Open Source Press Relations
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This document provides guidance on open source press relations, including how it differs from traditional PR, resources needed, and best practices for handling press releases. Key aspects include relying on volunteers, maintaining lists of press contacts and reference users, creating a press kit, and following an eight week process for drafting and distributing press releases that emphasizes open collaboration and transparency.
Open Source Press Relations
- 1. Press Relations Open Source
- 2. Press Relations Open Source
- 3. March 2000 “Linux needs a marketing department.” - Elwin Green, Newsforge
- 4. June 2009 “Your project needs a marketing department.” - Josh Berkus
- 5. PR practice vs. OS development ►PR requires: ►Open Source requires: ✚ secrecy ✚ openness ✚ centralized authority ✚ democracy ✚ rigid timing ✚ “f exible” dates l ✚ money ✚ cheap/free
- 6. flaks vs. hackers ►PR “f aks” always: l ►OS “hackers” always: ✚ seek attention ✚ avoid the limelight ✚ focus on apearance ✚ focus on substance ✚ talk at great length ✚ are concise and to about nothing the point
- 7. Open Source Press Relations Resources
- 8. OS/PR Resources ►volunteers ►press contacts ►reference users ►press kit ►OSS tools ►money (a little)
- 9. Volunteers Wanted! ►writers/designers ✚ press releases ✚ web design and graphics ✚ handouts and articles ►translators ✚ all of the above ►regional contacts ✚ one per country/region/language ✚ press/business experience ✚ e-mail & phone for work hours
- 10. volunteers: care & feeding you do not pay volunteers ►PR contributions are as valuable as code: treat it that way ►OS-PR is participatory: ask, don't tell ►make sure each PR volunteer gets their 15 minutes
- 11. press contacts: your list ►collect a list ✚ bloggers/reporters in your community ✚ reporters who have covered your project ✚ lists from conferences ✚ business cards ►manage the list ✚ keep in central, secure location ✚ separate into categories ● “cold” contacts ● “warm” contacts ● “intimate” contacts
- 12. reference users ►you need them ✚ quotes ✚ interviews ✚ case studies ►get them through your community ✚ mailing lists ✚ consultant clients ✚ conferences ►keep their contact info handy
- 13. press kit ►one-stop-shopping for reporters ✚ “what is” document ✚ “latest news” document ✚ case studies & reference users ✚ contact information -- regional contacts ✚ logos/graphics ✚ self-booting CD or USB key (optional) ►have the same information everywhere ✚ on the website: keep it updated ✚ on paper handouts: give them out at conferences
- 14. OSS tools ►mailing list(s) ✚ communicate with volunteers ►wiki ✚ for drafting documents & making lists ►version control system ✚ document editing, translation ►CMS ✚ for getting stuff on your web site
- 15. s! on Open Source Press Relations ss Le Handling The Press sy Ea e re Th In
- 16. Lesson 1 reporters are people, too. ►Don't insult them when they get something wrong. ►Do thank them when they get something right.
- 17. Corrections: The Wrong Way Dear Idiot, I couldn't believe your articl e yesterday saying PostgreSQL had no Java support. What kind of doofus are you? Don't you know how to use Google? Where did you get your journalism degree, Eddie's Correspondance School of Media? Or maybe you just get all your news reports from Oracle. --Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL
- 18. Corrections: The Right Way Ms. M, I read your article “Open Source Databases Catching Up” in last week's TechMaven with interest. Thank you for covering our database system for your readers. I did notice a small factual inaccuracy in paragraph 3, in which you say that PostgreSQL lacks Java support. In fact, we have both JDBC and procedural Java. You can find more information about these at jdbc.postgresql.org, and about what PostgreSQL supports in general at www.postgresql.org/about. A correction would be appreciated. If you have any further questions, or want to arrange an interview, don't hesitate to contact me at 415-752-2500. --Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL
- 19. Lesson 2 nothing is “off the record” ►Don't share anything with a reporter if you don't want to share it with the world. ►Do plan everything you're going to say. ►Don't expect to get a preview of the article.
- 20. Lesson 3 if you want to decide the news, you do the work ►Do respond very quickly to requests. ►Do offer facts and quotes, and lists of contacts to reporters. And numbers! ►Do look for the “newsworthy” story. ►Don't tell the them what to report.
- 21. some notes on bloggers ►Bloggers are not professional reporters ✚ don't trust them to keep embargo ✚ they won't try for full/balanced coverage ✚ they're not concerned with accuracy ►However, bloggers are increasing ✚ less and less reporters all the time ►So f nd some good, friendly, popular bloggers i ✚ befriend them ✚ educate them ✚ buy them beer
- 22. Open Source Press Relations The Release
- 23. -8 weeks: draft release ►Do it in an open source way ✚ involve your advocacy group ✚ use mailing lists and wikis/version control ✚ “many eyes make bugs shallow” is true of press releases, too ✚ allow 3-4 weeks for draft
- 24. -8 weeks: draft release ►use professional release format ✚ top-down composition ✚ emphasize news value ✚ have a “theme” ✚ one to 1.5 pages long
- 25. -8 weeks: draft release ►use professional release format eight parts 1.contact information 2.dateline 3.summary paragraph 4.theme paragraph (optional) 5.1-3 quotes (not more) 6.detail information 7.link to more information 8.about paragraph
- 26. -8 weeks: draft release Josh Berkus contact information josh@postgresql.org 415-752-2500 San Francisco, CA dateline NY, NY: January 10, 2005 - The PostgreSQL Global Development group has released version 8.0 of the PostgreSQL object-relational database management system, building on its position as the most summary advanced open source database in the world. This release includes features previously onl y paragraph available in the most expensive proprietary database systems, and is expected to substantially increase the adoption of PostgreSQL by both users and software vendors. In addition to significant improvements in scalability, features, and performance, PostgreSQL 8.0 demonstrates the unparalleled development speed of open source. More than a dozen companies, theme including Red Hat, Fujitsu, Afilias, Software Research Associates, Inc., 2nd Quadrant, and paragraph Command Prompt Inc., as well as hundreds of individual developers, contributed to add more major features to 8.0 than have been seen in any previous version.
- 27. -8 weeks: draft release "We are confident that these enterprise features will attract a great number of new PostgreSQL users.", said Mr. Takayuki Nakazawa, Director of first quote Fujitsu's OSS Database in Software Group. "Fujitsu is proud of its sponsorship of contributions to PostgreSQL and of its work with the PostgreSQL community. We are committed to helping make PostgreSQL the leading Database Management System." New features include: name & title Native Windows Support: PostgreSQL now works natively with Windows systems and does not need an emulation layer. This provides dramatically improved performance over previous versions, and offers a compelling alternative to proprietary database software for independent software vendors, corporate users, and individual Windows developers. detail info Savepoints: This SQL-standard feature allows (make it relevant) specific parts of a database transaction to be rolled back without aborting the entire operation. This benefits business application developers ....
- 28. -8 weeks: draft release Javier Soltero, Chief Architect at Hyperic LLC, said, "PostgreSQL 8.0 gives us the high degree of concurrency and throughput required by our HQ second quote monitoring product ... “ In addition to the many features bundled with the release, PostgreSQL has been enhanced by accelerated development of add-ons and optional components over the last year ... About PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL is the collective additional work of hundreds of developers, building on almost detail twenty years of development which started at the (keep it short) University of California at Berkeley. With its long-time support of an enterprise level feature set including transactions, functions, triggers, and subqueries, PostgreSQL is being used by many of today's most demanding businesses and government agencies. PostgreSQL is distributed under a BSD license, which allows use and “about” distribution without fees for both commercial and non-commercial applications. paragraph To find out more about PostgreSQL 8.0 or to link to more download it, please visit: http://www.postgresql.org/about/presskit.html information
- 29. -4 weeks: create press kit ►press release, plus: ►get website ready to ✚ links to more roll: advocacy ✚ use CMS so that you information (case can activate content studies, etc.) “all at once” ✚ full text of quotes ✚ links to downloads ✚ detail that didn't f t in i ✚ home page the release announcement ✚ information about ✚ traff c monitors i quoted companies ►release to ✚ links to regional translators contacts
- 30. -1 week: “embargoed” releases ►contact press whom you “trust” ✚ must agree to not release until the release date ✚ must be willing to postpone/cancel release in case of problems ✚ a good way to “reward” reporters you like ►additional advance content ✚ Q&A about release ✚ demo (if appropriate) ✚ arrange interviews with developers/users ►be aware of press schedules ►f le release with PRWire i
- 31. -12 hours: stuff up on website ►last chance to postpone ✚ check with lead developers ►put up on web ✚ press kits ✚ downloads ✚ docs ✚ lists of regional contacts ►check that regional contacts are ready
- 32. 0 hour: send out release ►contact embargo reporters and give the all-clear ►“spam” your whole press list ✚ use an easy perl script, or a mailing list ►tell regional contacts/translators “go” ►panic!
- 33. +1-5 days: follow-up ►follow up with key reporters ►start collecting links to press coverage ✚ send corrections, if necessary ►slashdot it! ►update press list ►thank volunteers
- 34. more information ►press kit: http://www.postgresql.org/about/press/presskit83.html.en ►regional contact list: http://www.postgresql.org/about/press/contact ►about pages: http://www.postgresql.org/about/ ►me ✚ josh@pgexperts.com ✚ www.pgexperts.com ✚ it.toolbox.com/blogs/database-soup This presentation copyright 2009 Josh Berkus, licensed for distribution under the Creative Commons Attribution License.