[TYPO3-UG US] US Marketing Plan

[Gregory Remington]

virgil huston wrote:

> I am not a developer/programmer. I have lots of tech skills, but I am
> a web designer/content manager. I do this part time, so time is
> precious. 

I know the feeling. I fit this profile. I'm going to be doing this part 
time once I go part time at my full time job.

> It took me three full days to finally get one of the Typo3
> packages installed and all the tutorials addressed a different package
> that I could never get to work. Anyway, I gave up.

Yeah, I came back to it a few times before I figured out how to simplify 
things. It took me a year to create a basic easy to install template 
with all the basic goodies. Preconfigured "stacked" TYPO3 distributions 
would be the way to go. Essentially you take an existing site that has 
been setup with 10-20 extensions and basic page tree then inject it into 
a domain.

> 3) I could add things that increase user friendliness for
> administrators and users, but you get the idea.

Keep going ;)

> The above said, the real question for me is what exactly does this
> group want. Are you looking to develop TYPO3 in the US so you can
> increase your business? 
> Do you want this to be an easy out of the box solution that people
> like me could figure out? I would like that, but that would cost you
> business.

Yes and yes. Costing us business is better than TYPO3 staying dormant in 
the US market. It is natural to assume that the easier it is to setup 
and configure TYPO3 the more people will use it.

For me I need TYPO3 for a specific market. Spas and travel. My skills in 
the TYPO3 community will hopefully leverage more resources than I could 
afford through money alone. I also wish to be a consultancy for TYPO3 in 
  my vertical market(s). I could probably even make template sales on 
the side ;)

> Or perhaps the answer is some kind of collaboration between people
> like me and the developers, something in between the above options? I
> would love to be able to use TYPO3, but I just don't have the time to
> learn everything on my own.

As a development community we are always more than the sum of our parts 
as long as we get along. Collaboration and knowledge sharing is key our 
success and the success of our product and commercial services.

Cheers,
Greg