugged-in to our Silverstripe backend

Algot: I think so. Don't know Silverstripe. I'll research. Have Joomla, Wordpress and HTML experience.

colonelqubit: Okay. It would be great to have a couple of people who can work on that site -- I'd like to use that as the landing site for printed materials

Algot: Count me in as willing to try.

colonelqubit: I'd like it to have up to date information about what conferences we'll be at, etc..

* colonelqubit checks the agenda

colonelqubit: Right... one more thing: So I'd like to rename the wiki pages for US-Marketing to just "Marketing/US" -- to make things shorter and simpler

Algot: Is there argument about that change?

colonelqubit: Not that I know of...figured I should bring it up in the meeting (such as it is... :-P)

colonelqubit: Okay, hearing no objection, I'll go ahead

colonelqubit: ACTION: Robinson will rename the "Marketing/US-Marketing" pages to "Marketing/US"

Swag

 * Purchasing


 * Distributing

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Swag

colonelqubit: Having marketing items can be useful for us to spread information about LibreOffice

Algot: I'd love a bunch of the "I <3 LibreOffice" stickers. Passed out the ones I got from you.

colonelqubit: I was just talking to a librarian friend of mine last night, and I'll be giving her a couple of handouts about LibreOffice to share with her colleagues.

colonelqubit: Algot: The "I ♥ LibreOffice" stickers have been quite well received

Algot: Does the librarian have LO on the library computers?

colonelqubit: Well, she's currently coming back from abroad, so not currently in residence at any library yet

Algot: ACTION: Check with local librarians abt. LO on computers.

colonelqubit: (is that one for you?)

Algot: For all of us, I hope.

colonelqubit: ah, good idea :-)

colonelqubit: On my shortlist for marketing materials/swag for us I have

- Small/Medium "I ♥ LibreOffice" stickers

- LibreOffice click pens

- Standard LibreOffice brochures

- "Join the community" brochures

- A modified version of the Document Freedom Day "Why open standards?" brochure

Algot: Are they all in odt/odf format? ;-)

colonelqubit: Most of those materials are in vector format, usually created in Inkscape

colonelqubit: Sticker design:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Marketing/Material#Stickers_.28Designs_for.29

[2] (Next time: No version #)

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Marketing/brochuretypes#General_Information_Brochure

[3] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Marketing/brochuretypes#LibreOffice_.22Our_Community.22_Brochure

Algot: I'm good with that...

colonelqubit: whoops

colonelqubit: The other two are the general info and community brochures -- could use a little refresh before we print them

colonelqubit: Here's the DFD brochure I'd like to modify (so it talks about LibreOffice and has a small note about DFD):

http://documentfreedom.org/artwork.en.html#p-leaflets

Algot: Do you want to do the work yourself or with help?

colonelqubit: Help with the brochures would be great. I'm currently working on securing us funding for the printing

Algot: I'll do some looking at the DFD brochure to start and fiddle with badge ideas in Inkscape, too.

Algot: Tag that ACTION for me in the notes.

colonelqubit: ACTION: Algot/Robinson will refresh our existing designs and the DFD "open standards" leaflet in preparation for printing

Algot: Are these firm goals for May?

colonelqubit: Goals, not deadlines

Algot: Good to have goals.

colonelqubit: Indeed

colonelqubit: We'll have a booth at LinuxFest NW in Bellingham, WA at the end of April. Looking at the dates, it's unlikely we'll have a design, funding, and printing done by then

Algot: Are you going?

colonelqubit: Yes

Algot: Do you pay your own way to these events?

colonelqubit: TDF provides funding for some events, others I pay myself

Algot: Sadly, I've no source of extra cash. Retired.

colonelqubit: My goal with creating a network of LibreOffice representatives in each state is to help us attend more events, and to do so more cheaply

Algot: Glad to work locally and behind the scenes.

colonelqubit: Behind-the-scenes help is always appreciated!

colonelqubit: The next event on our US calendar is June 13 in Texas, so my goal is to have materials printed up before then, hopefully by the end of May

colonelqubit: ....which leads me to

Events

 * May meeting
 * Dates/times?


 * Event calendar for the US
 * Assemble list of events in the US?


 * Help with upcoming events
 * LinuxFest Northwest (Bellingham, WA) - April 26-27
 * Texas Linux Fest (Austin, TX) - June 13-14 (Fri-Sat)
 * OSCON 2014 (Portland, OR) - July 20-24

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Events

Algot: Are you seeking computer-type meetings? More broad outreach?

colonelqubit: a bit of both -- if you're familiar with the openhatch people, they've been doing some great outreach work

colonelqubit: For us, Our next meeting will be in May, probably the 1st or 2nd week

colonelqubit: What times are good for you? (generally speaking)

Algot: Did the scheduling tool produce god results?

Algot: Retirement gives me flexibility. I do have a scattering of events through a month.

colonelqubit: The scheduling tool was okay -- didn't get that many responses, really

Algot: Have you actually recruited most of the people on the wiki page?

colonelqubit: the member roster page? No

colonelqubit: just a handful of them

Algot: How big a meeting do you want to try to run? Practical size?

colonelqubit: it depends

colonelqubit: if we get 10-15 people, then everyone can chime in

colonelqubit: 30+, and it's a bit harder

colonelqubit: but I would like us to grow to 30 and beyond

Algot: A two-per-state goal sounds reasonable.

Algot: Except for Texas!

colonelqubit: ?

colonelqubit: Texas gets none?

Algot: BIG state.

Algot: Needs 50

colonelqubit: heh

colonelqubit: or just one really big guy

colonelqubit: like paul bunyan

Algot: Maybe these notes need editing before they reach the wiki.

colonelqubit: maybe

colonelqubit: :-P

Algot: We don't want to sound to flippant.

Algot: But we are alone here...

colonelqubit: Oh, I have many friends in Texas -- they assure me that everything is bigger there

Algot: I WAS born there.

colonelqubit: like Big Tex at the state fair (who just pulled a phoenix and came back to life)

Algot: Big guy, as you may recall.

colonelqubit: Anyhow, when I'm at LinuxFest NW, I'll try to recruit us some representatives in Washington and Oregon

colonelqubit: Maybe Idaho, if I can yell over that direction loudly enough

colonelqubit: Regarding an Event Calendar

Algot: Good luck.

colonelqubit: I'd like to have 2 things:

colonelqubit: 1) A calendar of all of the events we're attending in the US

colonelqubit: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Events#North_America

colonelqubit: 2) A calendar of all of the events that are happening in the US next year that we might want to attend

colonelqubit: This includes things like LinuxFests, but we should look beyond just our 'comfort zone' to related technical fields

colonelqubit: e.g. it would be great to have someone give a talk at an American Library Association (ALA) event

Algot: How about user-level kinds of events?

colonelqubit: http://ala14.ala.org/

Algot: That might focus on state rep idea

colonelqubit: sure -- what kinds of events are you thinking about?

Algot: Certainly more user level events out there.

Algot: Like the social studies conference at which I just worked.

colonelqubit: certainly

Algot: The national conference is in Boston next year, for example

colonelqubit: Neat

Algot: Their focus is not on computers, but they might be the kind of users who could benefit from knowing about LO.

Algot: Open Educational Resources, etc.

colonelqubit: Showing up to SCALE and LibrePlanet and OSCON is important for our visibility in the community, but it doesn't introduce us to new users the way that outside conferences can

Algot: Maybe we should consider a "possible" list for other user events.

colonelqubit: Indeed

Algot: Not just national ones like the NCSS next year, but state/regional ones.

colonelqubit: For this to be successful, I'm hoping for us to recruit a few people who can help keep track of those calendars

Algot: Library associations, educator meetings, etc.

colonelqubit: Right -- that's definitely going to have to be delegated, perhaps to the people at the state level

Algot: It would be a very good "junior job" to get people started.

colonelqubit: I know that Joel Madero (board member) is really looking forward to us having some kind of event so we can pull together people from around the US

colonelqubit: given the number of people I know in the Boston area, that's a likely place (and I'm just a couple of hours away)

Algot: An event for marketing?

colonelqubit: meta-marketing

colonelqubit: well, both

colonelqubit: We're mulling the possibility of having a hackfest or similar event in July

colonelqubit: perhaps in the Boston area

Algot: I'd vote for that.

colonelqubit: I'd love to have a meta-marketing event at the same time -- pull in some people, we can each give a short talk to the group, and make some plans for our marketing strategy for the US

colonelqubit: travel can be expensive, so I'd have to see what funding is available for travel

colonelqubit: but we can start small and build as we go

* colonelqubit looks back at the agenda

colonelqubit: Ah yes: Help with Events

colonelqubit: I've got one person possibly lined up for Texas Linux Fest, and one person interested in OSCON

Algot: Is Carl Symons in for Bellingham?

Algot: He's on the list of reps and lives there.

colonelqubit: Right -- he said that he's a bit busy, but I think I can get some help for the booth

Algot: He probably has tons of local contacts.

colonelqubit: :-)

colonelqubit: Having run a booth by myself and with one other person, it's really nice to have at least 3 people

Algot: Agreed.

colonelqubit: 2 is okay. 1 is crazy

Algot: Busy crazy or lonely crazy?

colonelqubit: Busy

colonelqubit: Thankfully, someone at OSCON watched my booth so I could go get a beer from the HP booth

Algot: You're at big conferences, I guess.

colonelqubit: sorry, at SCALE

colonelqubit: Yes, SCALE had 2000-3000 people

Terminology

 * What does the term "migration" mean to you?
 * Are there other more effective terms for us to use to describe the process of migrating to an ODF/LibreOffice workflow?

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Terminology

colonelqubit: Ah, this is an interesting one -- what does the term "migration" mean to you?

colonelqubit: In the context "We're going to migrate to LibreOffice"

Algot: Too often associated with population movement.

colonelqubit: lol

Algot: It's ok in a technology contect (IT dept)

Algot: Not so much in a user environment.

colonelqubit: Interesting

Algot: "Does it work with .doc files" is more the user question.

Algot: as an example.

colonelqubit: So it sounds like we're running into some terminology issues when discussing LibreOffice migrations in the US

Algot: We're also bucking the Massachusetts State Model

colonelqubit: ?

Algot: Was an effort to convert to ODF ten years ago.

Algot: The chief tech officer lost his job from that.

colonelqubit: Yeah, the whole thing sounded pretty crazy

Algot: Many documents to be submitted or used in schools are mandated to be MSOffice files

colonelqubit: Based on feedback from some of the marketing people, I think we should think about our use of terminology, and come up with some clear ways to describe what we mean when we say "migrate to LibreOffice"

Algot: One thing is to get people to start simple. Not necessarily to plan a full switchover at once.

colonelqubit: True

Algot: Dipping toe in water with word processing only perhaps

Algot: or Calc only.

Algot: etc.

colonelqubit: but based on experiences in Europe, when switching to LibreOffice, switching to ODF at the same time is recommended

Algot: No doubt, but there's real pushback

colonelqubit: I think we just need to make sure that we're clear about what we're proposing, and why/how it will work

Algot: "I've got to share with Joe"

Algot: he uses .docx

colonelqubit: Right -- and that's something that we need to bring up when we're talking about migrations

Algot: Font installs are an issue, too if GNU/Linux is in the mix.

colonelqubit: Correct -- that's another piece of the puzzle: Making sure that there are standards for documents that don't include the "C* fonts"

colonelqubit: (the set of non-free MS fonts)

Algot: Is font exchange as much an issue between Mac and Windows?

colonelqubit: It is if one doesn't have the same set of fonts installed

Algot: Of course, using MSOffice on both mac and pc probably results in the same fonts.

colonelqubit: This is an important point regarding local outreach -- I'm quite happy to have people go out there on their own and talk about LibreOffice and ODF

colonelqubit: but if they talk to us first, we can hopefully give them the information that will help them with that process

Algot: We will need to have that info. ready and clear.

Algot: and VERY accessible.

colonelqubit: and we can explain to them the importance of following our guidelines for "migrations" to avoid common points of failure

colonelqubit: Right -- I'm hoping to have a lot of that content easily accessible on the us.libreoffice.org website

colonelqubit: Some can perhaps live on the wiki -- but it needs to be all referenced from some kind of "Quick Start" page so that it's abundantly clear how to access it and use it

colonelqubit: moving on...

Recruitment and Growth

 * Important for us


 * Buddy-system: Who are you going to bring to the meeting next time?

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Recruitment and Growth

colonelqubit: So, a bit quiet here in our first meeting, but we did have 3 or 4 of us in here at once, which is a good start

Algot: I contacted an Arizona user at the beginning of the meeting, but have not heard back.

Algot: Did we chase them off?

colonelqubit: maybe

Algot: Is it IRC?

colonelqubit: perhaps they were hoping I'd start out with "Free t-shirts for everyone!" :-P

Algot: Are people more used to Google Hangouts or that Adobe thing?

colonelqubit: Adobe?

Algot: Adobe Connect.

colonelqubit: I don't think I've heard of that...

Algot: Some schools use it.

colonelqubit: Ah, okay

Algot: I've been on some meetings with it.

Algot: There's also Big Blue Button which is open source.

colonelqubit: So if people like audio/videochat, we could use something like https://meet.jit.si/

colonelqubit: Yes -- and Big Blue Button

Algot: The guy in Arizona runs an instance.

colonelqubit: although I think that's Flash-based?

Algot: Don't know

colonelqubit: Anyhow, the primary piece of the puzzle here is to recruit

colonelqubit: you and I can have a grand old time chatting together, but if we have 5 or 10 people in 8 states, then we can start to get a lot more done

Algot: I'll check with my RI contacts.

colonelqubit: great

Algot: Know a couple more in CT

colonelqubit: Good, good

Algot: I'll start there.

colonelqubit: Towards the end of each meeting, I'd like us to think about "Who can I bring to the next meeting?"

colonelqubit: that's a good mindset for us to build the group

Meeting Times

 * Speaking generally, what days of the week/times work for you?

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: Meeting Times

colonelqubit: We already went over this topic.

Algot: Generally open.

colonelqubit: Joel or I will email-out a "doodle" soon with some options for days and times in May

Algot: I'll keep my email eye open for it.

colonelqubit: I think we got 3 responses to the poll this time, so I'm hoping to double that to 6 for May

End

 * Closing thoughts

 colonelqubit: AGENDA: End

Algot: Doors close well. "closing thoughts"

colonelqubit: Hooray! We made it through our first meeting, and didn't lose everyone

Algot: So, we're wrapping it up?

colonelqubit: We've covered the topics I put on the Agenda -- anything more from you?

Algot: Nope.

colonelqubit: Okay, thanks for attending, and thanks for volunteering to help with those ACTION items

Algot: I'll look for the reminder somewhere on the wiki?

colonelqubit: I'll do a little formatting on the IRC log and shove it up onto the meeting page

colonelqubit: which reminder?

Algot: of my action items

colonelqubit: Sure -- they'll all be listed in the minutes on the wiki. I'll copy them out to a separate section as well so you don't have to read through all of the minutes to get to them

Algot: Great...bye?

colonelqubit: I'll also ping marketing@us with a follow-up about the meeting

colonelqubit: Sounds good -- happy hacking!

* colonelqubit waves

Algot: Bye, then.

- Algot has left the room ("http://quassel-irc.org - Chat comfortably. Anywhere.") colonelqubit: Meeting ended: 7:50pm

Start
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Announcements

 * ANNOUNCEMENT: Our next meeting will take place... Marketing/US/Meetings/2014/May at _______, unless otherwise noted on the Marketing/US/Mailing List.

End
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= Topics = (Add topics below and reference them as in the Agenda/Minutes above)

IRC Minutes
(Done inline above)