Marketing Minutes 2006-08-01
From MemberWiki
OpenAjax Alliance Marketing Committee meeting minutes 2006-08-01
Attendees
- Andre Charland <acharland@ebusiness-apps.com>
- David Frankel <david.frankel@sap.com>
- Gary Horen <ghoren@bea.com>
- John Janetos <jjanetos@laszlosystems.com>
- Jon Ferraiolo <jferrai@us.ibm.com>
- Joseph Becker <bjoseph@us.ibm.com>
- Ian Wenig <ian@zoho.com>
- Ted Thibodeau <tthibodeau@openlinksw.com>
Absent
- Alexei White <awhite@ebusiness-apps.com>
- Andre Charland <acharland@ebusiness-apps.com>
- Cary Liu <cliu@mercedsystems.com>
- Chris Erickson <chris.erickson@icesoft.com>
- Coach Wei <coach@nexaweb.com>
- Dan Roberts <dan.roberts@sun.com>
- David Boloker <boloker@us.ibm.com>
- Dion Almaer <dion@ajaxian.com>
- Dominic Porter <dominic.porter@edgeipk.com>
- Dylan Schiemann <dylan@dojotoolkit.org>
- Erwan Paccard <epaccard@ilog.fr>
- Garbrand van der Molen <garbrand@javeline.nl>
- Ian Wenig <ian@zoho.com>
- Jason Wadsworth <wadsbone@thefrontside.net>
- Javier Gallego <Javier.Gallego@softwareag.com>
- Jochen Krause <jkrause@innoopract.de>
- John Lilly <lilly@mozilla.com>
- Jonathan Daly <jdaly@nexaweb.com>
- Joonas Lehtinen <joonas.lehtinen@itmill.com>
- Jose Carrasco <Jose.Carrasco@in2.es>
- Luis Derechin <luisd@jackbe.com>
- Marc Englund <marc.englund@itmill.com>
- Mark Gally <mgally@mercedsystems.com>
- Matt Durham <matt.durham@softwareag.com>
- Nolwen Mahe <nolwen.mahe@sap.com>
- Paul Kim <pkim@mozilla.com>
- Raju Vegesna <raju@zoho.com>
- Rob Vonderhaar <robv@jackbe.com>
- Sami Ekblad <sami.ekblad@itmill.com>
- Sharat Chander <sharat.chander@sun.com>
- Thomas Stoesser <Thomas.Stoesser@softwareag.com>
- Todd Hay <thay@adobe.com>
- Torsten Preissler <tpreissler@innoopract.com>
- William Shulman <will@mercedsystems.com>
Agenda
- ANNOUNCEMENT: Donation of openajax.org to the OpenAjax Alliance
- ANNOUNCEMENT: Major press opportunity for OpenAjax Alliance
- Dylan report on progress on new logo and graphics design of web site (Dylan)
- Technical Overview Whitepaper - updated draft ready for review and discussion
- Market Overview Whitepaper - brand new document, ready for initial feedback
- Discussion about going public with the web site
- Other topics TBD
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Donation of openajax.org to the OpenAjax Alliance
Jon: Hot news. Just last night we were given openajax.org domain as a donation. Given by OpenDomain.org for free. Took lots of discussion. I promised two things. First, I would strongly recommend that I would give a quote to OpenDomain about the donation. Second, I would strongly recommend that we use openajax.org as our primary url.
?: If we used openajax.org, would we redirect from openajaxalliance.org to openajax.org?
JonF: Yes, that's the idea.
DavidF: Yes, keep the redirect.
DavidF: I think it is a good idea to use the new domain name.
JohnJ: Yes, makes total sense.
Resolution: We will use openajax.org as our primary url, with a redirect from openajaxalliance.org to openajax.org.
Ian: Impact on logos?
JonF: Three people from IBM thought about this question and came to the same conclusions. Best approach is to keep the name "OpenAjax Alliance" and the same logos, but use openajax.org as the primary url for OpenAjax Alliance. We don't have to change the logos.
Gary: Perfectly intuitive. No problem with using openajax.org for the alliance.
Resolution: Continue to call ourselves OpenAjax Alliance, despite using openajax.org as our primary url.
Joe: Anyone heard of such a donation before? What does he want?
JonF: I had long conversations with him. First and foremost, this is almost entirely pure altruism. The only selfish request is some recognition. The two requests in terms of recognition that I remember were a link on our home page to OpenDomain.org and a quote for his press release. I told him that it was up to the membership about any links to OpenDomain.org and he faced the same issue with another organization, so he dropped that requirement and it is now just a request. Regarding the quote, I need permission from both IBM and the alliance. Let's first see if IBM gives permission, and if so, under what guidelines. After that, we can talk about it in the alliance.
JonF: OK with everyone if we postpone the decision about putting a link to OpenDomain.org on our web site?
-- no objections --
Resolution: Marketing committee will decide on links back to OpenDomain.org at a future meeting when more people are present and when we have a better idea of how the web site will look.
Ian/JohnJ: A quote would be generally innocuous. But run by the alliance first. Might be a precedent.
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Major press opportunity for OpenAjax Alliance
(not yet completed)
JonF: AJAXWorld wants two stories on OpenAjax Alliance for their first print publication, put OpenAjax on the cover, and have many copies available at AJAXWorld conference in October.
?: Awesome!
Joe: They say that OpenAjax is the biggest Ajax story in 2006. They want two bylined stories, similar to our whitepaper strategy. One technical and one that talks about marketing and strategic outlook. They are likely to write an article or two from their perspective. I am working on other OpenAjax activities for the show. Jon has assignment to complete the stories.
JonF: This is a fantastic opportunity. But deadline in less than 3 weeks and not much instruction.
Joe: Bylined articles. Probably around 1000 words. Base a lot of content from cherry-picking from whitepapers, but present in a way that is consumable by their readers. Anyone want to help turn the whitepapers into more consumable articles or any ideas for covers?
-- no volunteers --
Joe: To keep moving forward, Jon will take the lead on development with my help. I will liaison with publication.
Andre: About OpenAjax Alliance or Ajax?
JonF: They said that OpenAjax is the biggest thing this year, so the idea is to have the article be about OpenAjax and the alliance.
?: Right
Joe: Any concerns or thoughts?
Andre: Great opportunity to promote. Note that SDTimes on July 15 had cover story and big article on Sun joining OpenAjax.
JonF: Yes, Ajax and OpenAjax are hot items.
Topic: Dylan report on progress on new logo and graphics design of web site
Jon: New logos from Dylan. What do people think?
Ian: Great job factoring in our feedback.
Andre: I like the new ones.
Joe: I like the new ones better as well.
Ian: Gold and black - how about adding back the gold "x" (><) from earlier logo?
JonF: Let's give that as a suggestion to Dylan as something to consider, but we don't want to interfere with the artists except via things to consider
JohnJ: I like the green and orange, but for the alliance, can see why the more conservative black and gold would be better.
DavidF/Joe: Black and gold better. Need to look sufficiently corporate.
DavidF: Are we going to capitalize "AJAX"?
JonF: The branding guidelines on our web site that we discussed said it was "OpenAjax" and that's what Dylan used in the logo design. This approach of "OpenAjax" was largely because early press was spelling it that way. Continuity.
JonF: Dylan's preference was black & gold also because of recognition of corporate needs and easier to design the rest of the web site with those colors. Any objections to using the new black & gold logo?
Resolution: Use the new gold and black logo. Dylan will consider whether to restore the "x".
Topic: Technical Overview Whitepaper - updated draft ready for review and discussion
Jon: With Ian's first version of the marketing paper, I moved things around on the web site so that there are separate pages and the old whitepaper is now the technical overview whitepaper.
Jon: Lots of great contribution in the past couple of weeks since we last talked. There have been major editing reviews so that the text is in very good shape. David Frankel of SAP and Erwan from ILOG have both done great jobs helping out. ILOG had a professional writer go through the document carefully. Ironic that some people from France are fixing our English grammar and style.
Jon: Also, I added various pictures. If anyone can help make them better, that would be great.
Ian: The industry will repurpose our graphics, so put the alliance logo and URL at the bottom of the graphics.
-- everyone -- good idea
Jon: Volunteers to create great graphics with logo and url?
Andre: I will check.
Ian: Ask alliance for volunteers for graphics helps with the whitepaper.
Jon: Two deadlines. Web site should go public at the end of the month, mostly time-dependent on getting a graphics picture for the layout from Dylan and team. But the AJAXWorld articles need to come together within the next two weeks. Therefore, next week is key for when we need graphics help.
Joe: Probably need only a few of the charts for the AJAXWorld articles.
Jon: For the technical whitepaper, I think we only need one or two more graphics, mainly collages of Ajax in action.
Andre: Yes.
Jon: Market overview might need more pictures of Ajax in action.
-- long discussion about perils of screenshots, where someone might not like our taking a snapshot without their permission and others might not like us showing screenshots of competitors --
-- Some mention that maybe we need to ask permission. Other mention that this all might be considered "fair use".
-- Agreement that it might take large companies a long time to give permission
Joe: CreativeCommons.org has license that allows reuse and contains content that we can use without question.
JohnJ/Andre/Ted: (all volunteered that they might be able to submit some screenshots)
Resolution - Try to restrict to content that can be reused, such as Creative Commons, or content that members submit without restriction
