Re: Software Freedom in education ...

[Akira Urushibata]

Lori Nagel wrote:

  I was reading your long email, and this has been on my mind for a long
  time, but in order to get the freedom respecting software technology
  into the hands of everyone for everything instead of proprietary
  software, what you have to solve is not a technology problem, but a
  marketing problem.

  If you think about how we got to the state we are in today, with
  proprietary software dominating in certain areas of computing, you
  have to remember that the reason for that is because of marketing, not
  because the products are better, but because of how people know about
  it, and the social relationships between people. Just because software
  has always been promoted a certain way, or that even it is promoted in
  a differentway does not mean we have to keep doing it that way.


Thank you very much for providing your insight on this issue.

Is there a good book on marketing that you can recommend?  For that
matter, suggestions from anyone here is welcome.

On marketing in the personal computer industry "Accidental Empires"
provides some historical information.  In particular the tale of Lotus
1-2-3, the world's first "compelling application," is interesting.
Lotus 1-2-3, was blessed with both clear advantages over rival and
innovative marketing.

---

I think there is much marketing going on in "open source" events and
in various internet forums.  I fear that much of the effort is in
the wrong direction.

Is there some wisdom from marketing to get the orientation corrected?

---

In 2008 at a small school in Xi'an, China, after Richard Stallman's
usual speech on free software, one person asked this question:

  What was the most difficult task in your project?

To this RMS replied:

  Schools say they teach students how to use Microsoft products,
  because that is what companies use.  Companies say they use
  Microsoft because students learn their usage in school.  Both
  parties blame the other and get locked together.  We may call
  this state "social inertia."  This condition was hard to break.

How do you apply marketing skills to overcome social inertia?

Some languages may have a better expression for "social inertia."
One of the most famous stories from the Chinese classics discusses
this phenomenon.  Can native Chinese speakers subscribed to this
mailing list explain?  I will give you a few days.