by nwsunni » Fri Oct 10, 2008 5:49 pm
I must, respectfully, disagree with the comment that loudly announcing the number of downloads of Firefox influences prospects to use the browser. I'm speaking as a PR/Marcom professional and academic. One of the cues of persuasion, as Cialidini refers to it, is that people are more likely to behave like others around them behave. While we could argue that concept all day long, what is certain is that human beings are influenced by the dynamics of the group and that when thousands upon thousands "do something," then it's far more likely that an individual will follow suit. So, yes, broadcasting far and wide the number of downloads of the latest version of Firefox will most certainly persuade others to download it. And if one found a method to cause huge numbers of people in general or within a niche to download/use OO, you'd see a change in the marketplace. Of course, one would need also to do battle with MS strategy for tying university campuses into the use of MS products only, but that's another message for some other time.
Sunni Freyer
Multiple installs on Win 7s