Re: Directions in Advocacy

> I see the need for three things to happen immediately:
>
> 1) Deciding the tone and style of the website.
>
> 2) Making the website easy to change.
>
> 3) Getting a TODO list made.

These are definitely important, but we cannot underestimate the importance
of starting to establish contact with the "outside" world. Once a consensus
is reached on the mission statement and goals for the group, we need to
start an unrelenting PR campaign.

I work for a magazine publishing company, and our editors are constantly
getting press releases from companies announcing things that might not be
all that important, but they serve to keep the companies' names visible, and
we should do the same thing. We need to establish a contact list for IT
media professionals and frequently contact them. We can start by getting
them a media kit, and then we should send them press releases at least once
a month, but maybe even more often if we can send something of substance.

I was a journalist before I decided to "start earning real money," so I'd
like to volunteer to coordinate the media kit development and a PR campaign
like I've described.

I'm new to this list, so I don't really know how the process for getting
something like this started goes, but I think this approach could work very
well.

Lucas Alexander