The Free Software Foundation Has Entered Into A Consulting Agreement To Improve Its Image

The Free Software Foundation has entered into a pro bono consulting agreement with the Community Consulting Teams of Boston to get a "marketing assessment" and recommendations for how they can "improve communications and outreach".

written by 林慧 (Wai Lin) 2021-03-04 - last edited 2021-03-04. © CC BY

gcc/gcc.c from GCC 10.2. The GNU Compiler Collection is free software.

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985 by honorary doctor Richard Stallman in order to support and promote free software, has never amounted to much in terms of both public awareness and corporate and governmental interest. It remains a rather small niece organization with a dozen employees and a budget barely above a million US dollars per year. The Linux Foundation, on the other hand, has 160 employees and yearly budget just shy of a hundred million US dollars.

The Free Software Foundation has announced that they have entered into a pro bono consulting agreement with their next door neighbor Community Consulting Teams of Boston who will "recommend ways to improve communications and outreach to achieve the FSF's vision of free software as a kitchen table issue".

John Sullivan, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, had this to say about the agreement:

"Focusing on our communications strategy is essential for our mission because in order to achieve our goals, we need everyone to know about free software. We're honored that CCT selected us from a competitive application pool, and have no doubt their advice will significantly benefit our work advocating for computer user freedom,"

John Sullivan, executive director at the FSF

Free Software Foundation could use some help with their communications strategy. Their annual LibrePlanet conference is one example. It used to be a "free software conference". LibrePlanet 2021, on the other hand, is a "technology and social justice conference". The FSF isn't scoring any points with us by prioritizing meaningless 白左 "social justice" drivel over free software.

We can only hope the Community Consulting Teams of Boston (CCT) will point out that an organization called "Free Software Foundation" should focus on promoting free software, not cater to a tiny minority of mentally ill satanic cult members by promoting 白左 nonsense. That outcome is, sadly, not a given these days. We can't rule out that the CCT will recommend that the FSF abandons its free software roots and becomes a 白左 social justice organization through and through. That would probably spark some narrow short term interest and publicity, but it would be a death-sentence in the long run.

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WaiLin

45 months ago

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You must be new to basic business marketing concepts. The goal of a communications strategy is usually to build your brand and image. If you see a need to change your communications strategy then the goal of that change would logically be to improve your image. It is true that the FSF did not explicitly use the word "image" in their press release but why else would they see a need to improve their "communications strategy", eh?

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