Ubuntu Fliers

[JReagan1990]

Hey guys!

I have moved the Ubuntu fliers discussion to the forums, so that people's inboxes wont get flooded.

Anyways, the current state of the project is that the flier is in the works, and there has been a file change. More importantly, we will need a volunteer to test this project's effectiveness. We will need one ore more people to test out the ubuntu box idea for a week. I will be unable to participate, because I live on a street corner where it is near impossible to stop.

For those of you who don't know what this project is, I'll explain it in a nutshell:

Basically, this project is just one of the many supplementary ways of spreading Ubuntu to the general population, while possibly being one of the most effective ways (we'll see :p). The Ubuntu box will consist of a box, like the kind that home ads are placed in when your selling a house, with fliers (with CD's attached) placed inside. The stand is then placed on a street corner, out in front of your home, or any other place that it is convenient for people to stop and grab a copy.

We are also looking for input on the flier so we can get it to be as user-friendly as possible.

[boredandblogging.com]

A couple of things. First, I think there need to be several fliers of different colors. I don't think white will attract attention. I'm not suggesting we use orange and brown from the Human theme, but some different colors.

I'm not sure we should use a stand. Its almost asking to get stolen or kicked down.

[kevinf311]

It might be well received in Homepark just off of Georgia Techs campus. I'd be willing to put up something on McMillan St. next to my house. I'd just need to order some Cds. Let me know if you want me to try and work something up.

[boredandblogging.com]

kevin, that would be awesome! Maybe put some around the Tech campus?

[kevinf311]

Yeah, no problem. Like I said, it'd just be the length of time to receive the CDs and print out the fliers.

I could probably put a stand up in the Student Center and the Library. I'd probably have to talk to the SGA or something about it but I'll have some time on Thursday so I'll stop in at their office.

At the very least I will be able to set some up in HomePark.

[JReagan1990]

@ BoredandBlogging: I was actually thinking of using the same kind of stand that is used for placing home ad's in, you know, like in front of someone's house that is for sale. The kind that is like a rectangular box.

I do not believe a stand would work, like you were saying, it would get stolen quick, especially here near Atlanta. I believe if we use a home ad box, it wont get stolen, and it also will attract attention. It's also the perfect size - the fliers would fit perfectly inside it.

People will see that it is free, and says "take one", so that anyone who wants to steal one will think that it is actually not worth stealing. Besides, who wants to steal a home ad box anyways? :P I hope this clarifies what I was attempting to create.

As for ads of different colors, (thanks for bringing it up!), OpenOffice.org has this spiffy feature of allowing backgrounds on their documents that are not just solid colors. Since the image that I pasted into the flier is transparent around the letters and logo, I can add say, the Edgy desktop background to the document, to make it more Ubuntu-ish.

@ Kevin: That would be GREAT! The fliers are nearing completion. I will upload an improved version tonight. Thanks for volunteering! :)

[JReagan1990]

Alright folks, I have the new version of the flier out and ready for your review. This should be much closer to what we are looking for.

You can find it at: wiki.ubuntu.com/GeorgiaUSTeam/Marketing

There's a link at the bottom of the page. (thanks nick!)

[Swab]

Alright folks, I have the new version of the flier out and ready for your review. This should be much closer to what we are looking for.

You can find it at: wiki.ubuntu.com/GeorgiaUSTeam/Marketing

There's a link at the bottom of the page. (thanks nick!)

Hey guys, I know I am not a member of your team, but just wanted to wish you luck with this.

Can I make a suggestion? I think you should cut down the text on your flier and be more to the point. Many people do not even know what Linux is and won't have heard of the applications you mention. Perhaps just mention that Ubuntu can offer a better computer experience and then let them know about using the Live CD. Be sure to mention that they don't have to install anything and can try it with no risk.

Anyway, feel free to ignore me :)

[JReagan1990]

Thanks for looking over the document, swab.:)

I needed someone to come along and tell me what they see needs to be changed. I will take a look at the document, maybe print it out, and see what I can do with it.

Also, I have uploaded some more updated files. I have added a .pdf file so that we can print it out at a fed-ex kinko's, just in case they do not support .odf files. Anyways, take a look at the pdf and tell me what you think.

[Swab]

Ah, the PDF looks great with the background!

My only concern is that the logo may be too near the top of the page to print on most printers. I don't know anything about kinkos, so perhaps that's not an issue.

I would also suggest that you could improve the formatting by justifying the text. Perhaps you could put the paragraph at the bottom in a frame so that you don't need to format it with carriage returns. Does that make sense?

Anway, like I said it is looking good. Your team seems to be doing some good work.

How does one go about setting up a LoCo team?

[boredandblogging.com]

swab, thanks for taking a look at this and any more feedback you have would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some links about LoCos:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeams (how to set one up or join an existing one)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList (list of existing teams)

jon, I'll take a look at it tonight and try to give you some feedback as well.

[Swab]

Here is an example of what I mean about the layout. I removed the image as it was too big to upload here. But you get the idea.

[kevinf311]

So... just so I know what to tell the SGA, we want to put up boxes that say "FREE: Please Take One" and have the Fliers with attached CDs inside?

Also I was looking at the flier files and I agree with Swab on the margin issue. The justified text looks good too.

I was reading through the opening paragraph and I had a couple of questions:

1) Tech students are very anal about details and saying that "...you do not get any viruses..." may be scoffed at as inaccurate. Maybe something more like "...the risk of viruses et cetera is greatly reduced because Ubuntu [is] built with security in mind." Also, there is a typo in that sentence, it --> is.

2) Two sentences later, there is "You are free" and then a new sentence starts. Were we going to talk about free as in freedom there?

3) I haven't ordered CDs from Ubuntu before, do they come in a slim jewel case? Also, how long does it take for the CDs to arrive usually?

4) Aside from the box outside my house, the one in the Student center, and the one in the Library, are there any other places you would like me to scout?

[boredandblogging.com]

this might actually something we can do with LUG@GT. Might be easier to get SGA to agree if there was school-sponsored group going along with you.

[JSVH]

The flier looks good, nice work! My concerns basically reflect what Kevin already said. We should fix the "viruses" and the "you are free."

Do we want to physically stick the Cd's to the flier? I was picturing either a separate stack of fliers, and Cd's or a insert in the CD jewel case.

Kevin, as for you question about the ship it Cd's. They come in a very nice card board case describing Ubuntu and all that jazz. However, a couple people I know have recently tried to order Ship-it Cd's and were denied. Not to mention they take forever to get here. Which is really to bad, cause I would pay to get the ship-it Cd's because they are so nice compared even other Ubuntu Cd's you can by off the Internet.

[JReagan1990]

First I'll answer some questions.

Kevin:

"So... just so I know what to tell the SGA, we want to put up boxes that say "FREE: Please Take One" and have the Fliers with attached CDs inside?"

Yup. That's the just of it.

1 & 2) I see what you are talking about in the paragraph. I will change those sentences. (and the grammer issues!:oops: )

I'll see if I can fit the info about software freedom in there as well.

3) The cd's come in small cardboard cases that fold out. They have nice graphics on the covers, and instructions on the inside. So far, only the LTS version is provided, which is Dapper 6.06. They also take some time to arrive, like a couple of weeks. I think it was something like 6-8 weeks.

4) Anywhere that you want to! If you see a place that you want to put, then you are free to do so. (just check w/ whoever has control of the place first! ;) )

If you could just keep track of how many are taken - say, after a week or so, that would be great, so that we can track the effectiveness of this project. I have said before, the goal of this project is to get Ubuntu out to the masses who 99.9% of the time have not heard of Ubuntu.

Thanks again for volunteering to help out! :)

Swab:

I like the way that the justified lower paragraph looks. Can I move it over to the flier? Thanks for creating it!

JSVH:

I had planned for the cd's to be attached to the fliers, with like some double-sided tape, or any other tape for the matter. That way, people would pick up both the flier and the cd. If it was in a place where you could stack both the cd's and the fliers, then they could be separate.

[Swab]

I like the way that the justified lower paragraph looks. Can I move it over to the flier? Thanks for creating it!


Yes, of course you can use it.

Slight tangent, but have you guys seen the freedom toaster? (http://www.freedomtoaster.org/) I wish I had the resources to put one of those into some public building!

[JReagan1990]

Thanks. I uploaded the new files w/ the updated free sofware & security clauses. I have also moved the Ubuntu logo down a bit on the page.

btw... do you guys think we should justify the upper paragraph as well? If so, how do I do it? I still haven't managed to get the top paragraph to be all nice and square, like its in a box.

[boredandblogging.com]

Is it just me or is it hard to read black text on the brown background? I'm not sure white text would like nice though.

[Swab]

Thanks. I uploaded the new files w/ the updated free sofware & security clauses. I have also moved the Ubuntu logo down a bit on the page.

btw... do you guys think we should justify the upper paragraph as well? If so, how do I do it? I still haven't managed to get the top paragraph to be all nice and square, like its in a box.

You know how to centre text right? Well just two icons along you have justify. Should sort out the top paragraph.

[JReagan1990]

I am not sure how it will look, either. I am going to print out a page, when it is finished, so that I can really see what it looks like on paper.

dang those freedom toasters are cool...

[JReagan1990]

Hey folks! Thought I'd just let y'all know that shipit will be shipping free 7.04 CD's. We'll be able to put them in w/ the fliers! :)

[boredandblogging.com]

This is excellent news!

[jhenager]

One other change I would suggest would be to change "Ubuntu dispels the myth that Linux is outdated and hard to use for the average joe." to something like "Ubuntu dispels the myth that good software is not free and easy to use."
Basically, just remove any negative connotations regarding Ubuntu, and emphasize the positive points.

I live in the Buford area, and work in Norcross. I would be happy to help spread the word/fliers/disks anywhere I could.
Thanks.

[JReagan1990]

Thanks for looking at the fliers! I will change that one line to make it sound better. Also, thanks for wanting to post some fliers & CD's. In the Buford area, would you say that you live in a somewhat "suburb-ish" area of town? I was thinking that it would be good to see how it works out in areas that are residential, not just in the city. Thanks for wanting to help out!:)

[kevinf311]

Met with the guys at LUG@GT last night. I got some good information on how to go about getting permission to place the flier boxes.

It was of a general consensus that it was not worth putting out 6.06 CDs as Feisty and even Edgy had made great strides in Out of the Box Functionality. This of course meant that we would have to Burn our own CDs (although 7.04 Ship-Its is very good news) for the fliers. I would prefer to do Edgy CDs as there is more support for it currently, but the Feisty Ship-Its would probably work fine.

Another thought brought up (in the face of having to Burn CDs ourselves) was that the Flier and CD be made separate with the Flier pointing people towards downloading the iso themselves and only taking a CD if they felt they would not be able to burn a disk.

This would be OK for the Tech locations because we are a mirror for Ubuntu and the on campus downstream is ri-dic-u-lous. There should be an equal CD:Flier ratio elsewhere though.

Another problem with starting this initiative now is that with Ship-It taking a while to arrive, the semester will be more or less over at the time of the deployment. It may be worth our while to wait until Fall semester to get enough CDs of Feisty. This wait will also give Feisty time to be fully supported. As an added bonus the Fall semester will allow us to get in early with the Freshman class.

An option suggested by the guys at LUG@GT was to put out these boxes during the FASET (orientation) sessions over the summer. There are 5 of these (I think) and will expose not only the students but the parents as well. There will also be students on campus for the Summer Semester.

The only problem I have with delaying is that I am moving back to MD mid-June so I will have to hand the reigns over to another person.

[boredandblogging.com]

kevinf311, thanks for making the LUG meeting.

I think the point about school being out soon is valid. Most kids are going to be looking forward to going home, so it might not be worth it.

But summer session starts early mid-May. Even though there will not be enough students, it could be an opportunity for us to do a trial run. Plus maybe we could target putting them around the dorms since only a couple of dorms will be used.

[JReagan1990]

Thanks for the info. I think that feisty would be good to include w/ the fliers, but for teck, like you said, it might be good to get them to download a cd. I'm glad someone brought up the idea of putting the fliers in college campuses.

As for areas outside places like Atlanta, in the suburbs, CD's and fliers might have to go together, since people may not want to go home and download a 700mb file. I also am trying to find someone to start placing the boxes outside of the city. Since there is also a large population of people who live outside of the city (about 1/2), there is a lot of opportunity to get Ubuntu out.

Waiting until fall is not necessarily bad, although I planned to get these boxes out earlier. At least then we will have the opportunity to bring the latest-and-greatest to people. :)

[boredandblogging.com]

I think we should do this as soon as possible, no need to rush it out the door, but no need to wait either. If we screw up a bit, thats ok, we'll learn and do better the next time.

The big thing is Feisty. We should probably wait a couple of weeks to make sure everything is ok and then start burning CDs (we'll order from shipit as well).

So, maybe we can start putting these out by the end of the month? What do you guys think?

[JReagan1990]

Sounds good. I'll finish the flier tonight so that we can have it ready for the first deployment.

[kevinf311]

That all sounds good to me. I'll try and get the permissions finalized before the end of the month. According to the guys at LUG@GT, each section of campus has to give permission (Student Center, Housing, Library, etc). Each place has their own person to go through. I think the president of LUG@GT has the contact info for at least some of these people and it shouldn't be too hard to track down the others.

Finals for Fall semester take place April 30th- May 4th so unless we attach free food or coffee to the fliers they will probably go unnoticed.

Summer semester starts May 14th.

Also, I will be out of town for the week (mon-fri/sat) of May 7th as that week I have finals at the school I'm taking (online) classes from in MD.

[JReagan1990]

Alrighty then! 8)

I have uploaded what should be the final version.

If we are going to have fliers separate; a "GT version", then I will make up a new version so that I can insert either a screenshot, or more info about Ubuntu in the space that was set aside for the cd.

[boredandblogging.com]

The flier looks good. Can you create a GT version that kevinf311 can use?

[JReagan1990]

Sure. Maybe I can also add some stuff about how it can help w/ college work... :p

[JReagan1990]

what would you guys like to see in the Georgia Tech edition? (Stuff that would appeal to students, ect.)

[JReagan1990]

I have now uploaded the first version of the GT Edition in the /NewUser/Marketing page. Take a look and tell me what you think, and if there needs to be anything added to it, let me know.

Btw, I have also have printed out a page of the flier w/ cd and it looks readable. IF we take it someplace where we can use some good printers it should turn out ok.

[daynah]

I'm a little, no, a lot late in this.

Don't you think there's a lot of writing in this? I mean... Americans are stupid. We sit on our butts and watch tv that has really short commericials for our short attention span and the even shorter attention span of our children.

In short, ;) I don't think anyone is going to read any of that because it looks so long and boring.

Yes, there's a fine line between professional and boring. But I really don't think anyone's going to read all that.

Less small print, more big print.

[JReagan1990]

hmmm... well, you have some good points. The main reason I wanted to include as much info as possible is so that someone wouldn't install it on their computer, and then try to sue us if their computer doesn't work right. There is also a level of professionalism I wanted to include so that we will be able to convince people that something free (as in "free, take one") can actually be high quality. We have to remember that people have never really been exposed to anything like this before, so we need to make it good. We'll see how the public reception is after a week or so of these fliers being deployed, and if something needs to be changed, I'll change it.

Thanks for taking a look at the fliers! :)

[daynah]

Also, here's some information on what is already going on in the Ubuntu Marketing team...

DIY Marketing https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DIYMarketing

Spread Ubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/SpreadUbuntu
Spread Ubuntu is just getting going, but it is a project specifically made to help out LoCo team's projects like this, so I encourage you to take interest in Spread Ubuntu

Ubuntu Marketing Main: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam
Here's the main Ubuntu Marketing website just for you to stay in touch. :)

The Ubuntu Marketing team is working very hard to make this easy for you. If you can't find premade flyers on the wiki (they've gotta be there somewhere) you can ask the Ubuntu Marketing mailing list and you should get some official ones very, very quickly. Approved for advertising psychological brainwashing power.

[jhenager]

Thanks for looking at the fliers! I will change that one line to make it sound better. Also, thanks for wanting to post some fliers & CD's. In the Buford area, would you say that you live in a somewhat "suburb-ish" area of town? I was thinking that it would be good to see how it works out in areas that are residential, not just in the city. Thanks for wanting to help out!:)

Maybe on the other side of suburb-ish. Close to sticks-ish. O:) I would like to help those that are brave enough to venture something new, tho.

[jhenager]

I like the edited description. This should entice people to try it.

Join us!!!!!:evil: