Appleton Open Mind Source Camp taglines

Taglines and memes. Useful or ineffective marketing concept?

It's hard for an left brain engineer to know if taglines or memes add value to an organization or event. It would take a lot more marketing experience than and focused conversations with a wide spectrum of customers to gain an informed, and possibly even accurate, opinion regarding the value of taglines and memes. Also needed are a better grasp of what a meme is and what most customers think a meme is for this engineer to form a firm opinion about memes.

The first tagline for Appleton Open Mind Source Camp 1.0 came from Amy P --- Ideas. Energy. Fun! (It has not yet been discussed whether an exclamation point or a period belongs after Fun...) This tagline effectively conveys the main values of the Appleton Camp in a minimal number of words.

A second tagline for use at the end of all Appleton Camp correspondence was suggested today by Nancy P --- May you have an open source day! This second tagline, or possibly some variant of it, combines with the first tagline to bring a distinct flavor to the event.

Although my enthusiasm for Open Source is conceptual rather than based on extensive personal involvement, the concept seems apropos for the Appleton Camp. As mentioned in a previous post, many aspects of open source as presented in "Open Source 2.0: The Continuing Revolution" are conducive to innovation and to continuing improvement of the world around us.

If nothing else, Nancy's tagline may get northeast Wisconsin talking more about open source. What it is. What it means for innovators, entrepreneurs, knowledge workers and networkers in Wisconsin and in a global economy. How others have incorporated it into their organizations or passionate interests. How it might help them or someone they know.

As stated in "Open Source 2.0", "There is an important difference between open source commodities and those derived from raw materials (like wood or steel) that [are] harvested or mined...open source commodities are produced by creative and resourceful human minds. Not by geology, biology and botany. This means there is neither a limit to the number of open source products, nor a limit to the number of improvements." One needs to read the book to truly get the whole impact of that excerpt, but the possibilities contained in that concept are awesome, hopeful, and optimistic in the best sense of the word.

May you have an open source day!

(Update -- It was pointed out that since there will not be a majority or even plurality of the attendees from the open source sector, it likely does not make sense to incorporate Open Source into a tagline for the event. It is to be hoped that at least several of the participants will be doing sessions on open source, and future Appleton or other Wisconsin Camps might focus largely on open source. However, it might make sense to integrate a flavor of open source into the marketing materials for the Camp with the term 'Open Mind'. Possibly Appleton Open Mind Camp 1.0. Feedback is encouraged...)