Re: Toward A Positive Marketing Approach.

mdean(at)sourceview(dot)com (Michael Dean) writes:
> As a newbie person moving away from my technical background to
> marketing, I think a refreshed course for pg is needed! So far I have
> read all 5000 or so of this month's emails and want to make a few
> remarks IMHO:
>
> 1. We should treat all marketing efforts by hackers/programmers as
> social bugs. Get some marketing pros (debuggers) in on this, or the
> popularity of postgresql will continue to pale in the real world.

Ah, but marketing efforts by "marketing pros" *to hackers/programmers*
tend to also be regarded as "social bugs."

This is a case where different sorts of marketing work when dealing
with different sets of people.

> 2. Reward ISP's who newly support postgresql. Give them free links,
> somehow give them free expertise, give them focused help so that
> offering postgresql to their customers will not end up in disaster
> as in the past. Less than 4% of ISP's worldwide support
> postgrsql. WHY?, if pg is SO GOOD, and SO MUCH BETTER???

We already offer "free links" and "free expertise." I don't see there
being terribly much to be done in terms of reaching out to ISPs.

> 3. Reward existing FOSS projects that make sensible provision to
> accomodate postgresql in preference to other more "commercial" db's.
> Free links, mention in newsletter, listing on websites, whatever it
> takes to start pulling other open source communities behind
> postgresql. A good example is bitweaver.org, a great integration
> project, very professional, helpful to small businesses, but needs
> some promotional help.

This is being done.

> 4. Stop being too cheap. Money Talks! Offer to PAY premiums to
> major OSS aps who don't do pg, or don't do it well enough. Like
> Compierre, like Drupal. Ask me if i would contribute $1000 to
> pg.org if the money (guaranteed) went to get MY chosen favorite
> programs totally in postgresql, even if forks were necessary? How
> many others DON'T contribute because they fail to see a coherent,
> systematic program of promotion, just more of the same, free
> linuxworld booths and bof's year after year, no affinity to the
> commercial realities out there.

With what money??? This isn't Oracle Corporation, with Billion$ of
marketing dollar$ to $pend.

Compiere is an example of a project that doesn't seem interested in
migrating away from Oracle; they presumably get more support (possibly
even money, too) than we'd be likely to be able to offer.

> 5. Make it easy, NOT hard, to come to postgresql. Provide a
> decision-tree selection software for ALL databases which is vendor
> neutral.

That's arguably not possible.

A "vendor neutral" decision tree, as far as any given vendor is
concerned, will be one which doesn't point anyone away from their
product. That's not a decision tree that would point people towards
PostgreSQL...

> 8. Stop mentioning mysql in every breath. It serves them, not pg.
> After all, mysql must be better, or why would these folks at pg be so
> specifically, vociferously and universally concerned! talk only about
> pg, make comparisons to the whole field of db's, don't single anyone
> out!

That probably is a good idea.

> I would be willing to bet that a bounty of just $50 would be enough to
> influence major and minor FOSS projects to give pg major support.

I'd bet against that in a second.

Plenty of people are neither interested in the money nor in the added
effort.

Furthermore, you are missing that there are people that are as biased
towards the GPL as the people biased against it. There are people who
refuse to use PostgreSQL on the basis that it is licensed under the
BSD license, and you can't push them...
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