# Call to action - volunteers for openHAB "marketing" **URL:** \ **Category:** Organisation\ **Created:** [September 14, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618 "2023-09-14T17:51:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Rowe](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/andrew_rowe/32/37075_2.png) [@Andrew\_Rowe](https://community.openhab.org/u/Andrew_Rowe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 10:50pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/41 "2023-09-15T22:50:53Z")
> [@Oliver2](#): > > who is/are the maintainer(s) for the website and documentation? Oliver, I’d like to introduce you to Jerome @Confectrician Jerome maintains our documentation ---
**Author:** ![jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/jimtng/32/98543_2.png) [@jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/u/jimtng)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/42 "2023-09-15T22:57:05Z")
I get the impression that you just create a PR, and it either gets accepted or not. Don’t worry too much about getting approval first. The PR itself is the request for approval, and it shows in a concrete manner, what you want to do without having to first “describe” it. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/43 "2023-09-15T22:58:06Z")
Great, thanks Andrew. Any idea about the website? A while ago I think I read in an old post that it is not so easy to make changes there. But now it is time to take care of this… ---
**Author:** ![jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/jimtng/32/98543_2.png) [@jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/u/jimtng)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:00pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/44 "2023-09-15T23:00:16Z")
We don’t need to restructure the entire workflow of how the web site is built. We just need a few changes here and there and that can be done by simply creating a PR. _We_ have to do the actual work. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/45 "2023-09-15T23:01:42Z")
> [@jimtng](#): > > either gets accepted or not That’s the point. Explaining what we plan to do, get advice from the maintainer and his consense in advance would not harm 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:04pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/46 "2023-09-15T23:04:03Z")
> [@jimtng](#): > > simply creating a PR Please help. I do not know where and how to do it. We are talking about website only, correct? For documentation the process is clear to me. ---
**Author:** ![jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/jimtng/32/98543_2.png) [@jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/u/jimtng)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/47 "2023-09-15T23:13:33Z")
[http://github.com/openhab/](http://github.com/openhab/) contains various repositories related to various things [http://github.com/openhab/website](http://github.com/openhab/website) - is for the web site you see on [openhab.org](http://openhab.org) [http://github.com/openhab/openhab-docs](http://github.com/openhab/openhab-docs) is for the [Introduction | openHAB](http://openhab.org/docs/) How to do it? That’s a whole other topic. Which editor do you use? ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/48 "2023-09-15T23:18:08Z")
> [@jimtng](#): > > Which editor do you use? None. Don’t we use any of these authoring tools? EDIT: I understand the concept and the process now. Unfortunately this is not feasible for me to make changes in the .vue files and submit them as a PR. I already have ideas in my mind to add/change content, I need some mre pages, but leave the existing menu as is. Does that create a problem? Can I interprete your question about which editor I use as an offer to create html pages and submit these as a PR? ---
**Author:** ![jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/jimtng/32/98543_2.png) [@jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/u/jimtng)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/49 "2023-09-15T23:44:25Z")
> [@Oliver2](#): > > Can I interprete your question about which editor I use as an offer to create html pages and submit these as a PR? No, I suck at web design / graphic design. I did make one suggestion about the main web site [here](https://community.openhab.org/t/openhabs-main-web-site/149356) ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Rowe](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/andrew_rowe/32/37075_2.png) [@Andrew\_Rowe](https://community.openhab.org/u/Andrew_Rowe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:51pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/50 "2023-09-15T23:51:28Z")
If I’m not mistaken the documentation is written in markdown here is a link to the introduction page [https://github.com/openhab/openhab-docs/edit/main/introduction.md](https://github.com/openhab/openhab-docs/edit/main/introduction.md) the file extention is .md it is just like a readme file on github you format it just like on the forum here (almost) # heading text You can edit it right there on github clone a branch, do your edits, submit PR Edit: Here is a thread we used to create the Blockly documentation. The actual documentation in the first post got moved but the first dozen or so posts are Stephen, Rich and Jerome et al discussing how to develop and ultimately merge the documentation > [@Blockly Reference](https://community.openhab.org/t/blockly-reference/128785): > > openHAB Blockly Reference The Blockly Reference Documentation has been published to the [official openHAB Blockly Rules documentation here](https://www.openhab.org/docs/configuration/blockly/). … thanks to all who contributed to this. This thread may still be used as a basis for Blockly questions and ideas. There is also another thread that deals with [Blockly implementation details](https://community.openhab.org/t/extending-blockly-with-new-openhab-commands/127169). Stefan Höhn ---
**Author:** ![rpwong](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/rpwong/32/36036_2.png) [@rpwong](https://community.openhab.org/u/rpwong)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/51 "2023-09-16T00:30:17Z")
@Oliver2 I appreciate your enthusiasm and desire to get this going in a positive way. The world needs more of this sort of attitude. However, I think you need to approach this much differently. Before you even begin thinking about websites, videos, and articles, you need a marketing strategy. People often jump straight to those end points without a clear understanding of what they’re trying to accomplish. You end up with a bunch of content that doesn’t have a cohesive message and often goes nowhere. Your first point kind of hints at this, so I’m just giving you the technical term. > [@Oliver2](#): > > 1. Put together a professional plan for areas mentioned under a.) and b.) in a consistent way. > (Let’s have a clear understanding first what we want to achieve and what we want to change and then start acting) It’s a marketing strategy. But when you describe your plan in the first post, you’re a little too far ahead. In my opinion, your second point isn’t going to work. > [@Oliver2](#): > > 1. Attract more contributors for the plan and start executing on the plan. Eventually we’ll define task forces so that each contributor can focus on a preferred topic. You’re presuming that everyone’s going to excitedly buy into your marketing strategy, but it’s pretty clear from that other thread that there’s very little agreement about what openHAB is and who it’s for. You’re also presuming that volunteers will sustain their interest. > [@Oliver2](#): > > Execute on the plan. Step by step. No hurry. If you don’t have timelines, then you don’t have a marketing strategy. What works now may not work next year. This doesn’t mean that you need to rush, but you need to have realistic milestones and deadlines. If openHAB didn’t have a development schedule, we might never get another release. The way I’d go about it is to: 1. Get the openHAB organization to strike a marketing committee (if there isn’t one already). 2. Get people to **commit** to being on the marketing committee, and not just flake out if/when they get bored or frustrated. Even then, you’re taking them at their word (since no one’s getting paid). 3. Have the marketing committee develop a marketing strategy for the organization’s approval. 4. Recruit volunteers to develop websites, videos, articles, etc. that align with the approved strategy. None of this can be accomplished through discussions in the openHAB community. You’ll just keep going around in circles (with people jumping in and out) until everyone gets tired of it. And then it’ll come up again three years from now when a person drops a one-liner post with a clickbait headline. _Side note: have any of you noticed that the person dropped that bomb on September 1 and never came back? They don’t actually care._ > [@Oliver2](#): > > Now go to our documentation page. This is a red flag for me, because documentation and marketing are two very different things (I’ve done both). I support documentation that’s better for new users, but that’s known as technical writing. It doesn’t belong in a discussion about marketing, because docs have to work for all users–not just the audience that your marketing strategy targets. A typical exercise is to build marketing personas–imaginary users who you describe in detail–so that you can visualize them when developing the strategy and tactics. The more character you give to a persona, the easier it is to see what will (and won’t) appeal to them about the product. _Jean is a chemical engineer in Montreal, divorced, with a son (14) and a daughter (10) who live part-time with their father. She’s tried home automation with Amazon/Google/Smartthings, but finds them to be frustratingly basic. Jean’s familar with open-source software and her son has talked about Raspberry Pi computers he uses at school, but she hasn’t used Linux in a long time and doesn’t want to spend a lot of time on it._ That’s just scratching the surface of a marketing persona. On her own, Jean might not be in the target audience for a marketing campaign…but maybe it’s something she could do with her kids. You would need maybe 10-15 more personas to get a sense of your overall audience and then hone in on the ones you can reach most effectively. That will guide you to what content should be produced. Bottom line is that a lot of work goes into marketing strategy before you can even begin talking about content. I’m not volunteering to get involved, because I don’t think any of this is necessary for an open-source software project. I don’t share the concern about openHAB’s existence being threatened, and wish people would stop fretting over an imaginary competition with Home Assistant. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![timo12357](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/timo12357/32/97056_2.png) [@timo12357](https://community.openhab.org/u/timo12357)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 5:12am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/52 "2023-09-16T05:12:30Z")
Marketing is much more than Promotion, i.e producing ads, websites, videos etc. We need to get 3 other P’s in order, too. The key question is for whom is this product made? Surely not for everyone? Most of my friends would be never be able to take OH into use. If we want to enable them, e.g. the mass market, to use OH changes to the first P, the Product are needed. If we are not going to change the product, then we need to specify who exactly is the target customer? This is needed so that we can design the marketing plan correctly and address the most probable “buyers”. Trying to adress the whole market requires enormous resources that companies like Siemens, Nike, McDonalds and other global giants have. As we have very limited resources it is vital to choose the right, most receptive market segment, in order to produce results from the marketing. We can spend all our time and resources selling to the wrong customers and no one will buy. This is not a new problem, a lot of marketing books have been written about this very problem. There are simple tools, like Kotler’s 4Ps and Moore’s positioning statement, that are very helpful when trying to reach results with limited marketing budgets. I suggest we do not re-invent the marketing wheel. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![timo12357](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/timo12357/32/97056_2.png) [@timo12357](https://community.openhab.org/u/timo12357)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 5:20am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/53 "2023-09-16T05:20:59Z")
> [@Oliver2](#): > > tried to give an answer which really sounds impressive, but I can‘t 😀 > To me, it is simply everyone who has a reasonable amount of things installed in his house/flat I think the most likely customer is an expert system integrator, who wants to sell and install home automation systems at higher profit than is possible with current commercial products. ---
**Author:** ![jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/jimtng/32/98543_2.png) [@jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/u/jimtng)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 5:32am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/54 "2023-09-16T05:32:43Z")
IMO, what we ultimately want to attract are skilled developers who will hopefully contribute to the project and improve openhab further. This is what will ensure that openhab will continue to exist. But having many “end users” will also give us recognition and support from vendors, although this is not something to be relied upon, so it is really a secondary goal, if it were to be a goal at all. > [@timo12357](#): > > expert system integrator Most of the “expert” system integrators would probably fall in the “end users” category. It would be very rare for them to (have the skills to) contribute back. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 7:23am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/55 "2023-09-16T07:23:28Z")
> [@rpwong](#): > > Before you even begin thinking about websites, videos, and articles, you need a marketing strategy. People often jump straight to those end points without a clear understanding of what they’re trying to accomplish. You end up with a bunch of content that doesn’t have a cohesive message and often goes nowhere. This is exactly what we are doing here. > [@rpwong](#): > > Get the openHAB organization to strike a marketing committee (if there isn’t one already). Not possible as can be read in the other thread > [@rpwong](#): > > I support documentation that’s better for new users, but that’s known as technical writing. It doesn’t belong in a discussion about marketing I think, it does. Maybe you are overestimating this initiative here. We want to attract new users and new developers. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 7:30am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/56 "2023-09-16T07:30:46Z")
> [@jimtng](#): > > ultimately want to attract are skilled developers Ok. To me it is both, new developers AND new users. Do you have some ideas how to attract new developers? Wouldn‘t a potential new developer start as an ordinary openHAB user first? Does anybody know if we can measure new users? A bad metric could be new accounts for this forum or for myopenhab. Is there any way to get anonymized, condensed data like new logins in the last 3 years per month or quarter? ---
**Author:** ![timo12357](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/timo12357/32/97056_2.png) [@timo12357](https://community.openhab.org/u/timo12357)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 7:33am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/57 "2023-09-16T07:33:22Z")
> [@Oliver2](#): > > From a strategic point of view, the more a technology develops further and enters the mainstream market the more you need to keep your product in balance for your new target users. Moore writes specifically about “innovative high tech products”, which is the category OpenHAB falls under, no? According to him, to cross the chasm the product must be adapted and tailored to the early adopters. My understanding is that OH as an “innovative hight tech product” is yet to cross the chasm. It also seems clear there is no interest to do tailoring or adaptation to the product. Under this limitation I think the wise thing to do is to identify the niche we plan the product for and aim all resources to reach this niche. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 7:43am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/58 "2023-09-16T07:43:16Z")
> [@timo12357](#): > > no interest to do tailoring or adaptation I think we need to differentiate a little bit. If adoption means to change fundamental concepts (like thing/channel/items) that is out of our scope as openhab is based on 3rd party products. I would not touch this area. Other adoption areas which we can address here with our developers might be something which can be discussed, but then Insuggest to open another thread. It will be difficult to find developers for that. However, taking this into account: > [@Oliver2](#): > > Do you have some ideas how to attract new developers? Maybe a list of required adoptions might attract new developers? I don‘t know. I am not a developer. In any case, a separate thread for this topic is required to keep focus fir each topic. ---
**Author:** ![jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/jimtng/32/98543_2.png) [@jimtng](https://community.openhab.org/u/jimtng)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/59 "2023-09-16T08:07:41Z")
To attract developers, it’s probably enough to just do some more marketing. openHAB is already a fantastic product for those who love coding. ![image](https://community-openhab-org.s3.dualstack.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/original/3X/d/3/d3e28304f0a51f525a1f1f987096d297fd40924f.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/df705f/32.png) [@Oliver2](https://community.openhab.org/u/Oliver2)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 8:31am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618/60 "2023-09-16T08:31:33Z")
I see. Thanks. We need to address, that it is not required to code (anymore) in order to customize openHAB. You have the option to do so to get a maximum of individual customization but it is not required [Previous page](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618.md?page=2) [Next page](https://community.openhab.org/t/call-to-action-volunteers-for-openhab-marketing/149618.md?page=4)