Sara Dornsife: OpenSolaris Marketing
Special blogger welcome to Sara
Dornsife in OpenSolaris marketing for taking the deep dive into
blogging on BSC.
This is really good news for us and further demonstrates the transformation of Sun marketing. Over the course of this project (18 months for me, can you believe it?), I've watched marketing slowly embrace open source. Ok, it's been a tad painful at times, but it's a process we all must go through, it seems. I sure as hell did.
For these guys, it started out with the team directly engaging 145 OpenSolaris Pilot Program participants in discussions on the mail lists -- that means taking the shots (body blows at times) about engaging too late occasionally, and also having to defend positions Sun sports on various things without hiding behind a firewall. That's the key: anyone can shout a message to a market, but relatively few can actually engage the market (in this case community) in a conversation when everyone is equal. Think it's easy? Try it with no net. It also means learning (as we all have done, believe me), the critical distinction between "getting feedback" (read: old marketing focus group mentality) and "direct involvement" (read: modern open source marketing). It's a distinction with a very big difference, too. The marketing team is also doing something else that's really critical here: by simply opening up and participating in the community they are teaching as well as learning. We all have something to offer. Look, we are a big corporation, and doing open source from this position is sometimes somewhat different from starting out small. We may not move as quickly for some (like me), but sometimes there are good reasons for that. Sometimes. Anyway, the marketing team is starting to tell that story. Learning goes both ways, I believe.
It's very simple, though -- marketing on the OpenSolaris project will change marketing at Sun because the team has migrated right across the firewall and joined the community. Absolutely no question about it. You can read their discussions on their mail list, and you can follow their activities in their new community on opensolaris.org. All in the open.
Sara's been in the middle of this for quite some time now, along with her colleagues Claire, Laura, and Patrick. We like to pick on marketing at times (it's sport for me, actually), but the truth is that their role is as critical as any group on this project. Give 'em a look ... I think you'll like what you see.
This is really good news for us and further demonstrates the transformation of Sun marketing. Over the course of this project (18 months for me, can you believe it?), I've watched marketing slowly embrace open source. Ok, it's been a tad painful at times, but it's a process we all must go through, it seems. I sure as hell did.
For these guys, it started out with the team directly engaging 145 OpenSolaris Pilot Program participants in discussions on the mail lists -- that means taking the shots (body blows at times) about engaging too late occasionally, and also having to defend positions Sun sports on various things without hiding behind a firewall. That's the key: anyone can shout a message to a market, but relatively few can actually engage the market (in this case community) in a conversation when everyone is equal. Think it's easy? Try it with no net. It also means learning (as we all have done, believe me), the critical distinction between "getting feedback" (read: old marketing focus group mentality) and "direct involvement" (read: modern open source marketing). It's a distinction with a very big difference, too. The marketing team is also doing something else that's really critical here: by simply opening up and participating in the community they are teaching as well as learning. We all have something to offer. Look, we are a big corporation, and doing open source from this position is sometimes somewhat different from starting out small. We may not move as quickly for some (like me), but sometimes there are good reasons for that. Sometimes. Anyway, the marketing team is starting to tell that story. Learning goes both ways, I believe.
It's very simple, though -- marketing on the OpenSolaris project will change marketing at Sun because the team has migrated right across the firewall and joined the community. Absolutely no question about it. You can read their discussions on their mail list, and you can follow their activities in their new community on opensolaris.org. All in the open.
Sara's been in the middle of this for quite some time now, along with her colleagues Claire, Laura, and Patrick. We like to pick on marketing at times (it's sport for me, actually), but the truth is that their role is as critical as any group on this project. Give 'em a look ... I think you'll like what you see.
