An Open Letter to Larry Ellison about OpenOffice.org

“Tell them about it. 10 years after starting on StarOffice, I
still introduce myself in one sentence, “I do training and
educational materials for OpenOffice.org; it’s like Microsoft but
free and, I think, superior in many ways.” Nobody looks at me weird
for explaining what it is: 10 years after Sun started making
StarOffice available. This is bad. Do what you have to: work with
the Obama administration, go on Oprah, sponsor a Nascar driver, get
it on “Lost.” Do whatever it takes. We need name recognition.

“Certification. I don’t know who said it, but I believe it: if
you measure it and reward it, people will do it. A certification
program analogous to Microsoft’s is essential for a variety of
improvements to perception and adoption of OpenOffice.org. And it’s
not a bad revenue generator, either.

“Partnerships and bundling. I don’t need to tell you the
advantages of having a product already pre-installed on hardware
and included in other packages, but I’m sure not going to leave it
out of this list. People who just start using OpenOffice.org
without even knowing that it’s not Microsoft Office also have a way
easier time than those who fear change because they know it’s
different.

“Libraries, schools, government. They don’t have a lot of money.
They should have no barrier to interaction. Give them
OpenOffice.org. Go out and deliver it to them.”

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