Query results: February, 2008

Exactly one year ago today, myself and Gustavo applied for the registration of GNU/Linux Matters as a non-profit entity.
The past week, during two talks in Europe, I announced our intentions to reach out to one million web surfers in 2008. A friend later asked: is there something beyond that? Does GNU/Linux Matters have prospects besides a mere “stat” number?

So I’d like to succinctly write out the aspirations for GNU/Linux Matters in its second year of existence. These are not precise, measurable objectives; but rather high level ideas that we look at throughout the year to get us going.

1. We provide a very large number of people with clear, simple, relevant material when they look for information about GNU/Linux and Freedomware. Our websites become a recognized reference for Linux, in a dozen languages or more. We are able to manage and develop many translations efficiently. We initiate a wide, multicultural viral marketing community.
2. We demonstrate that marketing for free software can be done at a high level, by a non-profit organization. We show that our work (re-associating the keyword “Linux” with notions of clarity and freedom) is important and relevant for all members of the community. We display enough professionalism and commitment for companies to trust us – not only covering our expenses, but also permitting the hiring of our leading members.
3. We start to influence the FOSS developer community. This is an immense task, but we modestly show the high importance of software market share. With exemplary material, and by sharing our experience, we give developers useful advice to build software that pushes proprietary software out of the scene.

Two good news in a single post,

The first is that Gustavo was contacted by a Panamean newspaper, El financiero, which was publishing an article on the “GNU/Linux vs. Windows” issue. He was quoted along with a local Microsoft spokesperson. Sadly, the article, which is written in Spanish, is no longer available online to non-subscribers.

The second is that another person joined the Advisory board of the GNU/Linux Matters organization. We wish a very warm welcome to Landy DeField, a long-time freedomware advocate, internet marketing consultant, who co-created the REVELinux gear shop and TheTuxProject.com (a little more on our who’s who page). We look forward to doing many things together =)

In the coming weeks I’ll be giving three talks at free software-related events in Europe:

• At the LinuxDays.lu on February 20th in Luxemburg
  The talk, titled Getting one million to know Linux: why it matters and how we do it, will be one of the two footnote talks of the event. It will cover the main activities of GNU/Linux Matters and give a few insights on marketing for free software developers.
• At FOSDEM on February 24th in Brussels, Belgium
  This will be the same talk as in the Linuxdays.lu – it’s not part of the main schedule but will be given in the room shared by the Fedora and CentOS communities.
• At the Chemnitzer Linux Tage on March 1st in Chemnitz, Germany
  This is a new talk, Good code just didn’t cut it: Projekte für die nächste Million User neu durchdenken (in German). I’ll spend much less time than usual on the overall market position of free software; and focus instead on what really matters to developers. I think of it as the 24C3 talk, with a lot less strategy, and a lot more practical application.

If you turn up at any of these events, don’t hesitate to come by and have a chat!
Olivier.