But this particular case highlights a problem. News is immediate in many
cases. This is perhaps the biggest thing since the Munich case and this
thread started on Wednesday. The marketing list has been pretty quiet
for months and recently we have had 210 posts on some fairly important
issues such as who can and can't speak for OOo, which shows and
conferences we should and should not attend and how we deal more
effectively with PR. I'm a bit surprised that in 210 posts, none have
I agree with the problem statement, but I'm not convinced that having
everybody saying what comes to his or her mind in the name of the
OpenOffice.org project would be a good thing.
As mentioned before, we have a PR list. So far many people have talked
about approaching the press, but I haven't seen a specific proposal
for an announcement from anybody, yet.
Yes, the MA news are a great opportunity and we should try to leverage
the momentum as much as we can, but the OpenOffice.org project should
speak with one voice and one message. Thus, we should at least put
together a short list of key messages we want to stick to. That should
not take very long and could also be quickly translated to various
other languages. Do we have any volunteers for that?
been from the marketing leads. If the only members of the hierarchy that
post to the marketing list are Louis and Erwin, it undermines confidence
in the marketing project leadership. What decisions will be taken as a
result of these discussions and who takes them?
I let the leads speak for themselves. Nevertheless, everybody hear can
make a proposal for PR activities. They only have to go through a
(quick) review process, if they're intended to come from the
project and not just from the individuals.
But we also need people to be able to speak immediately. Its not just
press releases, its being able to take opportunities. One of the
strengths of Open Source in general is that it isn't - or shouldn't - be
constrained by the same bureaucratic mechanisms as a Cathedral.
If people get approached by the press, which definitely happens,
they can either refer to the "official" local project/marcon
lead or just comment as an individual, maybe as a community
member but not as a community representative.
I completely understand the issue of too much control. That's
why I became a big fan of blogs.sun.com. But on the site
blogs.sun.com it also clearly says that people are expressing
their own, individual opinions and are not speaking for Sun.
Most people say and do the right things about OpenOffice.org,
but unfortunately there have been some occassions where told
the press wild stuff in the name of the OpenOffice.org project.
That's what I would like to prevent as much as possible!
Individual/personal statements outside of the OpenOffice.org
project/community context however, don't have to follow
these guidelines, i.e. if people don't act as OpenOffice.org
officials and hopefully don't say nonsense, they are free to
write, say and blog what they want.
BTW, the news about MA's decision haven't spread in Germany
yet,
So maybe someone who speaks German should make sure it happens ;-)
but I'm pretty sure they will get picked-up today.
Why not be certain?
I will see what I can do, but I personally for sure won't speak
in the name of the OpenOffice.org project of Sun. ;-)
O.k., what PR activities do you suggest from an OpenOffice.org
project point of view? What would be the key messages we want
to talk about? What will be our news, to make sure the press
picks up what we have/want to say?
All the best,
Erwin
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
