MusicBrainz

On the value of talking to your users

All too often I wonder if I spend too much time talking to MusicBrainz users and contributors in IRC. I keep thinking that I should be writing more code or grant applications -- doing what I would instinctively call productive.

Of course that is a load of crap! Talking to the people who have questions or problems and guiding them towards a solution can make a huge difference in their MusicBrainz experience. People who have good experiences tell their friends about them and talk up MusicBrainz. Grassroots marketing is probably one of the most effective forms of getting the word out about your project/company/yourself. Also one of the slowest, but do we always need to be in a hurry?

Talking to people about MusicBrainz is important, but it is very hard to quantify the results -- a community is a fuzzy concept that defies easy/accurate quantification. I feel like I can't list "Grew the MusicBrainz community by 15 people." on my list of daily accomplishments.

Of course, this concept is nothing new after reading The Cluetrain Manifesto. Its main point is to keep your human voice about you when you do business. Not matter what the nature or size of your business is.

I just wish that most corporations would keep this in mind.

Posted by Mayhem at April 8, 2004 08:26 PM