[Epo-marketing] Proposal: 52 Weeks of Perl

[J. Shirley]

On Dec 4, 2008, at 6:12 PM, Christopher Nehren wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 03, 2008 at 11:03:59 -0800 , J. Shirley wrote:
>> I have an initial proposal that should have immediate feedback.
>> Please respond with any comments, questions or ideas.
>>
>> I propose that we (the EPO) initiate weekly contact with an
>> Industry-respected publication (either in print or digital format) to
>> establish a series of articles favorable to the packages and
>> methodologies backed by the EPO.
>
> Sounds excellent. So long as we have sufficient tuits to get things
> written (I'll volunteer when I have said tuits), that'll be a great  
> help
> in getting the word out about Perl. Perhaps writing a number of  
> articles
> in advance and then soliciting publications for inclusion would be
> better? That way the bulk of the work won't miss the deadlines.
>

Agreed, which is why I'm soliciting now for the start date of Jan  
1st.  I figure we can get some basic articles drafted based on the  
selection.  They won't be finalized, but I also hope we can utilize  
the editors at said publications in getting the message "right".  I  
don't want it to look like a rough copy'n'paste job that gets laughed  
at.

>> The articles or interviews should be based specifically towards the
>> audience of the publication, as evidenced by my initial suggestions
>> below.  I propose contact be made no later than Tuesday, with one
>> contact to each publication per week.  This should give significant
>> time to carefully responding and being attentive to each publication,
>> without crowding our own schedules to the point where something falls
>> through the cracks.
>
> Sounds reasonable enough. Not every publication will respond right  
> away,
> of course, so that should spare up some time. Some stick poking may be
> needed then. :)
>

My hope and expectation is the 1st contact to a magazine will result  
in something happening in the 4-6 week range.  Our first article,  
therefor, wouldn't be published until February.   This gives us time  
to work up a relationship with someone at the publication, too.

I'm also not thinking we'll get a perfect success rate.  I'm striving  
for 50% though.

>> Initial list of publications to contact (all in print, digital
>> suggestions welcome), along with a proposed angle:
>>
>> CIO Insight - Saving time and money with OSS and CPAN
>> Public CIO - Saving time and money with OSS and CPAN
>> Website Magazine - Rapid application development using leading Perl  
>> practices
>> Baseline - Leadership, "What can OSS do for your business in
>> atremulous economy" (hiring, passionate devs, etc)
>
>> T.H.E. journal - Perl in Academia (Perl as a student programming
>> language, Summer of Code?)
>
> This one is tricky ... but also important. From my (limited)  
> experience
> in the US, lots of schools have very cushy deals with MS and Sun.
>

Sun now owns MySQL, which has great support in DBIC and I think that  
could (in theory) be an angle to use...

>> CSO - Writing secure perl applications (not sure if the EPO wants  
>> this)
>> eWEEK - Perl beyond the duct tape
>> InformationWeek - Upcoming Perl (5.10 and beyond)
>> KMWorld - Upcoming Perl (5.10 and beyond)
>> Redmond - Perl on Win32 (perhaps get an ActiveState/Strawberry person
>> in? Is this for the EPO?)
>
> Windows is just as viable a domain for EPO as any other platform, IMO.
> While the Perl community certainly has its preferences, we're not
> strictly targetting the Perl community. Outsiders matter just as  
> much as
> those already using Perl. More so, in fact, because outsiders  
> represent
> ideas, viewpoints, experience, and knowledge that we don't have
> presently. As I wrote in the article posted here, Perl is a great
> technical melting pot. We need to work on the cultural aspects,  
> though.
> Being welcoming of Windows users (though with a strong preference for
> Strawberry, of course) is critical for this.
>

While I mostly agree, nobody in the EPO core has any significant  
experience in the win32 arena.  Not that I'm opposed to bringing  
someone on board, because I'd love to have the experience around to  
send people who ask questions about Perl on win32 to.

And now for a digression...

I suppose subconsciously that has been part of my goal in EPO anyway,  
the members being domain knowledge experts in specific fields and then  
partially being more open to the community.

One of my favorite interview questions has been, "Name some prominent  
CPAN authors?" -- it's especially useful if someone says they know  
Catalyst or DBIC and they haven't heard of mst.  Part of this is me  
coming into the Perl community without knowing these people, and  
getting involved.  My knowledge of Perl, both as a language and as a  
tool, grew very quickly once I was "involved".

Having a road map to prominent names and having them be more  
accessible to the masses may do a great service to the Perl image to  
the outsiders.  The echo chamber is filled with prominent names, but I  
can go to any non-Perl event and say "Schwern" or "mst" and most  
people won't have a clue what I'm talking about.  I'd like that to  
change, and I think EPO can help.

(For those preferring enperl, s/EPO/enperl/ or s/EPO/E.P.O./ as you  
see fit ;))


>  --
> Thanks and best regards,
> Christopher Nehren
> _______________________________________________
> Epo-marketing mailing list
> Epo-marketing at lists.scsys.co.uk
> http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/epo-marketing