gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (03/12/90)
ric@rioja.ifs.umich.edu (Richard Campbell) wrote: > Wasn't there an organization called "Open Vistas" or some such thing > which appeared to be a technical/vendor group boosting NeWS? Open Vistas was a trade association for "PostScript on screens" vendors and users. To be independent from Sun it had to be run by people from the community. Grasshopper and Windows Marketing started it; Architec joined in to administer it. A bunch of NeWS vendors financed their shares of the big booth, and Sun kicked in some money for administration and the nonprofits (e.g. Don Hopkins and Los Alamos). The problem was, we had no marketing people. Hugh and I are hackers. Our third partner Keith is not strong at marketing. Architec seems to have similar problems. E.g. when Adobe called up to see if they could join, Architec said "we'll have to think about it" rather than "YES!!!". Sun Windows Marketing has its hands full already, and if Sun ran Open Vistas it would truly appear to be just another arm of Sun Marketing. It should've been NeWS (and DPS) Marketing -- lord knows we needed it -- but we had no marketing experience. We never developed the organization or spent any time on recruiting people, beyond the first booth. I think we did OK for being some hackers putting together a booth. The problem was in follow-through, and Grasshopper and Architec didn't have what it took. If somebody wants to resurrect Open Vistas for future NeWS stuff, more power to you -- but find a marketeer! -- John Gilmore {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com Boycott the census! In 1942, the Census Bureau told the Army which block every Japanese-American lived on, so they could be hustled to internment camps. Maximum penalty for refusing to answer: $100, no jail.