[Mageia-marketing] Emails lost yesterday

[Sebastian]

On 22/04/12, Patricia Fraser:
> Hi guys,
>
> Hard disk crashed yesterday, so if anyone sent mails to me in the
> last 24 hours - please resend!
>
> Cheers,
Hi Trish

I am replying to your email later than I would have done for various 
reasons.

I am having my own hard disk problems at the moment, well partitions 
really. Something wrong with the partition table. I also can't just put 
my data easily on a external hard disk at the moment and start over for 
example.

I could try fixing the partition table, but things are in quite a mess 
let's put it that way, so on the verge of completely starting over.  
It's been over a week now as well with these issues, but for various 
reasons haven't just been able to start over.

I can boot up Windows XP properly, but not a Linux distro, and I can't 
just go and install one again either, so I am stuck using Live CD's at 
the moment or Windows when using this computer, until I move data off 
this computer's hard disk that I want to keep, to some where else, so I 
can completely start over with the partition table.

I could try fixing the partition table, but I am going to completely 
start over.

I think you didn't read a email I sent about Saturday 19th May: 
https://www.mageia.org/pipermail/mageia-marketing/2012-April/000856.html

I had this idea to do a time line type talk, how and why I got 
interested in Mageia, how I got involved and when things happened, and 
about Mageia itself, however there isn't really time for all of that in 
only 5 minutes.

I am starting to get some LUG  interest in Mageia and that seems to be 
going quite well so far :).

Someone gave me some suggestions for the talk from the LUG as well :). 
For example how every word I say has to be relevant, and basically how I 
should plan for four minutes, then try and cut stuff down as well.

Oliver sent me a slide show of a talk he did about Mageia.

I would like some proper help from Mageia marketing  and communications 
team people to plan this talk properly, but also with a slide show, and 
even with the website description, however it seems that quite a few 
people have disappeared on us.

It's a 5 minute talk, and since I am going to be going there to 
officially represent the Mageia project, I want to make sure that I am 
doing so properly.  To some extent I will also be representing the LUG I 
guess, because I am down as being from the LUG on the website when it 
comes to the group. So another reason why this talk should be done properly.

The person from the LUG basically suggested that I need to say what 
makes Mageia good when compared to other distros, and well indeed at 
that, but what makes it so good really when compared to other distros?

Obviously when compared to many other distributions the control centre, 
but what else?

I think my talk should basically be, introducing myself as a Mageia 
contributor, introducing Mageia, more information about Mageia such as 
what makes it good for many users, and an ending.

I also plan to put some contact details into the talk itself or at least 
the slide show.  For example I would like to tell people that they can 
follow me on Identica a alternative to Twitter where I spread interest 
in Mageia and that mainly has people interested in Linux using it.  
Probably something about IRC channels as well.

I think keywords in the talk should be we and our, because I'll be 
talking officially.  I also think I should introduce myself officially.  
Something like:  "Good afternoon my name is Sebastian and I am the 
Mageia marketing and communications team deputy leader, and a member of 
the artwork and documentation teams."

Or something like "Good afternoon my name is Sebastian and I am the 
Mageia marketing and communications team deputy leader, and a member of 
the artwork and documentation teams. I also run Freenode IRC channels 
for the Linux distribution such as Mageia UK and Mageia Social, and help 
to spread interest in Mageia on Identica a open alternative to Twitter 
with mainly Linux users using it."

Or maybe something like: "Good afternoon my name is Sebastian and I am a 
Linux enthusiast who decided to get involved with Mageia a fork of the 
commercial Mandriva Linux distribution, which goes back to 1998 when it 
was called Mandrake. Mageia is a 100% community distribution, with a non 
profit organisation behind it, and everyone who contributes is a 
volunteer, and I am the Mageia marketing and communications team deputy 
leader, and a member of the artwork and documentation teams. On 
September 18th 2010 it was announced that ex Mandriva employee's and 
other contributors were going to fork Mandriva into Mageia. Mageia 1 was 
released on the 1st of June last year, and our second version was 
released on Tuesday of this week. I also run Freenode IRC network 
channels for the project such as Mageia UK and Mageia Social."

At the beginning of the talk I think I should  introduce myself, say 
what Mageia is and how it's a fork of Mandriva and why it forked, and 
when the announcement of Mageia was and when the first and second 
release was.

There are various ways I could say it's a fork and something about that, 
but how do you think I should do it? Another example is this: "On 
September 18th 2010 it was announced on the Mageia website, that some ex 
Mandriva employee's and other contributors were going to fork Mandriva 
into a 100% community distribution with a non profit organisation behind 
it, because Edge-IT a company working on Mandriva got liquidated and 
many former employee's got laid off as a result."  Remember I only got 5 
minutes and wouldn't really want to say to much about the fork and it 
could use valuable time if I am doing that.

What about FOSDEM and our AGM and that kind of thing? Should I say 
something like this for example? "Mageia goes to events and our main 
event is FOSDEM where our AGM happens as well".  Or something like this 
even?  "Mageia has a presence at events and our main event is when 
contributors go to Brussels, because of FOSDEM. We have our AGM at 
FOSDEM for example."

I think it's a good idea to say something like: "Mageia may still be 
quite a new Linux distribution, but we do have developers who contribute 
to upstream projects, for example our Gnome maintainer is on the 
upstream Gnome release team, and our Pulseaudio maintainer develops it 
upstream."

I think it may be a good idea to say something about contributing and 
teams, and the council and the board, and how that works, and how each 
year people vote on who they would like to have as the team leader and 
deputy leader, and that kind of thing?  In the slide show Oliver sent me 
there's a diagram that tries to explain that, however also one that may 
need some updating if going to be used.  Probably should also say in the 
talk that Mageia has a few founders, but maybe add something in about 
them not really having a special status as such as a result, because in 
Mageia we treat people equally?  I think the votes system for teams is 
worth mentioning for sure, because I like the idea of mentioning it and 
then saying how as a result it doesn't matter if someone was there from 
the beginning or not, they can join a team and possibly end up leading 
it n the future even, which I think is good.

When it comes to the organisation might be worth saying that it's a 
French non profit organisation, but Mageia is a international project so 
contributors from loads of different countries.

Also when it comes to releases it may be worth saying something like 
"Mageia 1 was released with Gnome 2.32 and KDE 4.6 with XFCE and LXDE 
available in the repos when KDE 4.6 was quite new as well, and Mageia 2 
has a recent Linux kernel and Gnome 3.4 and KDE 4.6 and XFCE and LXDE is 
available in the repos as well."  I think maybe something quick to do 
with that, but nothing to long, since everyone in the audience as far as 
I know won't be using a Desktop Linux distro as their operating system 
of choice, even though the audience in general will be quite technical.

P.S

To anyone who reads this message  before Saturday 19th May 2012, please 
provide suggestions for the talk :).