[Linux-aus] Fwd: Teleconf 2005-10-04

[James Purser]

On Thu, 2005-10-13 at 10:41 +1000, Pia Waugh wrote:
> Hi James,
> 
> <quote who="James Purser">
> 
> > >   * Press team: anyone around?
> > > Pia has spoken to James Purser about revitalising the press team, and
> > > he's very interested. Maybe give him access to update the press
> > > section of the LA site and include a written synopsis of the
> > > podcastsso there's always up to date content there.
> > 
> > Nice to see, yup I put my hand up for the Press Team, I've been talking
> > to Pia about a couple of ideas for making the press area a bit more
> > accessible and interesting for both our Journalistic friends and the
> > wider community.
> 
> I've now given James and Karin access to adding to the news and press items
> (which is a blog) and they are already updating that (yay!). I think the
> next step is to say:
> 
> James we'd love you to take on driving some press direction for LA, to round
> up the people interested in writing foo, saing their piece, or who have a
> passion for investigative journalism :)
> 
> It'd be great to get your ideas posted here and for anyone else with ideas
> about how we can:
> 
> - get our community better known
> - get our messages out there
> - ensure that the message of FOSS community is not lost in the tidal wave of
>   the business case messages for Open Source
> - keep our community connected and informed
> 
> My ideas are:
> 
> - LA should be doing monthly reports to linux-aus (Jon :)

Yup keeps everybody in the loop

> - The podcasts could be extended to have a written version of each episode
>   somewhere on the LA site (a complete rework of the press page is in order)

Aaargggh it's hard enough to talk for that long :)

> - Regular articles in magazines and online media about Linux and what is
>   happening in Australia as written by our community. This would involve a
>   team of people interested in writing positive useful stories every month

This would tie into the redesigned press area on the linux.org.au site.
People who want to submit articles, white papers, press releases for
their projects and so on could submit them here, just need to set out
some guidelines on what we can accept and what we can't. Something like
a combined linmagau/podcasts/press area.

> - We should ensure that when cool things happen around the world, that we
>   have reactive press to support them
> - We need a press plan, something that outlines all the event in a year that
>   we want to cover and the media we want to be in regularly. It should be
>   like a release schedule (I've caught the disease from Jeff) with months,
>   events in Australia and events around the world pencilled in.

Oh god yes! a 12 month plan with major events from the F/OSS world as
well as a plan to deal with unexpected events would save a hell of a lot
of grief.

In terms of direction, we really need to get more involved with what is
happening locally. We have projects such as LiveLAMP,
remix.machinehasnoagenda.com  (See upcoming podcast for this one) and
more coming online and they need to be able to get a little breathing
space publicity wise. This is something I can see as being a major focus
for the LA Press Team, most of the bigger projects/distros/whatever have
the weight and mindshare (god I hate that word) to get themselves air
time, it's the smaller projects that we can help out.

In terms of keeping the community connected, I think the LUG Roundups as
produced by Karin (otherwise known as Mother LUG) are a good foundation
on which we can build more community focused services and activities.
This can also be used to promote the less tangible benefits of Open
Source by promoting projects such as Pia's recent trip to the wilds of
the NT and more.

So in summary this is what I see:

- 12 month Press Plan to be developed by Press Team in conjunction with
the board. To be reviewed periodically to keep things on the right
track.

- Redesigned Press Area: This will become a more comprehensive sub-site,
combining the fortnightly podcasts with a weekly/fortnightly newsletter
as well as a pure Press Area for the management of Press Releases and
communications between the media and the Press Team. Also to include a
monthly communique from LA (preferrably the President or failing that,
the Vice President). Will also allow submissions from the public on
story ideas, white papers and so on.

- Stronger focus on promoting local projects and organisations that fall
within the F/OSS purview. While at the same time highlighting the
importance of Australian F/OSS people and projects on the international
scene. (yes a bit of both ways never hurt anyone)

- Encouraging better relations with the Tech Media and media in general.
This is important if we want to get the message out.

Well that's my thoughts, you are all welcome to come back and tear them
to shreds.

-- 
James Purser
WINNET Developer
Ph: +61 2 4223 4131





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