[Linux-aus] Media Officer Now

[Rasjid Wilcox]

On Wednesday 04 February 2004 21:26, Jonathon Coombes wrote:
> Unfortunately, "secrecy" is often unavoidable.
>
> My example here is with the OOo marketing and in particular press
> releases and media events. The point was made that it had to be
> kept off the main mailing lists, including the marketing one to
> a large degree, to allow for releases to be made in a singular event.
> Taking into account time differences etc, they needed to coordinate
> to release to all countries at about the same time rather than have
> one country "jump the gun".
>
> The of course raised many concerns about "lack of openness" and
> going against the "spirit" of open source. Unfortunately, it was
> something that had to be done. Open lists allow for browsing and
> getting information before it may have been approved or even intended
> to be known to the public. This works well for open source software,
> but not necessarily some of the marketing and media related events
> which surround it.
>
> I am with Con on this one. If someone can come up with a better
> model of disseminating the information, while retaining the spirit
> of openness, let us know. There are many projects that I am sure
> will appreciate your input to solve this problem.

I can't see any way that media release discussion can really happen 'in 
public' and still be effective, at least not if one is operarting in the 
corporate arena.  If the 'competition' knows what you are planning ahead of 
time, it can (and will) be used against you.

The only thing I can think of would be where a record of discussions is made 
public a little while 'after the event'.  But I don't even think that is a 
good idea, since a long term media strategy builds upon each step before it, 
and could give more information away about the planned 'next step' than is 
wise.

Anyway, that's my 2.2 cents.

Cheers,

Rasjid.

-- 
Rasjid Wilcox
Canberra, Australia (UTC +11 hrs)
http://www.openminddev.net