Thank you for Ubuntu's success at Anime Boston 2010!

[danny.piccirillo-GeWIH/nMZzLQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org (Danny Piccirillo)]

I just wanted to send out a quick email to say THANK YOU to everyone who
helped! The event went very well and we absolutely recommend that other
groups attend similar events. We have extra materials available if you'd
like some.

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2010/04/thank-you-for-ubuntus-success-at-anime.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/bty0w/ubuntu_anime_boston_success_other_groups_need_to/

Post follows:

Thank you for Ubuntu's success at Anime Boston 2010!

It's hard to believe how well this has all come together. *If there's one
thing we would like to say coming from this, it's that Ubuntu and other free
culture and free software (aka open source) groups need to participate in
similar events to reach out to non-techie folks.* Any convention more
tech-focused than this shouldn't need our presence. Let's go over what we
accomplished: live installs, dancing games, free kopibon, and more!

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PtyHEChBKZw/S7pZPf-fV1I/AAAAAAAAe98/0oNhMBh2EJ4/s1600/IMG_0041.JPG>
We successfully made Ubuntu highly-visible to thousands of convention goers.
We kept hearing from people that our booth was very eye-catching and really
stood out! We can thank the Ubuntu MA <http://ubuntu-massachusetts.com/> team
leader,Martin (DoctorMO) <http://doctormo.org/>, for the awesome banner and
posters<http://doctormo.deviantart.com/art/Ubunchu-Posters-for-Anime-Bost-158905236>
we
had up. On display, we had four machines by System76<http://www.system76.com/>:
a Starling Netbook, Pangolin Performance, Bonobo Performance, and a 32" HDTV
hooked up to another Pangolin Performance under the table. Using the big
screen, we lured in the crowed. Blasting techno and showing off crazy
compiz-fusion effects, we caught the attention of passersby who were very
impressed. It wasn't hard to hear outbursts such as, "Who needs Windows 7!?"
and other comments on how awesome the Ubuntu desktop looked. The response we
generated was incredible-- people were genuinely amazed!

Over and over, people approached us with great reactions. Lots of them were
already using Ubuntu, some knew someone who loved Ubuntu, many had heard of
Ubuntu, and just as many were curious to find out what it was! The reactions
we received were a testament not only to how far Ubuntu has spread already
but also how extremely receptive still-unaware individuals are.

<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PtyHEChBKZw/S7pYWfWFpgI/AAAAAAAAe9k/o6GLSMI6WxU/s1600/IMG_0040.JPG>
FireFox
posing in front of our booth!
Costumed characters stopped by to cheer us on including
Zero<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lelouch_Lamperouge#Zero> who
rushed past, snatched a CD, and shouted "Zero uses Ubuntu!" which we were
very glad to hear, seeing as he ends up uniting the entire world! There were
also plenty of common citizens drifting through the vast sea of cosplayers,
unadorned in any costume aside from their own personal style, who excitedly
approached us. People were openly expressing their appreciation to others
with exclamations they made on their way from our booth like, "Sweet, I just
got a new operating system!" Some were asking how they could get more
involved with advocacy and our group and we even picked up another booth
helper! This is what we love about the community.

Many still were the people who came on behalf of someone they knew who loved
Ubuntu, grabbing materials and goodies to give them later. Most important to
us, though, was everyone who had never heard of Ubuntu but grew excited to
learn more upon seeing our display. People took around 500
double<http://doctormo.deviantart.com/art/Ubuntu-AnimeBos-Flyer-Front-156027211>
-sided<http://doctormo.deviantart.com/art/Ubuntu-AnimeBos-Flyer-Back-156028757>
flyers
about Ubuntu, Free Software (aka Open Source), and the many powerful design
tools available: Blender, Inkscape, Synfig, GIMP, and MyPaint. An additional
550 live CD's and 1000 copies of the Ubunchu <http://www.ubunchu.net/> manga
were taken (extra comic books available at
request<http://doctormo.org/2010/04/07/ubunchu-spare-copies/>). We
even did 5 live-installs, right there at our booth! That number would be
higher but people just didn't have their machines with them. Our booth
visitors came with curiosity and left eager to pop in their new LiveCDs.

<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PtyHEChBKZw/S7pbRvVhBMI/AAAAAAAAe_Q/lYsSWHvW87c/s1600/IMG_0053.JPG>
We did live demonstrations of apps like Inkscape, GIMP, and Blender (well,
we showed off some files from Sintel <http://durian.blender.org/>, the
foundation's latest Open
Project<http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/blender-open-projects/>).
We played videos like production
cuts<http://www.archive.org/details/TheMorevnaProjectProductionCutsForUbuntuAnimeBoston2010>
from
the Morevna Project <http://morevnaproject.org/> sent to us for the event
along withThe Matrix Runs on
Windows<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX8yrOAjfKM>,
and open projects, Elephant's Dream and Big Buck Bunny. We played games like
Savage2 and StepMania 4.0, breaking out the dance pad which drew in a good
crowd of dancers and spectators very quickly.

That's not all. Our presence wasn't limited to the Dealer's Room. We also
had our flyers and manga on the freebie table and, just like last year, they
seemed to be the only thing people were really interested in! If we could've
kept up with how fast they were being taken, we could've distributed a lot
more. On top of all of this, Martin went up to the Artist's Alley armed with
our flyers and talked to everyone up there about all the tools available for
their needs. The artists there were very receptive and it definitely helped
that we made the effort to reach out to them personally.

This being our first event of this size, we did learn a few good lessons as
well, and have some new ideas for the future. You didn't think we were done,
did you? Overall, we don't feel there was anything missing, but we've
learned a lot about what this kind of project involves and can do even
better! Next time we will organize more ahead of time knowing which things
require more or less time and be better prepared to handle it all more
efficiently. We'll assemble a team earlier on, and give time to go over the
good and bad talking points for different kinds of people. It isn't that our
booth people weren't amazing; it's that we can always work on perfecting the
art of hooking in as many people as we can, as quickly and effectively as we
can. One thing which could've been handled better by myself was
documentation of the event in pictures and video. There was no way for me to
be behind the camera when the booth was at its busiest because I needed to
keep the demos going. As a result, all of the pictures in our
album<http://picasaweb.google.com/danny.piccirillo/AnimeBoston2010>
are
from the quietest times at our booth. I did leave the camera rolling during
some periods, so hopefully I'll be able to churn out a decent video with
that footage, but next time we will dedicate a lot of time to filming and
photographing.

Hopefully this have given you a decent picture of how well everything went.
We were even invited to some other conventions! If you have any ideas, want
to get involved with the team, or just have questions, please get in
touch<http://ubuntu-massachusetts.com/contact/>. This
all started out as a little idea, and thanks to the help of many, it grew
into the super-successful Ubuntu @ Anime Boston project!


*Thank you to everyone who helped:*

<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PtyHEChBKZw/S752yhqul6I/AAAAAAAAfL0/tdVm3XD8csU/s1600/ubuntu-linux-community.jpg>
*YOU!*

Our biggest thanks goes to all of you, the entire community, for all the
generous support you've given us with banner hosting, donations, and all the
other help we've gotten. None of this would have happened without all your
support!
 <http://www.system76.com/>
The beautiful high-quality laptops and netbook lent to us by
System76<http://www.system76.com/> were
an essential part of this event and their help with promotion was
invaluable.

<http://www.prodpromo.com/>

One thousand flyers courtesy of ProdPromo <http://www.prodpromo.com/> was
one of our most valuable resources at the convention.

<http://redsunpress.com/>

Three thousand copies of the Ubunchu Manga in gorgeous quality by Red Sun
Press <http://redsunpress.com/>, a truly environmentally friendly *
worker-owned* union shop dedicated to social justice.

 <http://www.linuxfund.org/>

Fiscal sponsorship and guidance from Linux Fund
<http://www.linuxfund.org/> helped
keep this project going.

<http://www.canonical.com/>

LiveCDs, flyers, and other Ubuntu goodies like hats, t-shirts, silly putty,
mouse pads, pens, and books from Canonical <http://www.canonical.com/> made
our booth complete.
 <http://ubuntu.asciimw.jp/>
ASCII Media Works provided us with copies of the Ubuntu
Magazine<http://ubuntu.asciimw.jp/> Japan
which includes the Ubunchu Manga.

<http://pigux.com/>

A huge thank you to Arturo "C-quel" Silva of Pigux <http://pigux.com/> for
being our biggest donor and providing incredible artwork used throughout our
booth.

 <http://synfig.org/> <http://morevnaproject.org/>
 <http://synfig.org/>

The Morevna Project <http://morevnaproject.org/> covered us in a blog post
and provided us a video of production
cuts<http://www.archive.org/details/TheMorevnaProjectProductionCutsForUbuntuAnimeBoston2010>
. Synfig <http://synfig.org/>, the main tool behind the project hosted a
prominent banner on their website.

<http://www.playdeb.net/> <http://www.getdeb.net/>

Banners hosted by PlayDeb <http://www.playdeb.net/> and
GetDeb<http://www.getdeb.net/>,
the popular third-party Ubuntu repos, have helped raise awareness of our
fundraiser.

-- 
.danny

??? - http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo
Every (in)decision matters.