Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to Open Source and business thoughts

A few responses to the messages of the day...

I have a feeling that some of the posters feel that reactive
marketing is bad;  there's almost an implied value judgment, like
if you're not being proactive you're doing something wrong.
IMHO, that's only true if what you're doing is not working!  Being
reactive (that is, taking the clients who find you instead of going
out in search of them) costs nothing, in marked contrast to the
alternative.  If it works for you, do it!

I respectfully disagree with Ola that we shouldn't offer solutions
other than OpenACS.  That's probably true for a very small
company, because you don't want to fall into the "jack of all
trades, master of none" trap that comes with trying to offer too
many things.  But for those who have the people to do it, I don't
see anything wrong with offering OpenACS, Zope, and whatever
else seems useful.  No one product will fit every client, and most
clients appreciate being offered choices when it makes sense to
do so.

I don't agree that building a web site is a physical task like
plumbing, either - we can and do build sites for clients far away
who we have never met.  However, in general it's probably true
that not too many small companies really have a need to market
themselves globally.  Nationally applies to almost everyone,
though, and IMHO is just as difficult to achieve.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to form committees, but I do think
there are some areas where we can help each other out, most of
which have already been mentioned:  good documentation (both
technical and non-technical), a demo site, a forum for
discussing business issues, white papers comparing OpenACS
to other technologies people have run into.  How about a job
board, to connect companies and consultants?  What about an
area for specs, where people can post ideas for new modules
and have them debated with others who might even help build
them?  There are lots of things we can do which will improve the
OpenACS experience for everyone and will benefit our
companies at the same time.  There were others mentioned in
this thread already, but these are the ones which are the most
compelling for me personally.

When someone has already read Philip's book, it's easy to
discuss an ACS site with that person.  But what do you do when
a potential client says "I want a site which will encourage my
users to share with one another" and has never heard of the
ACS?  What do you show that person?  Where can they go to
read about the ACS (Open or otherwise) which will give them an
understanding of what it is, what it can do, and why it's so great?
Right, there is no such place right now.  That's what we're talking
about fixing here.

Ben, when we talk about community marketing we're talking
about marketing OpenACS, not marketing for our companies.  If
OpenACS becomes more well-known, the pie will grow larger
and we can start fighting over slices instead of crumbs.
Companies might use some of the Ope nACS marketing
material as their own and that would be fine too;  it would be put
out there for anyone to use in any way that would help them.

Of course, nearly everything we're discussing here requires
adding "stuff" to openacs.org, so I guess the first task we need to
set for ourselves is convincing Ben that we're not all crazy. :)