Thread: List of regional contacts up, please revise!
Folks, I have uploaded a draft regional contacts list to pgFoundry: http://pgfoundry.org/docman/index.php?group_id=1000047 Please check this information! First off, I need everyone who is listed on there to confirm that you still want to be the regional contact (if you haven't already) and that the information is correct. We have some new volunteers in some regions; perhaps people want to discuss whether they want to shuffle responsibility? Second, we don't have phone numbers for some people. Reporters tend to be fond of phoning, in most countries; if there is a phone number you can safely use, please? Also, are the URLs for nationalized web sites correct? Are there any I'm missing? Given that there are Czech and Chinese web sites, does anyone know a Czech or Chinese community member who could be a contact? Please comment on formatting of names and phone numbers. Since I mined this from e-mail, I'm afraid I've stripped out accents and latin characters; please send me the correctly accented version of your name, if necessary. Please also send me translations for the following words: E-mail: Phone: Cell Phone: (assuming you list one) Please e-mail your fixes to me, off list. I'm keeping all of the contacts in a database, so I don't want revisions to the document on pgFoundry. -- --Josh Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Simon, > How will you handle the situation that most people's phone numbers won't > be answered "PostgreSQL", but actually will be various companies? This > might lead to some confusion - should that be mentioned, or not? Hmmmm ... good question. > Could you list me as the press contact for UK & Republic of Ireland? > Thinks some more...what other countries are missing... Are you certain that Ireland *wants* to be lumped in with the UK? > I notice also that we have no press contacts for: > Denmark - .dk Troels Arvin? > Netherlands - .nl > Norway - .no > Spain - .es there is a "spanish" list, but they're in way different > timezones... > Portugal - .po perhaps Armando Halpern? > Czech Republic - .cz there is a czech list > Greece - .gr Alexander Antonakakis <alexis@maich.gr>? I'm a little reluctant to tap people as Regional Contacts if they aren't on this list, and haven't volunteered. It's better not to have a contact at all for a region than to have on who doesn't answer his phone/email -- or even answers it wrong. > South Africa - .za Anton de Wet <adw ( at ) obsidian ( dot ) co ( dot ) > za>? Yeah, he just sent me contact info. > also there are no contacts from Africa or the Arabic world at all, which > is not good at this time. Actually, I just got a potential volunteer from Iran. Waiting to see if he wants to do RC. > Nigeria? - http://www.postgresql.org/news/185.html Hey, if you know someone there ... > You're also missing NZ and English-speaking Canada. Perhaps it might be > politic to list the US and Australian contacts as covering those > countries also? Hmmmm ... yeah. Mind you, if we had a French-speaking Canadian contact, they would be separate. > I thought Afilias was actually an Irish company... Nope. > I'm in the same timezone as SouthAfrica, and it is common for the UK to > be associated with Northern European countries (who typically speak > English better than we do...). It might be an idea to list me as the > contact for Rep of Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark > until we find a better spokesperson for each. So list me as "UK & > Northern Europe". I'm a bit reluctant to have people covering "beats" that don't include their actual countries/areas. After all, have you ever actually *been* to Norway? Would you be able to travel there to meet someone? We're a volunteer organization, not a commercial company with a sales budget. More than that, I find that a lot of countries resent having foriegners "speak for" their country and there could be a negative reaction. > ...or maybe don't group them together, just have an additional section > at bottom, saying "if your country does not have a dedicated press > contact volunteer, please contact one of these regional contacts: > Northern Europe Simon Riggs > Nordic & Baltic Jussi Mikkola > Central & Eastern Europe Ewald Geschwinde > Southern Europe & Middle-East Devrim Gunduz This makes a lot more sense to me. However, I'd tend to think that people could figure it out on their own. What to others think? We'd also need: Mexico & Central America Alvaro Pacific Islands Gavin East Asia Shridhar or JPUG -- --Josh Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh,
What I don't understand from our pr-company is that what we expect from
our contact persons. I understand what I do when I promote postgresql in
private IT gathering or answer endless emails, but I don't understand
what could do contact person - alone in huge Russia without any
PR-kit. btw, do we have something like booklet, pens, etc.
Oleg
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004, Josh Berkus wrote:
> Simon,
>
>> How will you handle the situation that most people's phone numbers won't
>> be answered "PostgreSQL", but actually will be various companies? This
>> might lead to some confusion - should that be mentioned, or not?
>
> Hmmmm ... good question.
>
>> Could you list me as the press contact for UK & Republic of Ireland?
>> Thinks some more...what other countries are missing...
>
> Are you certain that Ireland *wants* to be lumped in with the UK?
>
>> I notice also that we have no press contacts for:
>> Denmark - .dk Troels Arvin?
>> Netherlands - .nl
>> Norway - .no
>> Spain - .es there is a "spanish" list, but they're in way different
>> timezones...
>> Portugal - .po perhaps Armando Halpern?
>> Czech Republic - .cz there is a czech list
>> Greece - .gr Alexander Antonakakis <alexis@maich.gr>?
>
> I'm a little reluctant to tap people as Regional Contacts if they aren't on
> this list, and haven't volunteered. It's better not to have a contact at
> all for a region than to have on who doesn't answer his phone/email -- or
> even answers it wrong.
>
>> South Africa - .za Anton de Wet <adw ( at ) obsidian ( dot ) co ( dot )
>> za>?
>
> Yeah, he just sent me contact info.
>
>> also there are no contacts from Africa or the Arabic world at all, which
>> is not good at this time.
>
> Actually, I just got a potential volunteer from Iran. Waiting to see if he
> wants to do RC.
>
>> Nigeria? - http://www.postgresql.org/news/185.html
>
> Hey, if you know someone there ...
>
>> You're also missing NZ and English-speaking Canada. Perhaps it might be
>> politic to list the US and Australian contacts as covering those
>> countries also?
>
> Hmmmm ... yeah. Mind you, if we had a French-speaking Canadian contact, they
> would be separate.
>
>> I thought Afilias was actually an Irish company...
>
> Nope.
>
>> I'm in the same timezone as SouthAfrica, and it is common for the UK to
>> be associated with Northern European countries (who typically speak
>> English better than we do...). It might be an idea to list me as the
>> contact for Rep of Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark
>> until we find a better spokesperson for each. So list me as "UK &
>> Northern Europe".
>
> I'm a bit reluctant to have people covering "beats" that don't include their
> actual countries/areas. After all, have you ever actually *been* to Norway?
> Would you be able to travel there to meet someone? We're a volunteer
> organization, not a commercial company with a sales budget. More than that,
> I find that a lot of countries resent having foriegners "speak for" their
> country and there could be a negative reaction.
>
>> ...or maybe don't group them together, just have an additional section
>> at bottom, saying "if your country does not have a dedicated press
>> contact volunteer, please contact one of these regional contacts:
>> Northern Europe Simon Riggs
>> Nordic & Baltic Jussi Mikkola
>> Central & Eastern Europe Ewald Geschwinde
>> Southern Europe & Middle-East Devrim Gunduz
>
> This makes a lot more sense to me. However, I'd tend to think that people
> could figure it out on their own. What to others think? We'd also need:
>
> Mexico & Central America Alvaro
> Pacific Islands Gavin
> East Asia Shridhar or JPUG
>
>
Regards,
Oleg
_____________________________________________________________
Oleg Bartunov, sci.researcher, hostmaster of AstroNet,
Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University (Russia)
Internet: oleg@sai.msu.su, http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/
phone: +007(095)939-16-83, +007(095)939-23-83
Hi Josh, My contact is right, but the brazilian PostgreSQL site is missing: http://www.postgresql.org.br Regards, On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 17:37:11 -0800, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote: > Folks, > > I have uploaded a draft regional contacts list to pgFoundry: > http://pgfoundry.org/docman/index.php?group_id=1000047 > > Please check this information! > > First off, I need everyone who is listed on there to confirm that you still > want to be the regional contact (if you haven't already) and that the > information is correct. We have some new volunteers in some regions; > perhaps people want to discuss whether they want to shuffle responsibility? > > Second, we don't have phone numbers for some people. Reporters tend to be > fond of phoning, in most countries; if there is a phone number you can safely > use, please? Also, are the URLs for nationalized web sites correct? Are > there any I'm missing? > > Given that there are Czech and Chinese web sites, does anyone know a Czech or > Chinese community member who could be a contact? > > Please comment on formatting of names and phone numbers. Since I mined this > from e-mail, I'm afraid I've stripped out accents and latin characters; > please send me the correctly accented version of your name, if necessary. > Please also send me translations for the following words: > E-mail: > Phone: > Cell Phone: (assuming you list one) > > Please e-mail your fixes to me, off list. I'm keeping all of the contacts in > a database, so I don't want revisions to the document on pgFoundry. > > -- > --Josh > > Josh Berkus > Aglio Database Solutions > San Francisco > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? > > http://archives.postgresql.org > -- Diogo Biazus diogob@gmail.com http://www.postgresql.org.br
On Thursday 18 November 2004 15:47, Josh Berkus wrote:
> > ...or maybe don't group them together, just have an additional section
> > at bottom, saying "if your country does not have a dedicated press
> > contact volunteer, please contact one of these regional contacts:
> > Northern Europe Simon Riggs
> > Nordic & Baltic Jussi Mikkola
> > Central & Eastern Europe Ewald Geschwinde
> > Southern Europe & Middle-East Devrim Gunduz
>
> This makes a lot more sense to me. However, I'd tend to think that people
> could figure it out on their own. What to others think? We'd also need:
>
I tend to think that if we give them a list of the contacts and the specific
countries they cover, then just tell them to contact the person most
appropriate or the main project as they see fit.
--
Robert Treat
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL
Oleg, > What I don't understand from our pr-company is that what we expect from > our contact persons. I understand what I do when I promote postgresql in > private IT gathering or answer endless emails, but I don't understand > what could do contact person - alone in huge Russia without any > PR-kit. btw, do we have something like booklet, pens, etc. 1) Gather press contact list; 2) e-mail the press release out to the list; 3) answer any questions from the press or public. That's about it. -- --Josh Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
On Thu, 2004-11-18 at 20:47, Josh Berkus wrote: > Could you list me as the press contact for UK & Republic of Ireland? > > Thinks some more...what other countries are missing... > > Are you certain that Ireland *wants* to be lumped in with the UK? Of course it does not. Thats a contentious way of phrasing a potentially sensitive issue, and I am not happy about that phrasing. Nobody said anything about lumping anybody together with anyone, and I was at pains to use the official name of ROI, to ensure respect to that country. I presume you meant no offence, so will say no more. I had previously publicly stated that I'd cover ROI also, if no volunteers came forward. None had come forward, so I confirmed my earlier volunteering. > I'm in the same timezone as SouthAfrica, and it is common for the UK to > > be associated with Northern European countries (who typically speak > > English better than we do...). It might be an idea to list me as the > > contact for Rep of Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark > > until we find a better spokesperson for each. So list me as "UK & > > Northern Europe". > > I'm a bit reluctant to have people covering "beats" that don't include their > actual countries/areas. After all, have you ever actually *been* to Norway? > Would you be able to travel there to meet someone? We're a volunteer > organization, not a commercial company with a sales budget. More than that, > I find that a lot of countries resent having foriegners "speak for" their > country and there could be a negative reaction. If anybody wishes to veto my suggestion, I have no problem. I also said "until we find a better spokesperson". Less is better for me, but not for PostgreSQL: You've edited out my reason for bringing this up: there's 100 million people in European countries who don't have a spokesperson listed. I've only suggested taking on some of the smaller ones off that list. I wouldn't ever presume to speak about any country other than my own, but I can speak about PostgreSQL in my almost fluent English, which is the first or second language in all of those I mention. The alternative is to appear not to care about those countries. This arrangement is fairly typical in the European software business. Central Europe typically speaks German as its second language, except for Hungary, hence why I didn't offer to back up those countries, yet suggested who might. > I'm a bit reluctant to have people covering "beats" that don't include their > actual countries/areas. After all, have you ever actually *been* to Norway? Yes, I've worked in *all* of the countries I suggested covering, at one time or another, as well as others. That's fairly common in Europe/Africa, for the reasons I explained. > Would you be able to travel there to meet someone? No, but I wasn't intending to travel anywhere in the UK either... is that likely? (Not least because as you say, this is volunteers only with no pay). > More than that, > I find that a lot of countries resent having foriegners "speak for" their > country and there could be a negative reaction. Completely agree. Do you not see that as the whole reason for my e-mail? > > ...or maybe don't group them together, just have an additional section > > at bottom, saying "if your country does not have a dedicated press > > contact volunteer, please contact one of these regional contacts: > > Northern Europe Simon Riggs > > Nordic & Baltic Jussi Mikkola > > Central & Eastern Europe Ewald Geschwinde > > Southern Europe & Middle-East Devrim Gunduz > > This makes a lot more sense to me. However, I'd tend to think that people > could figure it out on their own. What to others think? We'd also need: > > Mexico & Central America Alvaro > Pacific Islands Gavin > East Asia Shridhar or JPUG Yes, definitely. My focus was on the "EMEA region" and Europe in particular. -- Best Regards, Simon Riggs
Simon, > Of course it does not. Thats a contentious way of phrasing a potentially > sensitive issue, and I am not happy about that phrasing. Nobody said > anything about lumping anybody together with anyone, and I was at pains > to use the official name of ROI, to ensure respect to that country. I > presume you meant no offence, so will say no more. Sorry! Taking pains to be sensitive about an issue, instead I was offensive. > If anybody wishes to veto my suggestion, I have no problem. I also said > "until we find a better spokesperson". Less is better for me, but not > for PostgreSQL: You've edited out my reason for bringing this up: > there's 100 million people in European countries who don't have a > spokesperson listed. I've only suggested taking on some of the smaller > ones off that list. Well, I was hoping to get other people's opinions on this. I'm of two minds myself; I'd like to hear some other people weigh in. If I didn't think it was worth discussing, I wouldn't have posted a lengthy reply. > I wouldn't ever presume to speak about any country other than my own, > but I can speak about PostgreSQL in my almost fluent English, which is > the first or second language in all of those I mention. The alternative > is to appear not to care about those countries. Could be, what do people think? > > Mexico & Central America Alvaro > > Pacific Islands Gavin > > East Asia Shridhar or JPUG > > Yes, definitely. My focus was on the "EMEA region" and Europe in > particular. I'm also wondering about Asia. Unlike Europe, SE Asia (at least) does not tend to share common "second lanugages" so I'm wondering if recommending a contact in Japan or India is any better than recommending no contact at all. --Josh -- --Josh Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh Berkus wrote: > I'm also wondering about Asia. Unlike Europe, SE Asia (at least) > does not tend to share common "second lanugages" so I'm wondering if > recommending a contact in Japan or India is any better than > recommending no contact at all. Europe does not really share common second languages either, and I'm somewhat amused about the language assignments some people are trying to make in this thread. Nevertheless, I think the easiest policy is, if someone wants to cover a particular area, let them cover it, period. Geopolitical judgements are best done by the affected individuals. -- Peter Eisentraut http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/
Josh Berkus wrote: > I'm also wondering about Asia. Unlike Europe, SE Asia (at least) does not > tend to share common "second lanugages" so I'm wondering if recommending a > contact in Japan or India is any better than recommending no contact at all. English is no problem in India. Anybody who can send mail knows english enough. Funnily, if it wasn't the english, we would have real trouble getting across without additional language education. AFAIK, there wouldn't be more than 0.5% people who write non-english emails. So it is OK. So far as spoken communication, English+Hindi is usually good enough. Shridhar
Josh Berkus m'expliquait (le 18.11.2004 21:47):
>Hmmmm ... yeah. Mind you, if we had a French-speaking Canadian contact, they
>would be separate.
>
>
Maybe I can activate a contact asking him if he agrees... As you wish
--
Jean-Christophe
On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 07:01, Peter Eisentraut wrote: > Josh Berkus wrote: > > I'm also wondering about Asia. Unlike Europe, SE Asia (at least) > > does not tend to share common "second lanugages" so I'm wondering if > > recommending a contact in Japan or India is any better than > > recommending no contact at all. > > Europe does not really share common second languages either, and I'm > somewhat amused about the language assignments some people are trying > to make in this thread. Nevertheless, I think the easiest policy is, > if someone wants to cover a particular area, let them cover it, period. > Geopolitical judgements are best done by the affected individuals. I disagree... Most European countries currently have a very clearly defined second language - not always the ones that people might expect either; Hungary and the UK were somewhat exceptional for differing reasons. This isn't true of individuals, but is currently true of entire countries - of course, journalists either do or do not speak particular languages. My information about languages was taken from published analyses I had read in the past about preferred business languages in Europe, not on any prejudice or opinion. I'm glad that amuses you, it wasn't the most amusing thing I'd read...but useful to know. My main point was about how we cover the countries that don't have specific cover. Discussing a plan to address that issue is bound to make me sound like a racist bigot, especially from an essentially unilingual person as myself. I see that, but say that racism forms no part of my viewpoint. BUT: 100 million Europeans are not covered - yet we do actually in many cases support translations for those countries. I've not heard an alternative suggestion mentioned as to how we might reach out to those countries. If there is one, then I will quickly defer to it. -- Best Regards, Simon Riggs
On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 12:47:01PM -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:
> > You're also missing NZ and English-speaking Canada. Perhaps it might be
> > politic to list the US and Australian contacts as covering those
> > countries also?
>
> Hmmmm ... yeah. Mind you, if we had a French-speaking Canadian contact, they
> would be separate.
If we don't have anyone from Canada, and are going to stand on the
"European French" listing, then I can take Canada. I'd _really_
prefer to point Canadian fraoncophones at the European francophones,
though, because while I can happily talk jouale for hours, my
technical French is flat-out bad. And the English Canadian press is
used to talking to Americans about technology.
>
> > I thought Afilias was actually an Irish company...
>
> Nope.
Actually, yep. Afilias most certainly is an Irish company. It's
just that most of our technical folks work from our Toronto office.
>
> > I'm in the same timezone as SouthAfrica, and it is common for the UK to
A
--
Andrew Sullivan | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
This work was visionary and imaginative, and goes to show that visionary
and imaginative work need not end up well.
--Dennis Ritchie
> If we don't have anyone from Canada, and are going to stand on the > "European French" listing, then I can take Canada. I'd _really_ > prefer to point Canadian fraoncophones at the European francophones, > though, because while I can happily talk jouale for hours, my > technical French is flat-out bad. And the English Canadian press is > used to talking to Americans about technology. Isn't Marc in Cananda? What about Jan? J > > >>>I thought Afilias was actually an Irish company... >> >>Nope. > > > Actually, yep. Afilias most certainly is an Irish company. It's > just that most of our technical folks work from our Toronto office. > > >>>I'm in the same timezone as SouthAfrica, and it is common for the UK to > > > A > -- Command Prompt, Inc., home of PostgreSQL Replication, and plPHP. Postgresql support, programming shared hosting and dedicated hosting. +1-503-667-4564 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com Mammoth PostgreSQL Replicator. Integrated Replication for PostgreSQL
Attachment
On Fri, Nov 19, 2004 at 10:23:53AM -0800, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> Isn't Marc in Cananda? What about Jan?
Marc is; Jan lives in PA, and works from the Afilias Horsham office.
A
--
Andrew Sullivan | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
The plural of anecdote is not data.
--Roger Brinner
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004, Joshua D. Drake wrote: >> If we don't have anyone from Canada, and are going to stand on the >> "European French" listing, then I can take Canada. I'd _really_ >> prefer to point Canadian fraoncophones at the European francophones, >> though, because while I can happily talk jouale for hours, my >> technical French is flat-out bad. And the English Canadian press is >> used to talking to Americans about technology. > > Isn't Marc in Cananda? What about Jan? I'm in pretty much, embarressing as it is to admin, pretty much in teh same boat as Andrew :( I can speak my fathers language, and get by, but when it comes to 'computer-ese', I'm dead in the water :( The hardest was a Comdex we did where we had some gentleman from France come to the booth and as bad as my French was/is, we were able to communicate, but they were *very* patient with me :) ---- Marc G. Fournier Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org) Email: scrappy@hub.org Yahoo!: yscrappy ICQ: 7615664
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:55:55 +0000, Simon Riggs <simon@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:
> I disagree... Most European countries currently have a very clearly
> defined second language - not always the ones that people might expect
> either; Hungary and the UK were somewhat exceptional for differing
> reasons. This isn't true of individuals, but is currently true of entire
> countries - of course, journalists either do or do not speak particular
Uhh? That's a news for me. I know there is for instance Switzerland
which IIRC has four official languages, but then again I do not think
'most European' have it. I certainly cannot name one for Poland
for instance -- sure, most people doing something with PostgreSQL
will speak English (the lingua franca of computing ;)), but then again
most peolpe would feel aghast if they saw Polish PostgreSQL
information in English. I _think_ this statement is also more or
less true for most of Central Europe. :)
Regards,
Dawid
Dear Josh , > PR-kit. btw, do we have something like booklet, pens, etc. Do we have any PR kit though we dont need those booklets etc but must have manuals do's and donts while dealing. Any pointers -- With Best Regards, Vishal Kashyap. Did you know SaiPACS is one and only PACS Management tool. http://saihertz.com, http://vishalkashyap.tk
Vishal, > Do we have any PR kit though we dont need those booklets etc but must > have manuals do's and donts while dealing. Any pointers Yes, I will be submitting a FAQ for Regional Contacts for discussion to this list. Not done yet. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco