Re: News links, post 'em here

First, I want to apologize if this email rubs anyone the wrong direction.
If it does, my apologies. This is not intended to be adversarial to
anyone. I do intend to be a bit candid, though.

On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 9:27 AM, damien clochard <damien(at)dalibo(dot)info> wrote:

>
> >
> > It's pretty clear that we have 2 kinds of french articles available to
> > cover the news, some of them are talking about PostgreSQL the Open
> > Source project and some of them are explaining to potential customers
> > who to contact if they want to use Ora2PG.
> >
> > The only reason why the french news coverage looks great in the wiki
> > listing is because both kinds of news are listed as community efforts.
> >
>
> Dimitri,
>
> I don't understand what you mean by this. Anyone promoting the PostgreSQL
> release is part of the "community effort", whether you're a DBA doing it on
> your spare time or you're a PR professional paid to do it. So I don't see
> any reason for this corporate/community opposition.
>

Agreed.

>
> Like I said journalists need multiple sources. When we release a new
> version, if they can get the information from multiple points and in
> various formats, this will give more value to the message and make it more
> relevant. Journalists will also have more material to write their articles.
>
> Like I said I think we should do PR like we do code. When there a message
> to send, we should fork it and hack it. BSD-style. We're never gonna beat
> Oracle PR if we do things like they do. Instead we need to invent a better
> way to communicate, using our assets : multiplicity, creativity and
> collaborative culture.
>

Agreed there too.

>
> Speaking for DALIBO, we do our own translation of the press release, then
> we add some local-related content (for example last year we added a
> paragraph bout French government agencies switching to PostgreSQL), we put
> some additional quotes and we tell journalist we're available for an
> interview. Everything we add is focused on promoting PostgreSQL and it's
> community... And of course, we provide a link to the original version so
> that journalist can compare our content and the official one.
>
> I understand that you are afraid that some companies could "hijack" the
> community efforts and inject their own marketing in the process BUT :
>
> 1/ Journalists are not that dumb :) They don't copy/paste press release
> without reading it. They receive dozens of press releases all day long and
> they can tell what's advertising and what's real news. That's their job ;-)
>

Yes it does happen. In fact I would expect it to happen. I would even go
so far and say it is healthy that it happens so long as many companies get
their say in. (Being clear: I am not opposed to journalists saying "these
folks provide support" just that I prefer them to offer a list if they are
going to do so that has more than one name.)

For example, I have started contacting journalists who only mention a
single company for support and suggesting that it is worth noting that many
companies offer very good support, and providing a list of a few.

So I say, "Hijack away. Just make sure everyone gets a shot." In other
words, it's one thing to promote. It's something else to dominate. I am
not saying there is a problem in France, just discussing more generally.

>
> 2/ IT journalists are aware of the nature of the PostgreSQL. At least all
> the ones I talked to. They know that it's not owned by a single company.
> They know that some tools are open source and other are not.
>
> 3/ PostgreSQL companies are not marketing bullies :) We all know the
> difference between advertising corporate services and promoting the
> project. I'm not saying there's never been any problem but I believe it was
> always unintentional. And it can always be discussed on pgsql-advocacy or
> pgsql-www
>
> That being said if you have problem with the way this release was treated
> by the French media: you can either contact the journalists directly or
> express the problem more clearly here and give examples of what you think
> is inappropriate.
>

Not discussing the French here, but here in SE Asia I have seen what
happens when one company dominates the discussion about PostgreSQL and I
don't think it is good for our community long run. This is to some extent
inevitable in many parts of the world since the PostgreSQL community is
nothing if not stealthy. However it introduces some inevitable imbalances
in the discussion

I think it is worth acknowledging that this can and will happen and that
those of us who are regional contacts have some responsibility to ensure an
open flow of contributions into the press process.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers

>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Damien
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sent via pgsql-advocacy mailing list (pgsql-advocacy(at)postgresql(dot)org**)
> To make changes to your subscription:
> http://www.postgresql.org/**mailpref/pgsql-advocacy<http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-advocacy>
>