[consulting] Drupal.org advertising proposals requested

[Kieran Lal]

On 5/27/07, Laura Scott <laura at pingv.com> wrote:
>
> On May 27, 2007, at 12:01 AM, The Golden Condor ! wrote:
>
> Using an existing ads provider is much easier
>
> than trying to manage ads internally. Of course, it doesn't have to be
>
> Google. There are several alternatives. It all boils down to who can
>
> provide the highest CPC (cost per click) and the highest revenue
>
> share.
>
>
> I could not disagree more. Drupal.org has much more in its mission than
> raking in big bucks. I would hope that any decision would result in the
> strengthening of the community, not cashing in. This is a free open source
> community, not a commercial website venture. I strongly feel that simply
> going after the highest CPC (or CPM, which is becoming much more common
> because CPC is far too vulnerable to click fraud and advertising is not
> always about click-throughs) could end up undermining the community.
>

Absolutely, there are high dollar deals available now. Instead we are
turning to the community to say should this be done, if so how could this be
done?

A rough analogy: We live in Boulder, on the edge of mountains. Everybody
> loves looking at the mountains. Think of all those eyeballs. Should Boulder
> sell billboard space on the mountainsides to cash in on all that attention?
> It sure would bring in a lot of cash. But does that make Boulder a better
> place, in the end? It's a rough analogy, to be sure, and related more
> directly with aesthetic beauty than we're talking here at d.o, but I hope
> it illustrates in a way how commercial exploitation of the Drupal commons
> runs the risk of diminishing the value of the commons.
>
> I hope that any advertising program would somehow reinforce the Drupal
> community. Perhaps make the advertising opportunity only available to people
> and companies that have made tangible (code & documentation) contributions
> to Drupal directly. That might even have the effect of incentivizing larger
> companies like Yahoo and IBM, who have been working various R&D projects on
> Drupal but have not given back, afaik, to contribute their code improvements
> (assuming they are improvements) in order to have the chance to advertise
> with a modest presence.
>

These are good ideas and part of the criteria we want to take into
consideration beyond just highest sales commission or highest click-through
rate.

My own feeling is that introducing advertising runs the risk of fracturing
> what has so far been a very pure do-ocracy. Drupal's success suggests
> there's something right about how things have been done so far. Big money
> hardly ever comes in without strings.
>

At the same time, there are a lot of problems with the
Drupal.orginfrastructure.  We aren't yet prepared fully for our
continued growth.
Drupal.org has many user experience problems and falls short of meeting many
of the needs of the community.   Of course, that doesn't meet having paid
advertising will fix it.

Cheers,
Kieran

> Laura
>
> *•*
> Laura Scott
> pingVision, LLC
>
> 1350 Pine Street, Suite 1
> Boulder, CO 80302
> 303.415.2559
> http://pingv.com
>
>
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-- 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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