AW: [sword-devel] Marketing of sword initiative?

[Steve Tang]

* When people risk a lot to bring bibles into China, sword CD is a good
alternative. Yes, China is not as rich as the west yet, but don't
underestimate the sheer number of city/educated people who have access to
computers.

* To reach out to Chinese people, word of mouth is powerful. One hurdle,
IMHO, is unicode support, esp. in Windows. e.g. 1.5.3 seems to move the
bible text screen down too much. My guess is that a Chinese UTF-8
'character' is actually a word in Chinese and is rendered to occupy two
character positions.

I'm giving away sword CD's for free in my church but I have a hard time
explaining to people the 'unprofessional look and feel' in rendering
Chinese. Please don't take this as an insult. I very appreciate sword and
the efforts the few over-worked people put in. I just wish I know
sword code and font rendering well enough to help out.

* If we accomodate sound ideas, lots of good modules, sword will sell
itself (for Chinese people IMHO.) I've seen sword mentioned in Chinese
web sites.

God remembers his saints' efforts.

Steve Tang...

On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, JP Horst wrote:

> Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 17:41:11 +0200
> From: JP Horst <jphorst@med.uni-goettingen.de>
> Reply-To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> Cc: sword-support@crosswire.org
> Subject: AW: [sword-devel] Marketing of sword initiative?
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org 
> > [mailto:owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org] Im Auftrag von Martin Gruner
> > Gesendet: Dienstag, 11. Juni 2002 09:35
> > An: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> > Betreff: Re: [sword-devel] Marketing of sword initiative?
> > 
> > 
> > Hello Jens-Peter,
> > 
> > > I am an enthusiastic bibletime user and new to this list.
> > 
> > Cool. Esp. the part about BibleTime (I am one of the admins 
> > of BibleTime). =) I respond not because I know everything 
> > about sword, but just because nobody 
> > else did. I like your idea.
> > 
> > > My question: Has anbody started any initiative in the direction of 
> > > marketing the Sword initiative?
> > 
> > No.
> > 
> > > I have the feeling usage was mostly spread by word of mouth or 
> > > websites (passive online-marketing).
> > 
> > Right.
> > 
> > > But one could e.g. also directly target missionary or 
> > bible-spreading 
> > > organizations and inform them about the wonderful possibilities of 
> > > the Sword initiative.
> > 
> > Right.
> > 
> > > This could not only be viewed as simply increasing the 
> > number of users 
> > > but rather as an own mission initiative of the sword community.
> > 
> > Right.
> > 
> > > It would be great if somebody could tell me:
> > >  if anything in this direction has been done
> > 
> > Nothing.
> > 
> > >  if there are reasons against going something like this
> > 
> > None.
> > 
> > >  organizations one should contact
> > 
> > No idea.
> > 
> > >  your thoughts in general.
> > 
> > I really like the idea of making sword more public. But what 
> > else than a 
> > passive web strategy would you aim at? Do you already have 
> > thoghts / plans in 
> > the queue?
> > 
> > Martin
> > 
> Originally I thought:
> 
> Since there is a chinese module, there area loads of chinese speaking
> people, many find to Christ right now there and they probably are in
> need for a cheap solution, why not post banners on e.g. the chinese
> yahoo site. However, there are two hurdles:
> 1) that would cost money (one could try to find sponsors)
> 2) since I don't speak Chinese I can't even read the info in order to
> plot the next steps, e.g. find out what it would cost.
> 
> Therefore, maybe someone else (Chinese speaker) feels called to do this
> or do it together with me.
> 
> Another approach would be:
> 1) Gather a list of bible schools, missionary organizations & bible
> translation/spreading societies
> 2) Put together some marketing material (e.g. a pdf page with
> screenshots, features, available modules and link)
> 3) Mail it to 1), e.g. to have them post 2) on their bulletin boards
> 4) Let the sword website be flooded with download requests
> 
> Again another approach would be to start a chain mail, e.g. with the pdf
> page, to christian friends around the world. This can also nicely be
> combined with the last approach.
> 
> Jens-Peter
> 
>