Email from a genuine half-billionaire

[corfy]

Ok, I admit it, it doesn't take a whole lot to impress me some days, but I just think this is cool.

I recently signed up as a subscriber to the Ubuntu Marketing mailing list. Being a (former) journalist and being interested in spreading Ubuntu, it seemed like a good fit (on a side note, Ubuntu 7.10 is due out Oct. 18).

Today (well, yesterday, I guess, since it is after midnight), I was surprised to have an email from Mark Shuttleworth sitting in my inbox. For those who don't know, Shuttleworth started a software security company several years ago and sold it to VeriSign for around $700 million, then became the second "astrotourist" (and the first African in space) by paying $20 million to the Russian space program to be able to spend 8 days at the International Space Station. He then went on to found a company called Canonical, which produces Ubuntu (and it's official derivatives of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Fluxbuntu, and Gobuntu). He is listed by Wikipedia as one of the 30 "key figures in the history of free software".

Granted, Shuttleworth didn't send the email specifically to me, he sent it to the marketing mailing list (which means everyone on the list got it). Still, it has every indication that it was written by him personally. I just thought that was cool.

As I said, some days it doesn't take much to impress me.

(Go ahead, tell me how much of a geek I am... I can take it.)

[st39.6]

I got e-mail yesterday that said that "size of penis does matter". I wonder what list that was from

I dont think its that geeky to speak of this and be glad. Besides all of us are geeks, some more, some less
You forgot to mention what did the email say?

[corfy]

Well, as I said, it wasn't sent to me specifically (he has no idea who I am), but it was just the fact that it looked like it was actually from him as opposed to being from some PR agent pretending to be him that I thought was cool. And the fact that it wasn't sent to someone who forwarded it to someone who forwarded it to someone who forwarded it to me... the "from" line has his name and his email address.

In retrospect, I shouldn't be surprised he is on this list, nor should I be surprised that he would be interested in marketing, but... I don't know, I just think it is cool.

Anyway, the message itself isn't that groundbreaking, and based on the content, which is part of a larger discussion, I will probably get a lot more from him in the future (and no, I won't brag about it every single time, this is just the first), but here it is:

The Screencasts Team are doing amazing work on screencasts for Ubuntu Gutsy, and they will launch a "Month of Screencasts" in 8 days. The ringleader is Alan Pope, cc'd.

I'd like to get both Canonical marketing and Ubuntu marketing aligned so that we can draw attention to this superb effort with the right audiences.

Can you guys (#canonical) have a quick call with Alan to get the background on his efforts, and then perhaps continue this thread with how we can raise the profile of it? I think it would be very well received if we present it carefully.

Mark

He was referring to http://screencasts.ubuntu.com, although he was mistaken about one point. The 8 isn't the countdown to the start of the screencasts, I think it is the countdown to the end. They were trying to do a screencast a day for the month of September, but they kinda fell behind due to not having enough people, but they are still trying to get 30 screencasts out by the time the next Ubuntu is due out next week (some of this I knew before, some of this I read in follow-up messages written to the list).