On Tuesday 03 June 2003 17:38, Shachar Shemesh wrote: > Dittigas wrote: > > Having been contributing to whatsup (www.whatsup.org.il) for a while > > now, I think it has clearly become the de-facto leader of news and > > support alternative to Israeli FOSS users. For the last 1.5 years I > > have seen it grow from a meer few dozens registered users, to full > > blown 800+ with over 1M hits. Weather this is an achievment or not, as > > it clearly seems you are not impressed., will be left for others to > > decided I guess. > > > > Yehuda seem to have raised some issues regarding cooperation and > > consolidation of the FOSS scene in Israel if in did there's one. There > > are many talented people willing and ready to help, though it seems > > that only recently it is becomming serious enough to make a difference. > > > > Like in many other cases FOSS's recent achivment and sucess around the > > world was not intiated here (linux-il or whatsup). We are meerly > > benefiting GNU/Linux coming of age and maturity. Though mutt, pine or > > emacs are still the foundatons of FOSS they are by far not the > > platform on which it is now making it's inroads into the the public > > domain. > > > > And so you have relactently dismissed Yehuda's interest in serving the > > community even further offering Whatsup as a platform to use by anyone > > in Israel intrested in promoting FOSS including established yet some > > what remote linux-il, or self-appointed Ha-Makor. > > > > I personally don't really think it is difficult to see that whatsup > > seems to be doing very well serving the community as over 800+ users > > and more the 1M hits seem to sugest. If you think this is not a good > > enough proposition, or Whatsup/Yehuda should be runing around > > collecting news from the mouths of the so called community leaders, I > > think you are denying what seems to be obvious so far. If you need to > > outreach and spread any messages you might have, you should concider > > Whatsup to be you 1st choice. Doing so will further establish its > > presence and allow consolidation of the community. > > > > Whatsup was wize and responisble enough to co-operate, rather than > > compete with many other projects like the Pinguin, Ha'Makor, Kineret > > and LinBrew and some other sites dedictated to FOSS and by doing so > > gave an example of positive and healty attiude and established itself > > as hub for this activities in a way. I hope it'll continue so wether > > receiving aknowledgment for it or not. Frankly speaking I think it > > allready had gained it. Why don't you make the most out of it? > > > > dittigas > > Hi, > > I'm not sure whether you are referring to my, or Nadav's, response. If > mine, then I would like to direct your attention that I did, in fact, > agree with much of what Yehuda wrote. I would also like to explain that > Hamakor is not here to take credit over what whatsup is doing, or Linus > Trovalds for that matter. We are here to unit the forces, out of the > believe that this will be to everyone's benefit. The people from whatsup > decided, for reasons of their own, to be less active in this initiative. > It is their right. However, and as a result, taking offense that > services they can offer are not utilized as efficiently as they could > makes no sense. > > If you want to do, do. If you don't want to do, at least offer criticism > in a constructive (e.g. - saying "sending to [EMAIL PROTECTED] will be > faster", or "we can also publish this response") rather than accusing > manner. I want to hear how I can do better. I will refuse, however, to > feel guilty for stepping forward and acting. If you don't like what or > how I'm doing stuff, elect someone else to the board (assuming that the > next time around there will be more candidates than places to fill, that > is). > > Shachar
Hi, No one should feel guilty for acting, don't know how it came to this, but that conclusion is wrong. There's one thing we must realize: The stage of early adapters and techies adopting FOSS is reaching the end. From now on we are facing a uphill PR battle. We're nearing a stage off public non techie adoption. As we see at Whatsup more and more "Normal" people are joining. Assuming linux-il and IGLU are 1st tier, various forums are 2nd tier, we're now facing the 3rd tier (the public). They're not reading linux-il or visiting IGLU, they don't care so much about the old boys. They don't visit Hamakor's site or read it's mailing lists. What the 1st and 2nd tier should do is fight a PR battle for them and the ones to come. It includes releasing PR info for them, as they won't follow up or search it for themselves. Take Nadav's comment. I took his announcement and published it at whatsup (with some mistakes by my side during the translation - Like Dan's last name). People became aware to it (many of them for the 1st time). Nadav commented there, correcting my mistakes. Wouldn't it save resources if a "Press Release" was issued ? It have saved us the time to translate it, and Nadav's time coming and "fixing" it. Or take for example the result of the poll about Hamakor at Whatsup (what's wrong with it's web site BTW ?). More than 60% (as for now) don't know about it or won't pay (for various reasons). I attribute many of those to lack of knowledge about the goals/activities of Hamakor. Issuing PR info about activities is very important and helping the cause. and they have to be released to as many sites/publications possible, as people won't look for them. The technological phase is nearing the end, the "war" to achieve enterprise and public acceptance basing on technical qualities is nearing victory. All this will be in vain if we'll negelect PR issues. We might say: I don't care about others, I'm using FOSS and damn the others. I once held the same position, but we must spread it as much as possible to gather public mindshare and prevent laws, arrangements or ties with government used to halt FOSS and declare it illegal for example. We're all busy and involved in many projects, but the PR side regarding our work should not be neglected. -- Meir Kriheli MKsoft systems http://www.mksoft.co.il ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
