Re: List of regional contacts up, please revise!

On Thu, 2004-11-18 at 20:47, Josh Berkus wrote:
> Could you list me as the press contact for UK & Republic of Ireland?
> > Thinks some more...what other countries are missing...
>
> Are you certain that Ireland *wants* to be lumped in with the UK?

Of course it does not. Thats a contentious way of phrasing a potentially
sensitive issue, and I am not happy about that phrasing. Nobody said
anything about lumping anybody together with anyone, and I was at pains
to use the official name of ROI, to ensure respect to that country. I
presume you meant no offence, so will say no more.

I had previously publicly stated that I'd cover ROI also, if no
volunteers came forward. None had come forward, so I confirmed my
earlier volunteering.

> I'm in the same timezone as SouthAfrica, and it is common for the UK
to
> > be associated with Northern European countries (who typically speak
> > English better than we do...). It might be an idea to list me as the
> > contact for Rep of Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark
> > until we find a better spokesperson for each. So list me as "UK &
> > Northern Europe".
>
> I'm a bit reluctant to have people covering "beats" that don't include their
> actual countries/areas. After all, have you ever actually *been* to Norway?
> Would you be able to travel there to meet someone? We're a volunteer
> organization, not a commercial company with a sales budget. More than that,
> I find that a lot of countries resent having foriegners "speak for" their
> country and there could be a negative reaction.

If anybody wishes to veto my suggestion, I have no problem. I also said
"until we find a better spokesperson". Less is better for me, but not
for PostgreSQL: You've edited out my reason for bringing this up:
there's 100 million people in European countries who don't have a
spokesperson listed. I've only suggested taking on some of the smaller
ones off that list.

I wouldn't ever presume to speak about any country other than my own,
but I can speak about PostgreSQL in my almost fluent English, which is
the first or second language in all of those I mention. The alternative
is to appear not to care about those countries.

This arrangement is fairly typical in the European software business.

Central Europe typically speaks German as its second language, except
for Hungary, hence why I didn't offer to back up those countries, yet
suggested who might.

> I'm a bit reluctant to have people covering "beats" that don't include their
> actual countries/areas. After all, have you ever actually *been* to Norway?

Yes, I've worked in *all* of the countries I suggested covering, at one
time or another, as well as others. That's fairly common in
Europe/Africa, for the reasons I explained.

> Would you be able to travel there to meet someone?

No, but I wasn't intending to travel anywhere in the UK either... is
that likely? (Not least because as you say, this is volunteers only with
no pay).

> More than that,
> I find that a lot of countries resent having foriegners "speak for" their
> country and there could be a negative reaction.

Completely agree. Do you not see that as the whole reason for my e-mail?

> > ...or maybe don't group them together, just have an additional section
> > at bottom, saying "if your country does not have a dedicated press
> > contact volunteer, please contact one of these regional contacts:
> > Northern Europe Simon Riggs
> > Nordic & Baltic Jussi Mikkola
> > Central & Eastern Europe Ewald Geschwinde
> > Southern Europe & Middle-East Devrim Gunduz
>
> This makes a lot more sense to me. However, I'd tend to think that people
> could figure it out on their own. What to others think? We'd also need:
>
> Mexico & Central America Alvaro
> Pacific Islands Gavin
> East Asia Shridhar or JPUG

Yes, definitely. My focus was on the "EMEA region" and Europe in
particular.

--
Best Regards, Simon Riggs