[Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity (partnerships)

[Rui Campos]

Hi

Just to add my own comments on this issue.


> - good coverage of their offering on our website (like the current
> professionals section)
> - a listing of all opportunities with Blender we know, which can range
> from book publishing (could be partnering with BF), training services
> (we have a bf-education board for that), to tips & ideas for setting up
> own development/art services.

This can also work in favor of the Blender Foundation if put up on the
homepage of Blender
website, a direct link to that place and have a listing of new entries.

Something like "Who's using Blender" and link to this area.
Some reviews would also be good, with companies using or providing
services with
Blender, but that means that the website needs a remodeling in order to
allow a decent
review page to be posted there.


> - a public market place where developers/artists can offer services or
> companies can put up calls for contributions. This was discussed on the
> conference too, we need a way to verify validity of offerings. A
> gallery/voting system I don't like a lot, that's too easy to abuse.

Either do a new area on the website by hand to ensure the needs for this,
or, search for an
Open Source tool that may exists and focus on this issue.


> Three ideas to ensure quality of this market place are:
> 1) Get a small active moderators board who review personally each
> submission
> 2) Demand submissions to have at least a public website that clearly
> describes the business (including personal data, contact address,
> evidence of past work).
> 3) Make a long and detailed form online for submissions, to prevent
> idiots to fill it in, and to illustrate to the submitters we're very
> serious. (Check for example how to submit a partnership with IBM, Sun,
> SGI, etc).

This makes more sense then any voting system, although voting would be
good in the
Gallery section of the website and allowing to order gallery items by
person / date / votes .
But, bear in mind that the Gallery section should not be of any influence
with the "Market
place" section of the website.
Professionals and Companies could submit art to the Gallery (stills or
animation) and so could people with no registration in the "Market place".

The Gallery should serve as a Marketing area for Blender to gather new
users, as a place to show off work of people/companies listed in the
"Market place" and for regular Blender fans to show some of their work.

Any item submitted to the Gallery should be supervised by a small board as
mentioned.
Any submission to the "Market place" should also be supervised by that
small board and
validated with website (online presence), example work and background
information.


> - A closed forum, only accessible for partnership members to discuss
> issues

Is this in the sense of the "Market place" or in the sense of real partners ?
If it is related to the "Market place" it should be something built in the
"Market place" section,
trying to avoid people to leave that place in order to "discuss issues".


> - I think we shouldn't ask for a membership fee (IBM/Sun/SGI/etc don't
> do it either). If "Blender Network" partners like to know who's really
> good for their services, they can send a private mail to the
> moderators, and that can be replied fair & straightforward based on
> their information. When the network grows out of simple control, this
> can be reviewed of course. :)

No membership fees, I agree on that, but I think that another thing could
be created that
would involve cash and helping professionals and companies, a Bounty area
for Development.
I know that this could be inserted in the "Marketing place", but it might
be better to get a specific area for it.

Any company or Professional interested in having a given feature in
Blender could create a
Bounty for it, specify the amount it would give for anyone interested in
coding that feature
and a finish date or something alike.

Obviously some rules must be applied to these Bounties, like:
- Will the code have to be merged with Blender main branch ?
- Will the company own right to the code for a specified number of months
before it can be
merged in the main branch ?
- Will the bounty acceptor need a reviewer to guarantee the code quality
for future merge
with the main branch ? Can he state as "bounty closed" if the code doesn't
meet the quality
previously defined ?

Of course, this needs more thinking.


And, a membership payment scenario could be done once there are enough
Companies and Professionals using Blender, this payment should be done to
finance a "Support team" that would solve problems as requested by those
who paid the support.
This might fall away from the Blender Foundation "jurisdiction", meaning
that it would make sense to have a company offering it, much has we see
with PostgreSQL and the companies that offer support for it.


Cheerz,

-- Rui --