making the website better

[Máirín Duffy]

Any interest in knocking out some answers to the following questions?

 > (1) Who is our target audience?
 > (2) What are the goals of our target audience?
 > (3) What are our goals?

Máirín Duffy wrote:
> - Who is the audience for these pages? Who is NOT the audience for these 
> pages?
> 
> 1- Windows and/or Mac users looking for information on Fedora (what is 
> it?) and try to figure out if it's the right choice for them vs other 
> Linuxes?
> 2- *nix users who are already comfortable with *nix and want to see what 
> Fedora is about (compare it to their other options)?
> 3- Fedora contributors?
> 4- Fedora developers?
> 5- FOSS developers not necessarily affiliated with Fedora?
> 6- Fedora enthusiasts?
> 
> I personally tend to think the site should be catered towards (1) those 
> who are not yet Fedora users but are looking for information about 
> Fedora (think media, think potential converts) and (2) those who are 
> Fedora users who would like some help using Fedora or some ideas on how 
> Fedora can help them or who would just like to share their enthusiasm 
> about Fedora.

Any other thoughts on this?
> 
> I think that contributors and developers are currently served by the 
> mailing lists and blog planet and will in the future be served by the 
> 'My Fedora' project.
> 
> - What is the purpose of these pages? What is NOT the purpose of these 
> pages?
> 
> 1- To provide basic information about what Fedora is to a general audience?
> 2- To provide downloads of Fedora?
> 3- To recruit new users?
> 4- To recruit new community members?
> 5- To disseminate news and updates about Fedora?
> 6- To announce Fedora events?
> 7- To provide help, documentation, & support for Fedora users?
> 8- To highlight how cool Fedora is, e.g. articles with examples of what 
> you can do with Fedora, tutorials on how to do cool shiz with Fedora? 
> (How can Fedora make my life better?)
> 9- For Fedora users and developers to discuss Fedora?
> 10- To make available Fedora (and FOSS-related cultural stuff) advocacy 
> materials (think spreadfirefox.org)?
> 11- To excite people about Fedora
> 12- To highlight specific features in Fedora
> 13- To highlight specific groups/projects within Fedora
> 
> I kind of think 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 are most important to the audience members 
> I think are who we should focus on. I think we've got all but 8 right 
> now although of course we could be doing them much better. I think these 
> are most important because I think these materials are most useful and 
> focused towards folks who are not yet Fedora users - I think these might 
> meet the sort of goals they might have (although talking to non-Fedora 
> users about our website may enlighten us a bit better about what exactly 
> their goals are. The goals I'm guessing they have are:

Or this? :)
> 
> 1- Figure out what the heck Fedora is.
> 2- Get Fedora.
> 3- Get involved in Fedora. (although I think this is probably the bottom 
> of the list for them. We have to get them excited first.)
> 4- Find the answer to a problem they are having using Fedora.
> 5- Learn about what they can do with Fedora - get ideas for cool things 
> to do with it.
> 
> You can see the correlation of the purpose <=> target audience goals.
> 
> That's only part of it, though. We also have to consider OUR goals as 
> well. What are our goals for these pages? What do we want these pages to 
> accomplish?
> 
> 1- We want more users!
> 2- We want more contributors!
> 3- We want Fedora to look GOOD. We love Fedora and we want others to 
> love it too!
> 4- We want to share FOSS and FOSS inspired ideas and culture because we 
> believe it's better than the alternatives.
> 5- We want to help people. We want folks who can't afford proprietary 
> software to get through school to have another option, to be able to 
> learn and create new and cool things, to be able to share. We want 
> Fedora to help solve their problems.
> 
> Any others? Any of these on crack? If we can figure out which is the 
> most important to us RIGHT NOW that can maybe suggest some first steps? 
> I think if we figure out:
> 
> (1) Who is our target audience?
> (2) What are the goals of our target audience?
> (3) What are our goals?
> 
> Then, the things we need to display on the website and their relative 
> priorities and thus prominence / complexity I think will become more clear.

~m