Sessions

Marketing helps people understand what a tool or technology is about. Make people aware of technologies and how they can use them.
- Traditional thinking = marketing means "give me money in exchange for a product"
- In open source it's about capturing attention and resources in a crowded environment
How to design code to welcome people in and get them interested in working on your project.
Marketing = word does not exist in other languages. Invented in the US in the 1950s. It's a verb - bringing your product to market.
- Two sides:
  - Using an open source tool
  - Contributing to an open source tool
What problem is the tool solving?
- How do you describe it in a way that the people A) using it and B) contributing to it, know what it does and care about it?
Have to be delicate in using personas - it really depends on the audience
Need to make sure that the product is consumer-driven
- Conversations with actual customers are absolutely necessary
Technical papers, how tos, tutorials, videos, training, education
How do you onboard someone to be a contributing member of the project?
Encapsulating information in concise ways
If someone likes your product, how do you empower them to be able to explain that to others?
Minimize effort to describe
Challenges with Slack
- No "searchable" directory of Slack projects
- Slack doesn't make it easy for anyone to join the community/conversation
Comparison
- Don't go it alone - strong marketing can sometimes depend on comparison

Open questions/challenges for OpenLMIS

Hearing the "customer" voice
Having that perspective actually folded into/used to define the product
How to describe features and a roadmap that constantly evolves
Our mission/vision is well-defined. IMO, we don't struggle with defining a mission that matters. What we struggle with is communicating our features in a compelling way to the people who matter (clients)
Suggestion → Rather than creating events (ie. OpenLMIS community meeting), look for Africa-based events to attend and set up side events.