Marketing/SWOT



Fedora Project

Introduction

The Fedora Project 4 Foundations

The SWOT Analysis is a tool to provide a self assessment of a project/organization/venture that provides useful output to help on the strategical planning of the very same project/organization/venture. This was the very first challenge I proposed myself when I joined Fedora Marketing Group. I've chosen to do this for several reasons, being by far the most important of them the fact that I wanted to understand the project.

The subject of this document is the Fedora Project as a community that produces a product known as Fedora Linux, one of the most known Linux distributions available for several audiences, from Linux enthusiasts to Software Engineering Professionals, from students to power productivity users, and everyone else who wants to give it a go as an alternative to proprietary software available from several companies.

To better understand the Fedora Project it is recommended to understand the 4 Fedora Foundations, which provide the basis of the Fedora Project identity. Another relevant document to understand the Fedora Project is the current developing version of the Fedora Marketing Plan which presents interesting information regarding several factors of the Fedora Project, some of this interest factors are:

• Future User Base;
• Brand Notoriety;
• Approach and User Enrolment;

There are other interesting factors that are introduced in the Fedora Marketing Plan, but I will focus only on the three mentioned above because they are the most complete and relevant for the upcoming contents displayed on this document.

This document is composed of the following sections:

• Introduction - A small introduction to the document and the topics to that compose the same.
• Internal Environment Analysis - An analysis to the Internal Environment of the Fedora Project which consists on highlighting and understanding a set of key factors that can be fully controllable by the Fedora Project and that will qualify as Weaknesses and Strengths. This factors are to be selected as a self-assessment of the project and will be evaluated under a methodology explained later.
• External Analysis - An analysis of the External Environment of the Fedora Project which will provide a set of key factors, those that can not be in any way controlled by the Fedora Project and that might act as Opportunities or Threats to the project. They will be evaluated under four factors (Economy, Social/Demographic, Politic/Legal and Technological) that will be introduced later on.
• Analysis and Proposals for Action - The last part of the document will be an analysis from the SWOT itself (including Matrix) with a set of proposals for action to correct the possible points that might require immediate action from the Fedora Project.
• Critical Factors for Success & Critical Comparative Analysis - This points might not qualify for a typical SWOT Analysis, but they are of relevance and they should be present in this case, therefore I've taken the liberty of introducing them on this document.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis is often divided in two different analysis, both very important for the strategical planning.

• External Environment - This will define the Threats and Opportunities of the Project and none of this factors can be controlled by the management, or in this case the Fedora Project. The External Environment is based on the following factors:
  • Demographic/Social Factors - An analysis based on social and demographic factors. Given the nature of the Fedora Project it is also important to look at geographical data.
  • Technological Factors - The technological factors in the Industry.
  • Politic/Legal Factors - Legal and Politic factors. Factors like licensing and legislation are contemplated here.
  • Economical Factors - The economical factors.

• Internal Environment - The internal environment provides the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Fedora Project. All this factors can be controlled by the Fedora Project and they are being evaluated according to:
  • Men -
  • Measures -
  • Means -
  • Machines -

The SWOT Analysis should provide information helpful in evaluating the Project's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates. This is a instrumental resource in strategy formulation and selection.

Internal Environment

• Quality and Management
• Performance / Performance Improvements
• Technology

Strengths

Men

Men; manpower related (no gender discrimination). This are The Fedora Project strong factors when it comes to manpower.

Contributors

The Fedora Project has thousands of volunteer contributors working in several task. Everyday thousands of people contribute actively for several sub-project of Fedora with thousands of hours of dedicated work to make Fedora Linux happen and keep the community growing. Many sub-projects are daily maintained by this people. To name a few:

• Fedora Documentation
• Translation Teams

The Bazaar Model

Robyn Bergeron introduced me once with The Cathedral and the Bazaar. The model described in the Bazaar is outstanding. The proof that the most sceptic would require are long given. In a matter of manpower this model provides an outstanding solution to fast and feature rich development. This is without doubt the element that solved the manpower problem for many applications, and still does. We should not underestimate the Cathedral building. The Fedora Project Marketing Plan also mentions something interesting: general productivity user. This productivity user is usually something hard to decode. If this user is not computer friendly or Linux enthusiast the Bazaar Model sometimes might fail. A lot is around this "general productivity user" which at some point might be complicated for the Bazaar Model to handle.

Machines

Machines; These should be faced as every tool used to produce something in the Fedora Project. I will take into consideration the following:

• There is a product called Fedora Linux;
• Infra-structure (physical and intellectual) for this analysis is a part of the 'product' Fedora Linux;
• The group of people, sponsors, contributors, enthusiasts, etc, behind the 'product' Fedora Linux is the Fedora Community;
• The audience is defined by the information on Fedora's Marketing Plan.

Sponsorship

My approach to sponsorship is generic, it is widely known that Red Hat Inc. is the official sponsor of the Fedora Project. But in the scope of this SWOT Analysis I would like also to keep an importance on the following:

• Red Hat Inc; The main sponsor of the Fedora Project and Industry leader. This creates very good synergies and energies on the Fedora Community. Considering symbiotic bond between Red Hat and the Fedora Project it is realistic to say that Fedora Linux has high notoriety and recognized value by the target audiences (defined in the Marketing Plan).
• Hosting sponsors; This sponsorship is important not only for the Community Infra-Structure but also for the free circulation of contents throughout several communities and FOSS projects. I would also like to mention that official Fedora Mirrors should also be contemplated as hosting sponsors. All together they deploy not only the Fedora Community infra-structure but also enable a powerful distribution channel for Fedora Linux.
• Mirrors: To all the local and international mirrors which allow such a great distribution channel.
• Human; Every single person that donates a part of their personal time to the Fedora Project.

It is through a wide set of sponsorships measurable in value and volume that the Fedora Project strives for providing a technological leading Linux distribution. Through this sponsorships I believe that most people will find the two human pillars of Fedora, Freedom and Friends.

Infra-structure

The Fedora Project provides a large infra-structure to support it's community, which can actually be measured in value and volume. If we take into consideration the following:

• Community: The infra-struture oriented for the community. This includes example like Planet, wiki, IRC, logistics, etc.
• Fedora Project - FAS, Transifex, git, etc. All the technological platforms that are online with the goal of producing Fedora Linux.

Note from the author

I understand that for many contents like a SWOT Analysis might be full of weird terms and concepts; Through The Cathedral and the Bazaar one can try to understand how a FOSS Community works. Something like a SWOT would most likely sound more reasonable for 'cathedral building' than exactly for the Bazaar. The objective of this document is to provide a superficial approach through a method that can be worked out just like in the bazaar way to provide maybe better output in the future; can always be helpful as a way to try and quantify in volume and valour for further analysis.