[TYPO3-UG US] Support Section and TYPO3.us

[Gabriel Anast]

Alex Heizer wrote:

>Hi Gabe,
>
>I can see a few reasons why a T3 user group for North America would be a 
>good idea, maybe as a "mother organization" to local or country UGs for 
>Canada, the US and Mexico.
>  
>
I was ambiguous there... that's not my point.

>The typo3.us site is intended to focus the marketing efforts directly at 
>the US market...
>
I understand this, and am not opposed to the idea in general, however 
the US is one hell of a big market, and if this marketing endeavor is 
successful, the site, "intended to focus the marketing efforts directly 
at the US market" will in itself become an enormous hub/portal. I feel 
that it is very important to associate this traffic with the typo3.com 
domain. Not to change the nature of the typo3.us venue as you have 
described it, but to strengthen Typo3 branding and identity.

>There are many differences between the Unites States and Canadian markets... 
>
Right, that's reasonable, I am not arguing that point... I just lumped 
them together... oops

>Which is why companies like Sony have individual US and Canadian sites for marketing and support (www.sony.com and www.sony.ca ).
>  
>
Yes, but remember that the vast majority of Canadian users get to 
sony.ca via sony.com... In any case, I would contend that a better 
instance of brand management is UPS.com although most of the major car 
companies use .ca, .de, .jp, etc

>...Federal, state and local laws... 
>
Yes, agreed.

>On the flip side, if I, as a consultant, want to market to an organization in Canada, it would be nice to have a TYPO3 marketing site that focuses on Canada so that I can learn how I can be most effective with my consulting to that organization...
>
Right, no arguments here either.

The point that I am trying to make is that if US marketing becomes 
successful, typo3.us will be a monster... it will be extremely defining 
for the project as a whole. It is important to figure out in the 
development period how to keep the Typo3 identity intact and whole 
before this site goes up.

Look at these stats: 
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/geographics/article.php/3452481

Basically half of the internet users on Earth are in the US. I think we 
can safely imply from this that roughly half the internet sites 
primarily target US users, and are mostly built in the US... my guess is 
that number is more like 60% in all actuality. This is a great 
opportunity for Typo3. However it is also a place to be careful. If over 
half the users and developers feel that "typo3.us" is home, I believe 
that this will be a problem. I believe that for "all of us" 
typo3.com/org should be home. That it does not become "us vs. them" 
which if you ever browse Slashdot... what a nightmare. It needs to be 
just "us." All of "us" are Typo3 advocates. All of "us" use 
typo3.com/org for the "meat" of the project. We may have been introduced 
by typo3.us... but that was just hype and eye candy. Now we know where 
the "source" is.

This is not a case of a US company making a subsidiary site for 
Canada... its a Danish/German entity making a "subsidiary" for the US... 
um... look at volvocars.com,  vw.com, toyota.com, bmw.com, hyundai.com 
... every one is in English... US English actually. At least BMW and 
Hyundai have local language options for the countries they are made in...

This is going to be a defining point for the project. Let's implement it 
in a way that is "safe" for the project.

I know I am beating a dead horse now, but it seems to me that there are 
about 10 times the number of developers in the US as there are in 
Germany + France + Italy. This WILL upset the balance... plan for that, 
and the Typo3 project will benefit much more quickly from the influx of 
US devs and users.

--gabe

PS: As native English speakers, I believe that one of the largest 
contributions that we can make to Typo3 is to sanitize the Typo3 English 
documents. That said, I also believe that despite the fact that we 
should use the US typo3.us site to market to the US market (via videos, 
flash presentations, conferences, events, forums/mail lists, and the 
like)... I strongly believe that all our documentation efforts should be 
"internationally focused" since the default language of Typo3 is in fact 
English.