 Let's talk about a little bit of marketing, this is meant to be, I would say a few words to start just to let me you understand what I turn in terms of reasoning behind the activity that I've been doing for now for more than 10 years in marketing open source software. But then I think it is a lot better if we exchange opinions than if I tell you what happened. So let's be clear on the definition of what we are targeting now and what we have been targeting for the last 10 years. So this is our target and it's the early market and now I will tell you why, because these guys are usually the person that are more open to news, they are more open to new technologies. These are the guys that have the first smartphone when all the others still use the feature phone, they are the guys that install the new version of an operating system, these are the guys that install Linux just to test Linux, they have a dual boot machine, they are the guys that are not afraid of testing technology because they understand that new technologies bring advantages, of course there is also let's say a price to pay because new technology may have bugs, problems, but at the end if you manage new technology you usually are an happier man at the end of the day or an happier woman at the end of the day. Then there is this that English people call with a weird word which is very difficult to pronounce for an Italian which is casm, which means that these are the ones that are open to news and these are the ones that are conservative, they are called pragmatists. So if it works I will use it, if it doesn't work I will not use it and then you have the conservative that are even afterwards and then you have the skeptics that will never use your product. So for each marketing strategy you have to decide which is your target, otherwise you just shoot in the wild and you are shooting nothing. So the target is this one and there is a reason, these people are usually, not always but usually, the people that are suggesting technology to these people in the city of Bologna when they migrated, the IT manager had the idea of choosing the tech, let's say the most advanced people, the tech, the people that were technology enthusiasts by asking to these people if you want to buy a new phone, which one of your colleagues you will ask which phone you have to buy. So reverting the process just by asking these people who were the technology enthusiasts and then these guys were the first that were migrated to open office at the time and they were the first that because it's clear that if you are a technology enthusiast for phones it's probably easier to make you a technology enthusiast for computers than someone that is not even a technology enthusiast for phones. So this is the basic idea, it's address these guys first in order to address these guys indirectly and let's be clear on one principle, we address and of course I'm telling something which is extreme but then and has to be interpreted with good old common sense, let's target only these people that are using Windows, it's not because we want to ignore the people that are using Linux and Macintosh but it's on Windows you have more than 80% of our target so again focus on one target which is easy to understand and spot avoid confusions of course the other one will follow easily Linux people have to know open source software otherwise they will not use Linux so why forgive me why lose time in convincing Linux user that open source is good when they are already using open source of course we are we I go to all Linux meetings in Italy I because I don't want to ignore Linux people but this is not my main target when I think about communication, when I think about communication is a Windows basic Windows user someone that doesn't even feel that the computer is an important thing for him someone that thinks the computer is something that he has to use because today you cannot basically use the the stone and and the scalpel to to write your letters but they would if possible because they don't feel comfortable by using technology most real users do not feel comfortable in using computers they don't trust themselves I try to explain this when you know the in Linux when you open the terminal you write sudo sudo in Italy means I sweat and this has been this has been programmed for me because when I open the terminal I start sweating because I don't trust myself it's not that I don't trust the terminal I don't trust myself writing into the terminal because I write stuff that I don't understand I'm not a technical guy so of course I'm forced to mimic what others have done without understanding the logic behind that and therefore I don't trust me because I can do mistakes without understanding where I'm doing the mistake and this is exactly the same position on for instance my wife she's used of course she's using a computer but she doesn't trust her as a good power user of that computer so if the computer does something that she does not understand she's lost these are the users that we have to target because these are this is the highest number of users if you go to power user we can use a tech a technical jargon we can use a different way of communicating which will cut away the majority of our potential users and this is a mistake because we it's better than someone says this is not enough technical for me we can kill them with technical material then 80% telling I'm not going to read that because it's too technical because the 80% is where we can get our let's say second generation users the first generation is definitely these people and a few definitions it's again it it's easy to if you look at the definition you will recognize people inside each one of these and also in pragmatists in conservatives and this one and this look at the definition the goal of high tech marketing is not to sell to them but to sell around them you basically have to ignore the skeptics and doing a way that you really get around them with your with your messages because and that the two people that are if I look this visionaries and pragmatists between those guys there is the gap that we have to fill in with our communication because our communication it's easy for these guys is difficult for these so let's look at that difference between these guys you know one support evolution the other one support evolution so when you I if you look at the press release that I write for LibreOffice I never say that LibreOffice is a revolutionary release I always say that is a an evolution of the previous one because I want these guys to start understanding those guys are not worried they understand by themselves if the new story is a revolution I don't want to scare these guys I don't mind about scaring these guys they're already available for new for new stories so these are the guys that will follow us they might be you know that they might be friends of Microsoft but I'm sure that if we keep on doing it well there is a day that they will download and install LibreOffice they might continue to use Microsoft Office but they will have both program on their artist these are the guys that have one program on their artist they will never have two because two they're pragmatists if you use a program why you should have two on your artist doesn't make sense so we have you you you you will never have to say that it's a risky when when we when we announce the the first release of the 5.0 for instance it's always a sentence that says if you are not a technical enthusiast or a power user do not look at this release we don't want them to believe that they is telling the 5.0 they they they would have risks because it's the first release there might be bugs there might be rough points inside the release so these guys is okay they take risk these guys would be scared they install LibreOffice they get a bug they say this product is not for me and they revert to the previous one and we have to avoid this risk and last slide then we start discussing we need to have different strategies for different stages of the market in each market we are in a different position we probably in Italy because I'm Italian and of course speaking Italian and I use Italian as a test bet for for strategies because it's easy for me to test what it works but then and maybe I'm ahead of the majority of the other markets what I write in Italian to Italian journalists does not reflect what I write in English to UK and US journalists the Italian communication is ahead because of course I can control better my language and I have people that I have been working with journalists I've been working with for 30 years which is not the same in an international level so we have to understand that each market we left a different strategy even for small differences might be the wording that we use for a press release maybe the the focus that we give on a specific detail you all know your market and it's impossible from a central point to know everything so there might be a specific feature which is more attractive let's say for Hungarian users I don't know you know I don't know and if it is true you should tell me I think that for this release in Hungary I'm telling it because Gabor does a wonderful job in translating press releases in Hungarian you should tell me for this for this release in Hungary we will do it a little bit different from central because I think that we have a feature that is has been expected by Hungarian users for a long time may not be true or may be true it's up to you to tell me I cannot tell you I don't read your languages in some cases I don't even read your alphabet Indian people that you write in a wonderful alphabet which I find like a masterpiece in terms of visual but I don't get a single word of your language so and this is the same for Japanese people it's fantastic when I get emails from you you have your name in in pictograms it's but it's a lot better than Italo Vignole written in our letter I know but I I know that you are because on the side of the pictogram there is a Shinienoki in my language otherwise it could be you Naruhiko san or any other Japanese guy writing to me that I have no clue so we should help each other in doing the best for for each market and for the complete community so of course there will be let's say umbrella messages which are the message from the center and then you are free to adapt these messages to your market and we do that we should do that together because this is going to allow us to improve the communication with the with each market and usually the journalist in a market to reflect the users of that market because first of all a journalist is a user is probably a power user but is a user so he knows an Indian journalist will know Indian users so if you write something which is not good for a for a for an Indian user the journalist will understand that is probably you know it's the corporate message but let's do it better than Microsoft IBM or a colon because they have the corporate message I've worked as a consultant for these companies and I'm working in a large company and they say you should never change the corporate message which is sorry bullshit because the corporate message is okay for the United States is not okay for the other markets so let's do it better let's be friendly to each market of course it's it's not easy because I'm I'm telling you just coordinate 140 or 240 because nations in the world are 240 240 messages but I want to get the challenge because I know that only if we get this challenge of being very vertical for each market we will win over large corporations we are more credible when I talk to Italian journalist I always play on the fact that I can tell the truth the corporate guys cannot tell the truth I have the freedom to tell the truth they don't have the freedom to tell the truth and can you imagine how strong is this message when you talk to a journalist the journalist will believe your words because you are implicitly telling him you can trust me because I don't I don't sell anything we sell ideas we sell principle we sell ethics we don't sell a product so why you should cheat the journalist about the product if you don't have to sell it when there is a bug I say okay of course there is a bug we will try to solve it as soon as possible we will never refuse to acknowledge that there is a bug in LibreOffice and I can tell you that if someone writes this is not functioning properly Microsoft Office the answer from Microsoft Office press office would be we are looking at the problem which is anyway we are providing workarounds for that and if necessary the problem will be solved in the next version which is a completely different answer from saying yeah we are knowledge that there is a bug developers are working hard to solve it so let's work together in this and we will really make the difference I finished and now I want your question this is my address I have 11 others so you can write to any I read all of them so it's your questions please no questions very less women is participating what is the reason you should I'm a man so no but I can tell you just one last thing I will show you the system that we have put in place to send localized press releases later there is a speech that says use PHP list is in the afternoon the it's important that I don't want to send the press releases for everyone the advantage is that we have a system that tells us once the press releases sent what the journal is that I've opened the press release and what the journal will have clicked on the on the links so this has allowed me over time to have a focus mailing list of people that always open so it's important that we send it from central I am happy to handle your mailing this is not a problem and I will not give our mailing list to everyone but I have a system that allows me to know if there is let's say an Indian journey that click on the press release I will take his address and create another email that's a mailing list that says interested Indian journalist and they will start receiving more press releases just because they are opening our previous press releases and this is how I managed to to go to grow from a 200 people to a 13,000 people mailing list 13,000 worldwide of course there are Italian Germans French English Spanish Portuguese Indians there are Russians I have one from Cuba one from Ghana and you could tell me why you don't put the one from Cuba one from Ghana in the same mailing list no I have one mailing list for Ghana and another one from Cuba because days one speaks Spanish and the other one speaks English as his second language of course I cannot send the press release in Ghanaian unless someone translates the press releasing in his native language but the Cuban one gets the press release in Spanish when I get a translation in Spanish so everyone will get if it is on our let's call friend mailing list we'll get the press release in English because our friends get always a press release in English but we'll get also in Hindi if it is also an Indian so of course he will throw away the English one and use the Hindi and everyone has been warned that if they might get two messages from us we apologize but of course being a big project it's rather impossible to the duplicate mailing list to the point that you are really so precise so that we are putting let's say that as a as the foundation we are creating the infrastructure also for you to be more effective with your communication so let's use the infrastructure I will show you I will let you understand how the process works but I think it's important that we stop really working together as a team even if we are scattered around the world we have a mailing list that is called private marketing if you are not subscribed to that mailing list please send me or Sophia an email we will subscribe to that subscribe you to be that mailing list it's private because we discuss how to kill Microsoft okay and it's not nice and as it's not nice we would not want people to receive the message where we we discuss how to conquer the world okay because we do that ethically there has been people in the past that has not done the same thing ethically and the confusion the people could say that TDF is here to to rule the world which is not true I know but you know the the problem is that Microsoft guys insist on the fact that we want to kill Microsoft I'm joking on that we don't want to kill anyone we want to give an alternative to police and we are exactly exactly but you know if you look at what they're writing in Italy where of course the level of discussion is higher they they they say you know you want us to get out of the market which is totally untrue I don't want anyone by the way it would be impossible but I don't want anyone to get out of the market I want people to have a choice between different products still and still not replied my question I will ask her personally but one more question I don't know what is the condition of English dominance in your country but in India English is a dominant language I say language of opportunity language of job and all that is not it's not the same in Italy yes so how do you think we can fight English as a language English they are giving us a lot of information thankful to that but the language become a symbol of power also yeah until I came here so how to NLP thing is presentation how to penetrate the our NLP project there get these and translate that we need I don't have an answer for you because you you know I can give you the answer for it for Italy where English is not I mean many people speak English but the level of English is very low you you you had the unfortunate situation of having the British rule India we didn't tell you yeah but we also had a Gandhi which was I think rather nice guy and I always use the word of Gandhi that says first they ignore you then they make fun out of you then they fight you and then you win but I think I mean I think that part of our part of our objective is also to educate people to use their own language we we localize LibreOffice in so many languages because we respect the local cultures yes we are also planning we'll give talk we're also planning to do it knowledge 22 languages already have 13 languages yeah I know it's very complex and let the the other people know that once you will have the localization in other in in all your dialects and languages let other countries know that because you know that there are countries where they see this as a problem and if you can make it the other guys can make it so let's communicate if if the news is only for India don't don't be shy about sending me an email and say how we can leverage news worldwide if it's only about the area let's do it there might be two journalists that pick up the news story in other countries that is already two countries that will know the story more than just India so don't be shy about that don't be shy about sharing the worst that can happen is that I answer you I said sorry for this news I don't think it's strong enough to be sent in other markets but I mean it's just we should not be shy about sharing the news stories stories because this is the only way we can really make LibreOffice look like a global project otherwise it looks like is that English speaking and Anglo-Saxon project because we have to speak English I mean we need one language and unfortunately or luckily I don't know English is the language that is best known by the majority of people so we have to use English as our basic language but this doesn't mean that we communicate on in English we communicate in each market in the local language and I want that to become a reality I want to get to the point maybe in a couple of years where the journalist even the friends will get only one email from us which will be in their native language at the moment unfortunately that the main list is still growing and being let's say cleaned up so it's impossible to have just one email sent because if I don't send the English I'm not sure that the guy gets the other one in his local language but I want to get to the point where I'm sure that the Indian journalist will get only the envy or any other language they are reading in press release the only thing that we will always have to put at the end of the press release is that if you want to talk with the representative of TDF you should answer in English which I think is acceptable they of course there will be the local community contact with that can answer in the local language but of course centrally we cannot have people speaking all the languages of the world so that's no no it's a phone call it's a phone call and I I cannot answer a phone call during the speech and so it's it's an invitation to work together more strongly and it's a very strong invitation I'm a bad guy and I know all of you and I will find your address your own address if necessary okay used to fly used to fly over all over the world I will find your own address if necessary and then I will give you your own address to the organization that say we know where you live okay they do a clean job usually no one will find evidence of your existence before but it's not me you know it's another organization it starts with M it's based in Sicily but not not just there and they use a lot of concrete to solve problems so they usually build a concrete column around you and they put that in where the the seaside is 4,000 meter deep it's not sad you know many times they use to bridge you to do very nice fishes down there okay now I'm joking of course I'm a nice person I would not kill mosquitoes yes but not over just joking so that's it's all and this is my fantastic jets band this is has been designed by a friend designer is called Vladimir I don't even remember his his last name his leaves in in Irkutsk in Siberia and as we are both fond of chats he has sent me this and said italo created a wall screen and there is your your you are one of the four which one I am and he is that one I've never heard you sing no no no no but never ask me to sing but I know my limits