[Linux-aus] Wrong medium, wrong market

[Janet Hawtin]

Andrew Donnellan wrote:
> You really can't trust journalists to do this. These articles will say
> some of the linux advantages (free ads for us) then say some of
> Windows' benefits (what we don't really want).

If there was a press article about the project that Pia did in the
Northern territory deploying a Linux network for community benefit
there is no need for comparative reporting of MS. It is a story about
real experience with people who can be seen involved and happy.

It is not a hypothetical comparison between platforms which most people
find pointless and closer to noise than signal anyway.

If we can report more of those kinds of projects in a constructive way
we can change the kinds of reporting which journos will look for about
open source technologies just by providing better examples and more
interesting content.

There are quite a number of groups doing similar work throughout Oz.
One of the challenges for these groups is that press coverage
can lead to the groups being swamped by people looking for
free computers or tech support so careful placement is important.

For software freedom day 2006 perhaps each lug or community group could
choose a project and report it well with photos.
Contribute that to a local paper and to linuxau or a similar central
group. That should spread the focus of the response a bit and it
provides a pulse check of open source activity across Australia.

If the lugs and community groups (and businesses?) get into practice
doing that then they can send an article to a small local paper on a
regular basis.

Local papers like photos of local people doing things of local interest.
If something catches the eye of a bigger paper theyll be able to follow
that up and we will all be more experienced in providing content to
journos effectively through practicing in our local context.

I guess I feel this kind of distributed and project driven publicity is
 a better match for open source communities than a corporate press
campaign because
- its the way we work.
- it puts new information into the mix which people can relate to and
- people can manage the scale of promotion about their own project more
than if it is promoted centrally.

cheers

Janet

Dennis:..its mabo, its the vibe..