Re: 9.5 Release press coverage

(other than my comments in the previous email)

On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 1:34 PM, <damien(at)dalibo(dot)info> wrote:

> Maybe there's a simple way to address the problem. Every standard Press
> Release has an "About section" where you put general info about the company
> itself. For instance :
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> About FooBar :
> ==================
>
> FooBar is the best company in the world, blah blah blah.
>
> Check out our shiny website : http://www.foo.bar
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Now what we could do is ask every major PostgreSQL company to add the a
> generic "About PostgreSQL" section at the end of their Press Release. This
> section would be
> very neutral, something like this:
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> About PostgreSQL
> ====================
>
> PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.
> It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture
> that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and
> correctness. It is fully ACID compliant and runs on all major operating
> systems. PostgreSQL developed by a large international community composed
> of consulting companies, distributors, support providers, cloud companies,
> DBA Freelancers and researchers.
>
> Learn more at http://www.postgresql.org
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> The content can be discussed of course but I'm pretty sure we could reach
> consensus on a
> short paragraph like the one above. We could even try to involve the PR
> guys from the various PostgreSQL companies.

> Then we contact the 10 or 15 major PostgreSQL companies and ask them
> kindly to add that generic "About PostgreSQL" paragraph to every
> Postgres-related Press Release they will issue. It's not gonna hurt their
> original message in any way...
>
> Of course there's no way to enforce this... After all, any company can
> write a PR and pretend to be the PostgreSQL leader... However adding this
> generic about section would be a sign that the company is being a "good
> citizen" of the community
>

I really like this idea. As you say, we can't actually enforce anything.
But as long as the text is balanced and fair, we can *ask* for it, and I
think many of them would have no problem with that. As for the contents I
would make it shorter than what you have written, but the important parts
to get in is what it is (RDBMS, open source), who makes it (community and
what makes up of it) and the link back to the main website.

>
> And from a journalist point of view, if you receive several press release
> from different companies and all these PR share the exact same "About
> PostgreSQL" section, they will read it many times and maybe with enough
> exposure to this text, they may finally understand how our community works
> :-)
>

We can always hope! At least we're doing what we can to educate them in
this case.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/