[Promotion] Get things rolling?

[Martijn Klingens]

On Sunday 29 January 2006 01:58, John Williams wrote:
> The next problem, of course, is finding a way to pose the question to
> the people that matter, i.e. the sampling plan.  I have a few ideas
> about this but am not sure that any of them are any good.  Has anyone
> else been thinking about this?

The last time this issue came to my mind I actually stopped thinking about it 
because it's so darn complex to solve ;)

Anyway, the people that matter can be roughly split into three groups, 1. 
existing users of free desktops, 2. users of competing non-free desktops and 
3. people who've never used computers before, especially in growing markets 
like India and China.

In all three cases the term "users" can be further split into skill levels, 
profession and whatnot, but that's a refinement to worry about later. How can 
we reach those groups at all?

Group #1 is somewhat feasible by leveraging the existing free software-centric 
platforms, from /. and osnews to the KDE and GNOME websites and on fairs and 
other events. That still gives a too-technical sample, but at least it is 
somewhat near the real audience.

Group #2 is hard to reach. How are you going to have Mac-users fill in a 
questionaire on GNOME/KDE and Free desktops? How are you going to reach them?

Group #3 is nigh-on impossible.

So far my (rather pessimistic - sorry) thoughts. As I said, by the time I got 
this far I stopped thinking, maybe I should spend some time on it again. I'm 
afraid it's beyond my skills though. My background is programming and system 
administration, not marketing.

-- 
Martijn