Introduction
This is a draft schedule for the marketing team to follow in the build up to the Fedora 11 release. Included is a description of the tasks and the steps required to complete them, as well as a preliminary schedule to help guide our priorities as the release approaches.
Further notes related to this document can be found on this page.
Schedule
These are just task titles; descriptions of the tasks can be found further down the page.
| Completion Date | Task Title |
|---|---|
| 2009-03-03 | Lay press contacts list |
| Guide to translating Fedora software | |
| Guide to testing Fedora releases | |
| 2009-04-21 | Feature Summary |
| Features for general art sites | |
| Features for system-administrator sites & magazines | |
| Release note contributors | |
| Fedora Forum | |
| 2009-04-28 | Release & countdown banners |
| 2009-05-19 | Release announcement |
| 2009-05-19 | Picture Book Published |
| 2009-05-26 | Provide follow-up for community forums |
Task Descriptions
Lay press contacts list
While Red Hat's internal marketing teams will handle communication with the larger press outlets as well as arranging interviews with the FPL, the marketing team will work with smaller press outlets, bloggers and podcasters to help drive interest and increase knowledge about Fedora in these areas. To achieve this we will need to:
- Create a list of contacts
- Get in touch with contacts and
- Advise them of the feature list (feature summary when ready)
- Arrange interviews with developers, project members
As an aside, we should not just target technical lay press, but also focus on alternative circles where the free, open source ethic has strong links, such as remixers (creative commons) and goods recyclers (freecyclers, make etc)
A somewhat similar proposition, but broken down by languages, is also on discussion on Marketing/NewsDistributionNetwork
Guide to translating Fedora software
One of the primary tasks of the marketing team is to help increase participation in all areas of the project, gathering new contributors from all around the world. As a result, we should work with other areas of the project to provide material that will help get new contributors started, including the translation team. To achieve this we will need to:
- Contact glezos about producing a guide to using Transifex
- Produce and edit the guide, perhaps working with the docs project
- Publish the guide in a suitable location
As an aside, it might be nice to provide regular updates of translation statistics to help motivate people to keep going or to get involved. When ever we publish these statistics, we should point back to the guide.
Guide to testing Fedora releases
Lots of QA needs to be done to ensure the final release is as good as possible. Providing material that explains how to test Fedora development releases, and critically, how to report bugs against it will hopefully enable more people to take part in testing. To achieve this we will need to:
- Talk to jlaska about re-purposing and expanding his series of tutorials for this
- Produce and edit the guide, perhaps working with the docs project
- Publish the guide in a suitable location
As an aside, it might be nice to provide regular updates about the number of open bugs reported against Rawhide.
Further, it might also be useful to create a schedule of planned Fedora Test Days, and have this referenced in any release announcements.
Feature Summary
Fedora is constantly innovating and leading the advancement of free, open source software. Anyone who has any interest in the Fedora 11 release should be able to see, at a glance, what are the key features developed in collaboration with upstream projects during this release cycle and why they should care. To achieve this we will need to:
- Produce "Your Guide To Fedora 11: What To Expect"
- Work with art team to create a beautiful looking document
- Publish the guide as a static page, working with the websites team
Features for general art sites
What good is free, open source software if you cannot use it to get work done? Every release, the art team creates wonderful work using exclusively open tools and processes. This is not just a great selling point for Fedora, but is a wonderful showcase for the wider free software movement. As a result, we should identify and produce content for art sites that are popular with the wider population. To achieve this we will need to:
- Identify popular and relevant sites
- Work with the art team to produce tutorials and features showing off both their work and the tools they use
As an aside, it might be nice to produce some video montages showing the process of creating the F11 artwork. This might not be possible, but we should speak with both the art team and Colby (member of Red Hat's creative team) about this.
Features for system-administrator sites & magazines
Same as above, but with the infrastructure team as the focus. No need to produce video montage :p
Release note contributors
The release notes are vital for many people deploying Fedora systems to know what has changed and how it will effect them. To help ensure they contain all the required information, it is important that developers are involved in the process. To help achieve this we will need to:
- Work with the docs project
- Help spread the word in whatever way possible
Fedora Forum
Traditionally, the marketing team has largely reached out through Fedora Planet. Many users and potential contributors do not follow Planet, however, and so we should reach out through Fedora Forum where many users hang out, cross-publishing as much relevant content as we can (translation guide etc). To achieve this we will need to:
- Speak with community members who are also involved with the forum (Rahul etc)
Of course, this kind of out reach does not need to be limited to Fedora Forum, but could stretch to #fedora on freenode as well as other locations.
Release Announcement
- Needs to point to join.fp.o, get.fp.o
NB: Earlier release announcements should also point to various guides that we create, as well as test day schedule.