Re: Company/freelance working with Pharo/Seaside

Sven wrote:
> Having an active community where many people participate in making Pharo better all the time is the best reference.

While that is a necessity, it is only relevant for a certain public (technically advanced, developer oriented, long term view).
It is not necessarily something other potential customers value. I'm currently doing a data conversion project.
Everything outside a timespan of the next 6 months is simply irrelevant. Startups with a lack of deep technological knowledge
also cannot tell the difference between a very large but clueless community and a small, but active and knowledgable.

> It is also important that success stories, even small ones, are shared.

Very much so. And (also) in a form that less technical people can understand.

> But I guess that half the people on these lists are available for remotely delivered services in one form or another ;-)

That seems like a correct observation. On the other hand these mailing lists function as a filter and are not a good way to
match demand and  supply. The problem is in explaining where Pharo/Seaside can provide a good solution in
business terms.  

> Although it is important that the community keeps on growing, we reached critical mass a long time ago, IMHO.

For innovators yes. For early adopters, no. They value different things.

Stephan

Stephan Eggermont wrote

> Although it is important that the community keeps on growing, we reached critical mass a long time ago, IMHO.
For innovators yes. For early adopters, no. They value different things.

There was a great TED Talk that speaks to this topic:
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

And a Smalltalk discussion of it at http://forum.world.st/Spreading-Smalltalk-td3435227.html

The bottom line is: tell people what you believe, not what you do; and the tipping point (critical mass) is 15%-18%. "You can trip over 10% of the customers... that just 'get it'", but "the early majority will not try something until someone else has tried it first"