[Coco] CoCo Fest video and chat

[John Hogerhuis]

I've never been to a fest myself, but it looks like fun.

Going to a fest costs money, more for some than others. Plus there's
the opportunity cost of going (what could I have been doing if I
didn't go to the fest... say, work and earn money?) On top of that
different folks have different means so the cost is a different %age
of their disposable income. So even within the known Coco community
it's a simple fact that at a given cost (including opportunity cost)
some people will afford to go and some will not. All of that is
subtracted from perceived benefits and assuming everyone is rational
(many of which benefits are of course intangible), if you get a
positive number you go, and if you don't you don't. Some people will
and some won't and of those that don't, beating them up about it will
probably only deter them further. Car salesmen and telemarketers try
it all the time though, maybe there's something to that strategy ;-)

The concern seems to be rate of growth (or decline) of attendance. You
have to figure a portion of it is just that the active coco community
is very small and is likely either not growing or shrinking. We may
get some isolated stragglers who dig a computer out of their garage
now and then, but this is onesy twosies. That's sad of course but
there's no point in crying about it. It seems like that is the
reality. If you weren't a Coco user in the past it's not likely you
are going to be in the future (though it happens, as with Mary).

I suppose webcams could be an issue for the handful of people whose
cost-benefit analysis is right on the hairy edge. But I doubt that's a
lot of people. More likely is that the webcams are a kind of focused
advertising to the target market, like watching a baseball game on TV.
If it looks like fun it may change your perception of value (benefit)
in the cost-benefit analysis.

There may be a small problem in users not finding things like this
list. Not everyone reads Internet mailing lists, that's just a fact.
Advertising is not a sure winner either, since the benefit for a given
advertising dollar is seriously diluted by the fact that you pay to
hit a lot of people that will not be interested at all.

My $.02 is that the best bet is to combine forces with the VCF and do
the exhibits there. In fact the Coco community has some very active
members that make new products, and I think that would really help
energize the VCF. Also the VCF does move around a bit, so vendors
could reach more people over time. In addition, there may be some
crossover interest, as a lot of people look back fondly on the 6809 as
being used is other equipment that they are interested in. It also may
have a snowball effect. To some degree if people perceive attendance
as low (or high) that will affect their perception of benefit. For
better or worse this feeds upon itself.

http://www.vintage.org/


-- John.