[Free-sklyarov-uk] Quick (possibly obvious) thoughts to improve future demos

[AndrewR]

Richard Simpson wrote:

> 1) Advertise dates and times at least 2 weeks in advance.
>

Advance notice is good, I would say at least 1 week, 2 is good.

>
> 2) Hold it on a Saturday.
>

Would get more people, but if outside the US embassy, would be shouting
at an empty
building.

>
> 3) Get someone to bring along a ghetto blaster.  The singing will be
> improved (possibly from dreadful to just bearable) if everyone can hear
> the tune whilst they are singing.
>

Heh.
The singing could hardly be worse, could it? :-)

>
> 4) Improved leaflets:  Leaflets are like operating systems.  Everyone has
> fixed ideas on how they should be designed and feels moved to violently
> disagree with everyone else's view.  So, here is mine :-)
>
>   We need double sided A5 leaflets.  The front should contain short punchy
> instantly comprehensible statements in large text (i.e. none of this Pii
> stuff).  For example:
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>         In the near future it might be illegal to:
>                 Lend a book to a friend.
>                 Copy your music onto cassette.
>                 Run a second hand bookshop
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>

Technically, the second is already illegal.  I'm not sure about double
sided,
although it can give more information, it can seem quite cluttered,
imho.

>
> Followed by a short paragraph (no more than 5 lines) explaining who we are
> and what our basic aims are.  This is aimed at grabbing people's attention
> and is all that Joe Sixpack will read anyway.
>
> Then, on the other side, we could have a lengthy semi-technical
> explanation of the details (we probably already have this on the current
> leaflets).
>
> We should put a lot of effort into getting this right and then get lots of
> these (several thousand) printed with the front in more than one colour.
>
> "It doesn't mention Dmitry!"  Yes, I know, but I believe that we should
> have separate simpler and cheaper leaflets about Dmity.  His situation
> could change quite quickly and and if we have two messages on the same
> leaflet (Free Dmitry & Stop EUCD) it gets too confusing for Joe Sixpack.
>
> I think that we should minimise the amount we put in about security
> research.  The vast majority don't know that anyone does this sort of
> research anyway, don't think that it concerns them, "Why should I encrypt
> my emails?  I'm not a terrorist", have been conditioned to believe
> that a secure computer system cannot be constructed (since Microsoft
> haven't succeeded), and that the only solution to computer security
> problems is locking up "hackers".  Mention security research briefly and
> those who are interested can read more on our web site.
>
> Am I volunteering to design these new leaflets.  No, but I am prepared to
> fire up my RiscPC (still no better platform for DTP) and try to generate
> some ideas worked up examples.
>

As a general point about design, of the two leaflets we had yesterday,
the DMCA one
was the better designed, but the EUCD one more relevant.  Both seemed a
bit too
text heavy, although I think that it's not possible to say everything we
want to on
a single A5 page without seeming text heavy.

>
> 5) Lastly, we need to be in a position to get the message through to the
> student population when they return in October.  We need leaflets aimed at
> them (probably quite similar to our current ones) and contacts in computer
> science departments to spread the word.

In a month's time, I will be going to Bristol to study Computer Systems
Engineering, and I would be willing to take on a "contact person" role

Andrew

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