[Linux-aus] Sam did better with this one
Jeff Waugh
jdub at perkypants.org
Mon Jul 7 09:55:02 UTC 2003
<quote who="Con Zymaris">
> And it's not as if Sam is anti-Linux or FOSS-community.
You'd have to wonder, from some of the articles he's written. I'm not sure
his approach is appropriately dispassionate (for an "editor" at a major,
highly respected newspaper), or altogether professional. Many of his
articles seem to have a conclusion before investigation. (I'm certainly not
dispassionate in this criticism, because I have been squarely in his sights
in the past. Still shocked and amazed.)
> Perhaps this episode points to a problem with the rather disjointed
> approach that the FOSS community in this country has to PR. I don't have a
> solution, save to suggest that handling this aspect of press-relations is
> generally what commercial firms do with aplomb.
Lots of projects have excellent press relations, and that's where the PR is
important. The "FOSS community", outside understandable project boundaries,
is a noisy mess, and that's fine. We're not one voice.
A valuable PR skill is figuring out who you don't want to work with, and
whether that choice will have a negative impact on your message. Personally,
I would not take a story to Sam when I could take it to Nathan Cochrane, or
another publication entirely (especially internationally op'ed pubs).
However, there are a number of journalists who can be terribly childish if
let loose with no information, so it is always good to feed them. Perhaps
Sam is one of these, I don't know.
But Sam's approach to journalism (and there's really no point giving him
credit for being involved in the community) is not a failing of FOSS PR. :-)
- Jeff
--
Get Informed: SCO vs. IBM http://sco.iwethey.org/
"Slashdot seems to run a lot of obituaries. Perhaps there should be a
topic for it."
"There already is. It's called the BSD section." - Anonymous Coward
More information about the linux-aus
mailing list