When I first heard of the idea for the latest community campaign to help promote Firefox, I was a little skeptical. The idea was (is) to ask for donations of $30 from people. With the money, they will buy an ad (hopefully full page) in the New York Times about the 1.0 release of Firefox (coming Nov. 9). The name of each person who contributed to the campaign will be listed in the ad.
Well, I was wrong to be skeptical. Not only is it working, but I’m finding myself strangely excited about it. There’s something really cool about the open source software community sending a bellwether through the mainstream press.
I can almost hear Gandalf in my ear saying, “I come to you now, at the turn of the tide.” My name will be on the ad. Ad yours.
Comments
Tom Sommer - October 19, 2004 1:26 pm
It's "Gandalf"
Steven Garrity - October 19, 2004 1:49 pm
Oops, thanks Tom - fixed.
Fred - October 19, 2004 9:04 pm
I wonder if we are allowed to see the ad before deciding to donate money.
Johnny Rukavina - October 20, 2004 9:02 am
I'm not sure if using the old-school mainstream media to promote Firefox is the best use of donated money (how about cancelling the ad and giving the money to charity?), but you almost had me convinced, until you mentioned "Gandalf". I HATE that Lord of the Rings!
Will Pate - October 20, 2004 1:38 pm
I'd sign up, but not without seeing the ad. I hear those open source geeks are wily.
Peter Hewitt - October 20, 2004 4:02 pm
Nice idea but the adding the names bit makes me think the advert might end up looking like the "Independence Of The BBC" advert ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2004/01/31/nbeeb331.pdf )
Josue Salazar - October 21, 2004 3:52 pm
I also contributed to the campaign, not because they would print my name, but because it is a great oportunity to promote the browser, which in the end will get more people to use it, bring more donations, and overall help the cause.
What i don't understand, is why are they including so many names, i mean, it's on 10,000 now. The Ad design is going to have to be very well done to not make it dull and boring and phone-listing like.
Anyhow, i'm also very excited about it.
matt - October 21, 2004 5:31 pm
slightly off topic but is this allowed? http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org after having a quick look at the mozilla css and html i see no indication that it is open source..
if i'm worng sorry for posting this..
matt
angelday true - October 21, 2004 5:51 pm
I've added mine too. See you on the ad, folks!
Steven Marshall - October 28, 2004 4:20 am
I wonder how many people who see the ad will even know what it's about? And those who do know will probably be Firefox, Mozilla et.al users (i.e. not MSIE people) anyways.
Good luck to them though, any exposure is good.