Earning Future End-Users Now
Dr. Christine L.E.V. Hansen, CEO of Le Ciel
Arguably the largest divide in Linux remains the divide between developers and end-users. Developer oriented forms of communicating, like mailing-lists and wikae, are often the sole sources of information about projects. The future of Linux relies on connecting the developers, and the corporations, with the end-users who may not know what Linux is. What this end-user will know, or will have heard, is: 'somewhere there is free software.' Their next question/search will be: 'where can I get it?'As a point of departure, I propose a web site in plain language which serves as an index of Linux projects. All projects: commercial, nonprofit, ones in process, big, small. Obviously, voluntary participation. All together in one, search-able place. Audience: users, developers, corporators. The technical level is not as important as the pragmatic and visionary level, which ought to be high. High collaboration factor.
What the World sees:
1) Too slow
2) No 'instant ignition'
3) Product/project redundencies
4) ---oops missed it ---
Christine provided a distinction between "pure" and "applied" developers - pure being much of the first wave, idealogical, focused on Linux for themselves; applied being more focused on projects, more aware of their end users, more often speaks both tech and a human language, may be outside of North America.
Next Step: Step Up
Instant ignition, in their own language(s), solve the rediculous problem of redundant effort, introduce a multilingual Linux web presence, empower global Linii. (is that a plural for Linuxes?)
Christine pointed out that Transparent Software often has an organic life that may help it to live much longer than many of the short term trends.
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