Posted by sun on October 4, 2006 at 9:26pm
Drupal the Application
44% (8 votes)
Drupal the Community
22% (4 votes)
Drupal and all its add-ons
33% (6 votes)
Total votes: 18
What is the most obvious and first thing that people should see?
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- BAM Mission (25)
- BAM Branding (20)
- BAM Research (8)
- BAM Ideas (34)
- BAM Infrastructure (12)
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It really is all of them. Or
It really is all of them. Or rather, there are different targets.
There is the Drupal core download, which does certain things.
There is the Drupal community, and the viability / ROI of following an open source / GPL process.
Specifically, for a one pager to hand out conferences, the target audiences are:
Those really are the main needs, I think.
Interesting view
As a long-time designer/developer/consultant working with quite a few applications my first question about Drupal would be
Anyhow, although this is a interesting question, too, the question of this poll (originally from fintang) is more heading towards what should be (visually) highlighted in official communications by Drupal. That's an important question regarding branding. It's rather about illustration than about explanation. It's about what is more important for the overall marketing strategy for all campaigns - the application, the community or the flexibility (reduced to the given answers).
Daniel F. Kudwien
unleashed mind
Daniel F. Kudwien
netzstrategen
No
I'm trying to stay on target, for specifically, the use case of a handout at conferences and events by the Drupal community.
There is NO such thing as "official communications by Drupal" -- we are a distributed community with many members. The other interesting question MIGHT arise when the Drupal Association is set up, but even then it will not necessarily speak on behalf of the entire community.
We will not solve any kind of global branding anything at this point. Other tasks might include, e.g., a handout or page specifically targetted for use by consultants etc. -- e.g. how to sell Drupal.
To your question, I think this is answered as:
* there is an active community forum space (lots of members, lots of posting)
* there are several sources of profession hosting and support available (us, SpikeSource, etc.)
* not having to hack / cleanly over-riding is a core principal of Drupal
Some questions allowed?
Hm... Some questions to your response:
I'm inclined to say that all of the mentioned links above look very different. There is no real thread amongst them. We should try to solve the question, why X is better than Y in an overall manner. When this will exist, new booklets, flyers and handouts for specifical goals or events can be designed in no time. Do we like to stop that efforts now?
Daniel F. Kudwien
unleashed mind
Daniel F. Kudwien
netzstrategen
Yeah still settling in here
So still trying to figure out what is an appropriate poll etc.
"There is the Drupal community, and the viability / ROI of following an open source / GPL process."
To be blunt why bother trying to support the whole ROI / Opensource debate when half of the computing world is already doing this, why not let them drive home this message, IBM/Mysql/Redhat/Jboss etc are all doing this for us why waste the oppurtunity to focus on core issues and have this as a sideline comment?
" * potential end users who would download and install Drupal (or pay someone to do this) -- they want to know features, "what can I build with Drupal?"
* potential developers/consultants, that would use Drupal to build and launch web applications -- they want to know extensibility, "How easy is it to hack Drupal?" "
This is dependant on why the end game is i.e. customers asking consultants do they provide services for Drupal or Developers saying to customer's have you heard of Drupal. This dramatically changes the tone of the writing so it is key to getting the message right. To me a core message that crosses all of the areas makes sense however I understand that it will be a potentially contensious issue. If the words are chosen carefully then we can ensure that they can be written for one audience but open to interpretation by others.
Benefits and features
For most people who are non-developers, their question will be "What do I get?"
Aside: The average non-tech Joe going to buy a stereo (does that word date me?) wants something usually in only a vague sense. "I want something under 200 bucks." "I want something that bumps like nothing else." "I want something I can use for music and movies." "I want something portable."
The salesperson will take the customer to the appropriate assortment, and then will start to go into features and benefits. Talking about features alone won't connect with most people. What are the benefits? "You'll see that this unit has digital inputs. Now you may not have digital inputs now, but that's the future. This unit will be perfect as you upgrade the rest of your equipment." "It comes with a universal remote. You can control your TV and cable box with the same remote."
So what is the first thing about Drupal people should see? Maybe it should be what they get.
And since the what could be almost anything, maybe that's an angle for the "pitch":
"It's a CMS" "It's a social network" "It's a blog" "It's an e-commerce platform" "It's a photo gallery" "It's a campaign website" "It's a music downloads site" "It's a database" "It's a CRM"....
It's Drupal!
[maybe put all the different quotes in different fonts, different colors]
Laura
pingVision, LLC
PINGV | Strategy • Design • Drupal Development
Out of the box you get:
Drupal is:
with your list of "It's a ...." with a link to a sample site and maybe coming soon a link to the "distribution" specific for that use ...
I think it would be a very powerful block on the drupal home page
Joe Moraca
WebDevGeeks.com
At this moment the voting is tied
I understand why it is tied. I could not pick one easily. I voted for "the application"
I think it is hard to show the community - that is what the drupal home page currently sort of does and but think it is confusing for a first time visitor to see a listing of "insider" posts. If you asked what is most important I think it is easily the "community" - that is where the other two come from.
So here is a question who is the front page of the drupal.org (or any community website) for? The current community or visitors?
I also see the "add-ons" as really part of the "application"
Joe Moraca
WebDevGeeks.com
BRANDING!
Nice idea, sun. I would vote for all. To "sell" Drupal, we need to convince managers and engineers, and so the three choices are all equally important. But I think at the early stages it's very important for Drupal as a "brand" to be disseminated worldwide. Similar to what big companies do when they start a new innovation -- one of the first steps is to just spread the word. This was what was done with Java, ActiveX etc.
"Work smarter, not harder."
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