Maybe I still don't get it. My intention of concentrating marketing efforts and coordinating these with other people was mainly driven to have something to show for people who come to visit the site. So I talk about "USE" cases instead of "show/marketing" cases. I talk about user friendly documentation. I talk about demo website for the use cases we talked about. New functionality which will make it easier to use the site. Material for press agencies to post in the papers. Some business papers detailing the strength of OpenACS to the non techie business person (if every company wants to make their own version and none will be put up at OpenACS, thats fine, but results in loss of drive we get from the articles, fairs or congresses).
My experience, coming from the business world, was as follows: I read something interesting in an article. I go to their site. I look at some screenshots. I read the about article, maybe go on to the functionality overview. Look around for some hints how this might be USED in my organization. Leave.
If I find an answer how I can use the tool for my organization I'd have someone check it out (or I'd do it myself), and when I really thing thats the way to go, hire some of the active members or companies of that community.
Up so far, no information in that direction can be found on OpenACS.org. Is this commercial marketing? Not necessarily.
From what I gathered so far there is a tension between the need for using buzzword driven marketing for executives and other bypassers while containing enough fun and freedom of expression for the rest of the community. For now I'd just leave the buzzwords out and start with the direly needed marketing towards a greater recognition of the toolkit (like I described above).
Well, last but not least, taking in account how many people want to actively participate in marketing shows that we also have a potential for this within the community, people who want to give something though their are not the most experienced developers. And from what I have gathered so far, developers tend to be very lazy when it comes down to user documentation or materials praising their work.
It's not going to be like in a busines situation where the marketing/sales guys grossly overstate what the product is capable of doing and the developers just have to eat it.
So instead of killing the flower right in the beginning, let us start and if the material we produce is too much out of the way for openacs.org to host, we still can come up with a subsite for openacs.com. This is taking for granted that Ben would be willing to lend the domain for that purpose.
