Community Articles: Opinions, Interviews, 分析
Editor: Louis Suárez-Potts
2001 September 11
About Marketing in an Open Source Community
The idea of an OpenOffice.org Marketing 事業／計画（する） is born from the 仮定／引き受けること that an Open Source community should know what the needs of its members are, so that it can 解決する problems in a 急速な／放蕩な and fair way. The reaction of our community to the 提案 was contradictory, even if encouraging. In fact, many people believe that marketing is applicable only to the 解放する／自由な 企業 system and to the world of the 会社／団体s.
Is the OpenOffice.org 控訴 a 製品? Do the developers receive a suitable support from the community? Is the OpenOffice.org 控訴 only for Linux? These questions and many others very 類似の were asked in OpenOffice.org 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）s in the last couple of weeks. The answers were very different, and they were いつかs 相いれない. This example shows how an Open Source community can have several 発言する／表明するs inside: the developer, the 使用者, the 研究員, the amateur, the professional. And everybody will have his or her own answer, because everybody has his or her own needs.
Doing "marketing" in an Open Source community has an 付加 difficulty in comparison to the 伝統的な market 分析. 普通は, a 会社／団体 knows what its 生産力のある 能力s are, what it can afford and what it cannot. On the other 手渡す, we need to know what we can do and only then, we will be able to define a 戦略 to 達成する our goals. Several 不確定s can 影響する／感情 the success or the 失敗 of an Open Source 事業／計画（する）. The most important の中で them is surely the consistency and 質 of its members. But, how can we 増加する the number of our members without knowing the needs of those people who are 現在／一般に part of our community and of the others who may join the community, if only. . . ?
An OpenOffice.org Marketing 事業／計画（する） could be the 解答. The working structure would be simple: 分析, 解釈／通訳, and Communication.
On the 内部の 味方する, this 概念 first means to understand the 動機づけs of the members, how they 表明する them in their work for the community, and how they would 反応する to 明確な／細部 community 行為s. The "Linux vs. MS Windows" diatribe can be used as example. Many members are Linux 使用者s and a high 百分率 の中で them considers OpenOffice.org as a Linux 事業／計画（する）. They 需要・要求する or 提案する 改良s for Linux only, forgetting that one of the most important features of the OpenOffice.org 控訴 is to be multi-壇・綱領・公約. This is the 分析 段階. Now, we know that Linux 使用者s can have a monothematic 見通し of the OpenOffice.org 事業／計画（する）. In the 解釈／通訳 段階, we should understand the 推論する／理由s behind this 行為, by asking: Do they understand the 十分な nature of the OpenOffice.org 事業／計画（する）? Are they ignorant of the 事業／計画（する）? Or, is this a problem 関係のある to their philosophical 解釈／通訳 of Open Source? After we have a sure answer, we'll be able to communicate in the 権利 way that OpenOffice.org is a multi-壇・綱領・公約 事業／計画（する）. Nobody will be unsatisfied (which would 危険 member's defection) and the 訂正する （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） will be received.
On the 外部の 味方する, an OpenOffice.org marketing 事業／計画（する） would have to 直面する a 二塁打 challenge: How to 伸び（る） new members and how to 扱う the growing success of our 控訴! Fortunately, whoever is a 可能性のある member of the community is also an 可能性のある OpenOffice.org end-使用者. So, the classical marketing techniques can be 適用するd to both 部類s. The contradictory reactions, of which I was speaking above, were just about these topics. Must the OpenOffice.org community 供給する marketing, support, and other 関係のある services for the end-使用者s? Some community members 反対する that we are not ready to 申し込む／申し出 such 肉親，親類d of services. They say we 欠如（する） the developers, the members; in a nutshell, the 軍隊s to 会合，会う the challenge.
The secret of an Open Source community is that nobody knows its 可能性のある. Neither the 創立者s nor the members. It can only be perceived by intuition or with a marketing 調査する. . . . The 週刊誌 増加するing number of binaries downloads mean something: Out there, in the world, there are several thousand of latent OpenOffice.org members; and they are end-使用者s.
Another 反対 to an 外部の marketing 成果／努力 is that a lot of end-使用者s are 非，不，無-technical people (in a strict sense) and they could ruinously flood the OpenOffice.org web 場所／位置 and mailing 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）s. Put aside the fact that many 非，不，無-technical people are already 与える／捧げるing to the 事業／計画（する）, we have to understand that when an Open Source community 達成するs the success level OpenOffice.org has 達成するd, it has new needs that the developers cannot 満足させる. Of course, using a technical terminology, the "kernel" of the 事業／計画（する） will be the developing of the source code as 必須の 優先, but the superstructure will be composed (and 部分的に／不公平に is already now) by 非，不，無-technical members: lawyers, marketing 専門家s, writers, and 新聞記者／雑誌記者s. So, the source is the base, but 法律 must 保護する it, it must be valorized in the ソフトウェア market and the world must know of its 存在!
Finally, the hardest 反対 made is that whatever 期待 the end-使用者s could have, no member can 保証（人） that the community will 満足させる it. This problem can seem equal to the first one discussed in this article: the 欠如（する） of 利用できる 軍隊s. Instead, it is やめる different. Here, the 焦点（を合わせる） is not pointing to the number of developers, but to their will. A programmer's 動機づけ can 変化させる かなり: 熟考する／考慮する, amateur or professional 利益／興味, ambition (yes, even that!). What would happen if a group of 核心 developers, who are working on a code 事業／計画（する）, didn't want to change their program to follow a suggestion of the marketing 事業／計画（する） based on an end-使用者s request? 井戸／弁護士席, it can be said that marketing 管理／経営 individualizes the problems, 示唆するs the 解答s, but doesn't solve them 直接／まっすぐに. The community is based on the 共同; we'll find a workaround.
In 結論, an OpenOffice.org Marketing 事業／計画（する） has its プロの／賛成のs and its 反対／詐欺s, but seeing the enthusiasm raised from this 提案, there's no 疑問 that the 利益s will be more than the costs.
About the author
Gianluca Turconi is a writer living in Italy whose passions are 法律, literature,
and 競争の激しい cycling. And, of course, OpenOffice.org, where he is a member
of the Documentation 事業／計画（する）,
the leader of the Marketing 事業／計画（する）, and a たびたび（訪れる） contributor to the general
discuss 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）. You can read his bio in our スポットライト.
