[school-discuss] Tux In a Parade?

[Joel Kahn <jj2kk4@xxxxxxxxx>]

The "Tux balloon in a parade" notion seems to be
the most popular piece in all of the attempts
at brainstorming I had in that first message.
I'm leaning towards it myself: it is simple,
direct, straightforward, familiar--and the chubby
figure of the penguin is a natural for a balloon.

In connection with the Tux-in-a-parade
idea, Don Christensen wrote:

>I'd be willing to contribute to a fund
>to make something like this happen.

How about your employer, Don? When I did a search
on the word "Linux" at ciscosystems.com, I got
5,530 results. It certainly seems that investing
in the promotion of FLOSS could pay off for Cisco.
If the costs were split among the many firms that
are deep in the FLOSS biz--Red Hat, IBM, HP, and
the companies in this list . . .

http://www.linux.org/vendor/

. . . just for starters, it might mean a sizable
return on investment for just a small amount per
sponsor, relatively speaking.

What would happen if thousands of school children
let IBM &c know that they would really like to see
Tux in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and that
they want these companies to sponsor it? It seems
to me that snail mail might be more effective than
email; paper letters have become so rare these days
that they can really stand out. Of course, all of
the online places that I mentioned in my earlier
message (YouTube, Flickr, &c) can still be used.
Perhaps a digital video showing how Tux on parade
might look? Would the Blender experts out there
like to take a crack at it?

Here's where the Macy's marketing people hang out:

http://www1.macys.com/store/marketing.jsp

And, just so we can start thinking
about other options, here's the place
for a different group of parade folks:

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/aboutus/marketing.asp

Since it is probably too late to participate in any
events before 2009 anyway, there should be plenty of
time for planning--including some thought about how
lots of students, teachers, administrators, parents,
non-profit groups, and for-profit companies can all
coordinate their efforts and make their different
kinds of contributions to whatever this ultimately
turns out to be. I'm definitely looking forward to
seeing what eventually develops.

Joel



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