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Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2005 08:30:44 +1100
From: Ian Holsman <IanH@apache.org>
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To: dev@httpd.apache.org
Subject: Re: Actively Promoting Apache 2
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The biggest hurdle 2.0 has had to face IMO is:
- 1.3 isn't broken
- we run 1.3 already
- module XYZ only runs on 1.3
- 2.0 doesn't do anything that 1.3 doesn't do anyway

What I would suggest for your marketing campaign would be to write and 
submit several technical articles about apache2 and how its new features 
and speed can help you save money, reduce administration time, and 
enable a whole heap of new features from already written modules which 
you would have had to custom develop yourself in 1.3.

Also I would start discussing with some of the other 1.3-only module 
writers out there on how to port their stuff to 2.0, or port it for them.

Marketing is about knowing your customers, and servicing their needs. It 
is not about selling products or brainwashing ;-)

--Ian

Wayne S. Frazee wrote:
> I entreat each potential responder to this email to please read it all 
> the way through and THEN respond rather than knee-jerk something based 
> on only the first paragraph or two...
> As I sat reading the responses to the new development thread on 
> acceptance of Apache 2 and some users' regression to 1.3, it struck me 
> when someone mentioned that they believed part of the problem to be 
> marketing.  Mozilla advertised firefox with a large one-time investment 
> into a celebratory ad denoting the release of Firefox 1... why not build 
> a similar effort in the Apache community to promote support and upgrade 
> to Apache 2?
> Use the web-media and the advertising avenues in many high-traffic sites 
> dealing specifically with web development, web hosting, ISP hosting, et 
> al.  Launch limited time and expense ad campaigns using media provided 
> and "approved" by the community.  Use funding from a community Apache 
> Promotion drive.
> I was thinking something like this:
> 1) Launch fundraising / contest website for Apache 2.x ad blitz promotion.
> 2) Announce contest to have your flash ad featured on websites around 
> the web in the Apache 2 Promotion ad campaign.  Vehicle to submit ad, et 
> al.
> 3) Announce fundraising effort to support above-mentioned ad with funds 
> being specifically earmarked for this effort.  If the effort is done by 
> someone or a group of someones in the community, accounting needs to be 
> very transparent and availible for public view in terms of limited 
> statistics on the fundraising status.  Donators who wish may have thier 
> names or pseudo-names credited to a list of donators, sorted by 
> contribution size or something of that nature?
> 4) At the end of the flash ad submission period, contest judges from the 
> apache community select the editors top 5 or whatever for each ad 
> format.  For an announced period of time, the community at large is 
> welcome to vote for thier favorite among the ads in essentially a web poll.
> 5) Following ad selection, collected funds are assessed, donations are 
> no longer accepted, and a panel of whoever is working on the effort 
> assesses the best ad channels and the panel comes to an agreement on the 
> allocation of specific fund segments to various ad campaigns that are 
> deemed to be the most effective channel for the selected ads.
> 6) Ad campaigns are run until budget is met, project over.
> Benefits:
> High visiblility from tech news organizations covering the drive, 
> similar to the mozilla projects' fundraiser.
> Targeted advertisements for the apache 2 project with a credits page for 
> each selected ad awarded to the contest winner(s).
> The message of upgrade to apache 2 is out there, hopefully with good, 
> professional-looking ads contributed by the community, et al.
> Challenges:
> Numerous, I am sure.
> Looking for feedback, legal, devils advocate, et al on the concept, if 
> not the execution.
> -----------------
> Wayne S. Frazee
> "Any sufficiently developed bug is indistinguishable from a feature."
>