From owner-freebsd-advocacy Thu Mar 4 7:48:28 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from srv1.thuntek.net (srv1.thuntek.net [206.206.98.18]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4B3531504C for ; Thu, 4 Mar 1999 07:48:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dwilde1@thuntek.net) Received: from thuntek.net (abq-100.thuntek.net [207.66.52.100]) by srv1.thuntek.net (8.9.1/8.6.12TNT1.0) with ESMTP id IAA15324; Thu, 4 Mar 1999 08:47:41 -0700 (MST) Message-ID: <36DEAAB8.5BA21FCD@thuntek.net> Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1999 08:46:00 -0700 From: Donald Wilde X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.08 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 3.1-RELEASE i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: jarvis@guru.wow.aust.com Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: what's in a name? References: <36DE10DF.3F57D6A7@guru.wow.aust.com> <36DE10F9.76429C52@thuntek.net> <36DE1AD9.17789F39@guru.wow.aust.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Jarvis Cochrane wrote: > > Donald Wilde wrote: > > > Major news orgs and trade e-zines have mailto:s on their contact pages > > and bylines. > > I think we might have a minor misunderstanding here... > > While I'm interested in writing BSD advocacy articles and submitting them > to news orgs and ezines, I'm not really prepared to do that without input > and direction from... well... the core team, I suppose. > > I suppose I was thinking of a process more like: > > (a) Someone suggests a good topic for an article ("3.1 released and it's > fabulous"). > (b) I write it. > (c) It gets posted somewhere for comment > (d) I submit it to... whoever... reuters :-) > > (I guess I'm just very cautious about writing anything for 'FreeBSD' > rather than just for me. So, I'll happily stand up and write about my > personal experiences and opinions and stuff in a public forum, but I'd be > much more cautious about writing, in some sense, on behalf of a larger > group...) > > Jarvis I'm really glad to hear that. Caution is good. Too many have given us a bad name by engaging in flame wars and blatant misrepresentation in public forums. Fortunately, more LINUXen do that, so we still seem to have a better reputation. Jordan's advice to me has been to concentrate on articles for mainstream press outlets (not news outlets). We're getting more press in Dr. Dobbs and SysAdmin and places like that now. I've tried both InfoWorld and Popular Science, but neither picked up my submissions. Doesn't mean it wasn't worth trying, though, and the more we place ourselves squarely in front of their noses, the better reception we will get the next time, as long as we're polite and have our facts right. This mailing list is the place to post news items for critique. We will be glad to shoot holes in anything. ;-D As far as "writing on behalf of...", even the core team is only "writing on behalf of". You are as much FreeBSD as I am, as long as you ACT like you're a proud -- and accurate -- representative. I'm NOT anywhere close to being -core, but I keep learning and trying and making mistakes and trying some more. I get respect because I acknowledge my mistakes and try again. Another really positive thing you can do, which I'm working on pretty intensely, is making demos for local school groups. You can get writeups in local papers and LOTS of warm fuzzies from this, and you actually reach as many people as you would if you got a national blurb. Find -- or create -- a local Users' Group and make yourself a good example by putting your shoulder to the wheel. Ours was started by LINUXen, but it's now at least 50% FreeBSD and the LINUXen ask _us_ for advice and guidance. Most Users' Groups are hungry for leadership and goals. As long as you don't put down THEIR choices, eventually their choices will starty to look a lot like yours, and you've got them. :-D -- oooOOO O O O o * * * * * * o ___ _________ _________ _________ ___==__ V_=_=_DW ===--- Don Wilde dwilde1@thuntek.net [ = = ] /oo0000oo-oo--oo-ooo---ooo-ooo---ooo-ooo---ooo-oo---oo To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message