Directions in Advocacy - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy
From | Gavin Sherry |
---|---|
Subject | Directions in Advocacy |
Date | |
Msg-id | Pine.LNX.4.21.0212081719160.17399-100000@linuxworld.com.au Whole thread Raw |
List | pgsql-advocacy |
Hi all, I've been thinking about advocacy for a fair while now. Here are some ideas. What follows is going to be critical :-(. 1) Advocacy Strategy Currently, there doesn't seem to be any strategy about PostgreSQL advocacy. I think a strategy (ie, TODO list) will allow those interested in Postgres advocacy to see where we are and where we want to be. It will encourage a bit of creativity, track progress, determine whether or not something is working or not. 2) Case studies There aren't a hell of a lot of case studies on the advocacy Web site. There is no information about how to add your *own* case study. I think the case studies need to be augmented by smaller testimonials which the advocacy group has *permission* to use/print/what ever. This will provide a resource for people putting together papers on PostgreSQL for specific applications: education, private sector, government, etc. It will help consultants choose testimonials specific to a tender that they're putting together. The ability to show a client that someone else is using this for the same application is very handy. How do we get these testimonials? Not a week goes by without someone writing to pgsql-hackers about how much their shop loves Postgres. Someone needs to follow this person up, go through the process of getting a testimonial that their employer signs off on. This can take some convincing, but we must stress that 1) they're getting a lot out of Postgres, why not return some 2) Their testimonial will lead to increased usage which leads to an even better product in the future. 3) Advocacy Web site Style I think the advocacy Web site is preachy. I don't like things like "Join the PostgreSQL revolution", "Better support than the proprietary vendors", "Legendary reliability and stability" and: "Unlike many proprietary databases, it is extremely common for companies to report that PostgreSQL has never, ever crashed for them in several years of high activity operation. Not even once. It just works." This is a huge call. Where's the evidence? Certainly not in the case studies ;-). This kind of thing doesn't play well when the other professional requirements are missing (see below). Advantages of Postgres i) Immunity to over-deployment This is a *huge* point. It isn't covered properly. Over-deployment is what some proprietary database vendors regard as their #1 licence compliance problem. With PostgreSQL, no-one can sue you for breaking licensing agreements, as there is no associated licensing cost for the software. It rarely happens that companies like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Sybase *actually* sue people to recover unpaid license. Their software is designed to only run for the number of users/CPUs you have purchased. The end. I think that this would be better covered as total cost of owner ship. No licensing, cheaper consultants, runs on cheaper hardware and cheap operating systems, has the kinds of features you only find in expensive databases, well documented (for free), etc. ii) Legendary reliability and stability A huge call with nothing to back it up. iii) Extensible This, incorrectly, looks at source code level extensions. What about the depth of extensibility which can be added at the SQL level by unskilled programmers? (ie, they don't know C). User defined functions, triggers, rules. If they know C, they can go even further. How about mentioning all the supported procedural languages? iv) Designed for high volume environment MVCC doesn't just allow this. Its designed to allow concurrency users to be isolated. Its about data integrity. People using Access and looking for a better database *really want to know about this*. v) ANSI compliance Since when? I don't know of any database which is ANSI compliant. Web site URL advocacy.postgresql.org? Why not just integrate it into the existing Web sites? Pointing someone to this URL suggests to them that they shouldn't believe most of what they read ;-). 4) Professionalism The real problem with the advocacy site is that it is unprofessional. It is not clearly/correctly targeted. It uses the kinds of buzzwords you would read in the latest copy of CIO magazine, but it doesn't come through with the goods. It also isolates, by doing this, 95% of the people evaluating Postgres: actual developers, not management. Here's what's missing. i) URL to press releases ii) URL listing events/conferences which will involve Postgres. This will require the people speaking at conferences to send in dates/times/URLs. This can only serve to increase attendance numbers and impress potential users with Postgres's popularity :-) iii) List of awards Postgres has won iv) !!! Media kit !!! If you want to get written about, you need to have a media kit. Most IT journalists know little to nothing about IT. They will not write about Postgres if it is too hard. A media kit has the following: a) Overview of the project, recent history, etc b) fact sheet: what Postgres is, latest version number, companies involved, how it is funded, major developers, estimate of number of users c) URL to testimonials d) URL to awards e) URL to press release for most recent release f) Dumbed down list of features introduced in most recent release g) URL to *printable logos* (300 dpi, CMYK'd, list of pantone colours) h) Trademark information/list of names (PostgreSQL? PostgreSQL, inc? PostgreSQL Global Development Team? .. which one?) i) Contact details v) Developer's section Most open source software comes in through the back door. Developers are going to find and evaluate Postgres. We need to tell them, in their language, what Postgres has and what it can do. When then need to give them the information to answer management questions. The current site addresses only middle management types. vi) URLs to recent papers on Postgres 5) Future directions Here's a list of things going on now/ideas for the future to kick off the advocacy strategy. i) Big Nerd Ranch Bruce is training people at a multi-day event called 'Big Nerd Range'. This is *dedicated* to PostgreSQL. Though it is limited to 20 places it is a serious training event and will do a lot to advocate PostgreSQL -- provided, of course, there is the right follow up: a Press release issued in conjunction with the Big Nerd Ranch people, information on the PostgreSQL Web site, information for the media. See: http://www.bignerdranch.com/Classes/Postgresql.html ii) PostgreSQL mini-conference Christopher Kings-Lynne and I will be organising a one day PostgreSQL conference to take place on the 20th of January. This will be attached to the Linux.Conf.Au conference, where I will be giving a more technical tutorial on Postgres. This will force Christopher and I to create resources (presentations, logistical information) which will allow other people to replication the conference in other countries. http://www.linux.conf.au iii) Enterprise Solution Center A company called Wild Open Source (http://www.wildopensource.com) is working with Linux International to create a kind of opensource pavilion called 'Enterprise Solution Center' (http://www.wildopensource.com/ESC/index.html). The goal of this project is to deploy open source software in all roles inside a company: desktop, back office, productivity, accounting as well as the obvious ones, like Web site, file server, mail server, etc. We *have* to get involved in this. Someone will need to contact Wild Open Source to see what we need to do to get involved. The Centre will first come into action at LinuxWorld New York, 21-24th January. It would be best if the person(s) who contact Wild Open Source can actually attend this conference. It will, however, need to be a group effort to determine what software will run on top of Postgres, actually setting it up, etc. Regardless, the hard work will definitely be worth it, since the pavilion will be redeployed around the world, as far as I can tell. iv) Database taxonomy project The DBMS Reference Guide is an idea put together by Zak Graent (zak@php.net). Zak is an employee of MySQL AB. We get together three or four times a year and talk databases. Zak is a firm believer in the idea that competition in open source can only serve to increase the market for it, there by benefiting all competitors. So, even though he works for MySQL AB, a lot of what he does serves us all, because it gets people talking about open source databases. The project is designed to provide guidelines to developers about major databases. Amongst other things, this will be an invaluable resource for people wanting to migrate databases (hopefully to Postgres). Better yet, Zak tells me he has had plenty of interest from developers at proprietary companies. If you're interested, email him. v) Conferences/talks/tutorials I like to talk. I talk at conferences, at universities, at user group meetings, at pubs. If you like to talk, consider submitting proposals to one of the many open source orientated conferences; or at the university you attended; or at a local open source/UNIX focussed user group. For those interested in conferences, here is a brief list of those I have spoken at/know of: EgovOS (March, Washington) - http://www.egovos.org O'Reilly Open Source Convention (July, Oregon) - http://conferences.oreilly.com FOSDEM (February, Brussels) - http://www.fosdem.org Linux.Conf.Au (January, Perth) - http://linux.conf.au UK Unix Users Group Developers Conference (June/July, Edinburgh) - http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2003/ LinuxTag (July, Karlsruhe, Germany) - http://www.linuxtag.org International PHP Conference (April/November, Amsterdam/Frankfurt) - http://www.php-conference.de) SAGE-AU (August, Hobart, Australia) - http://www.sage-au.org.au It would probably be useful to provide guide lines to those who are thinking about this. That is, how to submit a proposal, how to prepare the slides, how long a talk should go for, etc. vi) Write tutorials for IT magazines As I said before, most IT journos know little to nothing about IT. If they knew more, they'd stop being a journalist and start earning real money. Its a simple fact. This means that when IT mags need more indepth stuff, they have to farm it out to freelancers. If you know how to write and have some experience, write to the editors of some magazines published in your country offering to write about PostgreSQL. Particularly given the release 7.3, now would be a great time. A word of advice: suggest possible articles: 'What's new in PostgreSQL 7.3', 'Installing and running PostgreSQL 7.3', 'Open Source Database Systems', etc. vii) Write papers/Documentation/etc If you're using PostgreSQL for some specific purpose, if you're really interested in, say, "PostgreSQL in Education", write a paper about it. No matter how long or short, the written word carries weight. The more we increase the knowledge base surrounding PostgreSQL, the bigger it will become. --------------- That's it for now. Thanks, Gavin
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