Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 21:09:39 +0200 From: Arjan van Leeuwen <avleeuwen@piwebs.com> To: Michael Lucas <mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org> Cc: advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD PR Message-ID: <200209122109.39919.avleeuwen@piwebs.com> In-Reply-To: <20020911102109.A60294@blackhelicopters.org> References: <20020911102109.A60294@blackhelicopters.org>
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Hi, I'd love to see a PR team, and I'd love to be part of it too (if that's=20 possible).=20 I work (part-time) for a company that tries to deploy FreeBSD in as many=20 situations as possible, but we often have to face the fact that none of o= ur=20 customers have ever heard of FreeBSD. This has its advantages - they have= n't=20 heard any bad things about it either - but definitely a lot of disadvanta= ges=20 too. The education needed to get people to understand what FreeBSD is and= =20 stands for surprises me time after time.=20 More press coverage would help FreeBSD a great deal. The amount of web sp= ace=20 and plain paper 'wasted' on Linux is just huge. Companies and individuals= =20 like that. Talk about Linux, they'll have at least some vague idea of wha= t=20 you're talking about, and they know it's good, because 'IBM uses it' (or = so=20 they've heard).=20 We all know there's more to open source than just Linux, but 99.9% of the= =20 people who decide if they're going with an open source solution, and if s= o=20 which one, do not. I'm not just talking about managers in companies, but = also=20 about a lot of system administrators, who just didn't had the chance to h= ear=20 about FreeBSD. There's just too little information about it in the press. Where are the rave reviews of FreeBSD 4.X that I expect to find on the Ne= t and=20 in computer magazines? They're nowhere to be found. Because no one appare= ntly=20 took the effort of sending the magazines and sites a CD-ROM distribution = and=20 a nice press release.=20 With version 5 coming up, we have a great chance to get people to look at= =20 FreeBSD, and to get a lot of positive press. We'd be fools to let that ch= ance=20 pass by.=20 We have to try to create a small hype around 5.0 - as you say, press rele= ases=20 are vital. Release as many of them as possible. Previews are too. Send ev= ery=20 computer magazine, every website, no matter how small, every newspaper yo= u=20 know a copy of DP2 when it comes out, with some clear instructions on how= to=20 install it and what to do with it when they've done that. Tell them about= the=20 improvements since the last version, and about the advantages of FreeBSD=20 over, say, Linux. Let everyone know the rich history of BSD. It doesn't=20 matter if we get some bad coverage in the process. It doesn't matter if s= ome=20 dork at zdnet explains an exciting new feature the wrong way. We want peo= ple=20 to get the big picture, and fast.=20 If I can help, and I'd be glad to, please contact me. Arjan van Leeuwen avleeuwen@piwebs.com On Wednesday 11 September 2002 16:21, Michael Lucas wrote: > Hello, > > Once upon a time, we had an unofficial Public Relations person. This > person handled all things related to FreeBSD PR. That person has > since laid down most of his Project responsibilities and, while he's > still kicking around, he's no longer doing any public relations work. > > I think we need to get a serious effort rolling on public relations > for FreeBSD. After some discussions with other assorted FreeBSD > folks, it seems that several others agree. > > Some of our corporate sponsors do promote FreeBSD, and I for one > appreciate that. But Daemon News, FreeBSD Mall, or anyone else, > cannot speak for "The FreeBSD Project." Only we can do that. And we > can only do that if we become organized, develop a team and a charter, > and request the proper delegation of authority from the committer > body. > > We no longer have anyone to answer questions such as "How many FreeBSD > users are there?" This is an important question. As a "FreeBSD Face > Man," I get asked it all the time. And I have to pull a number out of > the air. This is bad, because it gives the impression nobody knows > how many users there are. > > Also, press releases are a fact of life in promotion. But the Project > no longer issues press releases, because we have no PR person. Heck, > *anything* is worth a press release. Fine-grained locking in the > network stack? KSE? Those represent a lot of work, and nifty > features, and we don't freaking *tell* anyone about them! Press > releases get covered in the press, which means articles in the press, > which means free promotion, coverage, and, ultimately, users. > > Some teams do make announcements, mind you. For example, re@ does an > excellent job with their announcements on new releases. I'm curious > if they're distributed to "The Press," however. They might well be. > But we, as a Project, need to know if they are or not. > > We could also use a set of FreeBSD presentations and scripts for these > presentations. I've been asked to speak about FreeBSD before, and > always had to whip out MagicPoint and cobble something up myself. > There are people out there who are much better at these things than I, > however. I would love to see, say, > /usr/ports/promotions/freebsd-embedded, that included a MagicPoint > slide show and a script for speakers to audiences interested in > FreeBSD's strengths in that particular area. (OK, a port is going too > far. But this presentation should be as easy to get and install as a > port.) Right now, to find a presentation to promote FreeBSD I have to > go to Google and find something someone else used. > > What do you folks think? Do we need a PR team, or should I go back to > playing Freeciv? > > =3D=3Dml To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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