How about an Advocacy Contest?

zoopydogsit

Hi Ken & Friends :-)

I honestly have no idea how hard it is to get a magazine article published. However IMHO it seems to make a lot of sense if we could inspire the Parallax forum community to contribute to marketting the wonderful Parallax products through writing magazine articles. Should articles get published then that raises awareness of Parallax products and potential solutions using the products, which in turn drives demand, and drives local electronic stores to become local distributers. Which would get Parallax product in the mainstream. This is a win for Parallax and a win for the community as it means the product is more accessible.

There may be a couple of ways of doing this;

1) Parallax directly rewards folks when they provide proof that they get a magazine to publish a project that contains Parallax product.

Or

2) Parallax runs a contest where folks write magazine quality articles about Parallax products. Parallax would then judge (based on criteria) and assist in driving the publishing of these articles in hobby electronic magazines, etc. Leaving it open could drive anything from folks using ColorPal to sort candy, Programming the Propeller, to using the Scribbler2 robot to draw an outline of the Mona Lisa on your driveway. etc. The goal would be something publishable, not something necessarily incredible (mundane and simple may be just as good, as long as it's well written).

IMHO the second option may provide a stronger outcome. Parallax would end up having a selection of various Magazine style articles. Likely most would need work to get them to a propper publishing standard, however it would be the start of low cost publishable content, which could be then used to help further market Parallax product. Parallax could then determine when and how to use them. And it may just be the thing to get folks to finish and submit a project.

I love what Parallax does, your products inspire me, and I want to see you successful so that you can innovate even more exciting product.

Just a thought.

Microcontrolled

I don't see why you need a contest. I wrote a magazine article for the July issue of Nuts and Volts that used the Propeller, and with the amount you get paid by the magazine, it's self rewarding.

P!-Ro

How much did you get paid micro?

zoopydogsit

Hi Micro,

Congratulations, very well done.

Forgive me for my ignorance, how wide is the circulation of "nuts and volts"? Is it paper based in news stands or just online?

The reason why I raise this is my concern is that I can't just walk into the mainstream local electronic store (Altronics or Jaycar) and buy Parallax products (actually I can buy the BS1 in Altronics, but no Propellers or any of the "interesting stuff"). And hearing from others around the world in the Sandbox forum this problem is not unique to Australia, it happens world wide. But then again, electronic stores have no reason to stock Parallax product, apart from BS1s they are simply not in the mainstream. I could see the argument from stores to folks like Ken that unless there is a demand then why invest in holding stock.

The solution as I see it, is to build awareness of products. Parallax does this particularly well in advertising in magazines like Circuit Cellar (that's how I got to start using them back in 92, and followed them ever since as I liked their approach to quality and innovation). However in hobby electronics advertising doesn't sell product, it's the realization that the item can solve your problem. This realization usually comes from examples found in electronics magazines. When you look at the published articles on the "Propeller page" and even customer examples we see some content, but really with how passionate folks are we should see pages, not just a few articles.

Now Parallax could hire technical writers, to go build series of articles, hock them around the hobby electronics magazine companies, but that would be expensive. Hence my suggestion to get the user base to build up this content, either through rewards or a contest. I'd prefer to see regular articles in electronics magazines involving Parallax products, rather than the storm of Arduino applications.

I love what Parallax does, I want to see them be successful so that they can innovate more exciting product. But just because I think it's a good idea, it doesn't mean that others will. And I'm sure Parallax have their own marketting plan and manage that within their capacity constraints. Hence this is only an observation and suggestion.

P!-Ro

Zoop--you can find nuts and volts in barns and noble stores.

Tubular

Hiya

I think the Propeller is a great match for Australians. We love an underdog with a bit of quirk. But there are always barriers to entry. Usually these are not to do with technical specs, but more price/margins, demand, culture, personalities, and even plain old luck.

I've had the privilege of spending the first half of November in the US getting up to speed with the whole scene over there. I love the power and scale of the US marketplace, how products evolve to fulfil all manner of needs. I greatly enjoyed browsing Frys, Walmart, Halted, even found something to purchase at Radio Shack (wasn't expecting that).

Regarding N&V, if you're comfortable PMing me your mailing address, I'll send you a couple of back copies, gratis. Otherwise ask your local newsagency to look up their "Title Tracker" they keep under the front desk. It tells them the codes for all the mags they have access to through Gordon&Gotch, Network, RDS etc. They'll be able to get it in for you, just not that cheaply. Cut a deal with them.

I recently spotted "Make" magazine at the local Borders, but at over $38! I think the subscription in the US is about $35 a year for 4 issues. If you're interested in getting mags regularly, one option is to get a US mailbox from MyUS or USGlobalmail or similar. I do that and ship about seven mags at a time in a $14ish 4lb media mailer.

Regarding Silicon Chip, I'm going to try something next year. But I think enthusiasm is a great way to break down the abovementioned barriers. Microcontrolled's article with the self locking treasure box is a great example.

tubular