[Epo-members-announce] Beermats for Promotion at events

[Mark Keating]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the informed responses. They were useful, I have tried to 
answer them as best as I can and give my reasons.

"Mark Fowler wrote:

Several of these URLs are too long to type in, in particular the ones
for kobesearch and search.cpan.org.  Basically any url that has more
than ten characters in the path is pretty untypeable.

Can we afford to register some vanity domains (or at least set up
subdomains of enlightenedperl.org) that 302 to the actual resource?"


I totally agree. I think all projects should have a website/domain that 
identifies them aside from the resources of Git/CPAN as a focal point 
for people to zoom in on and promote. We don't have the time to persuade 
the project authors to get a vanity name/website up before this first 
group of promo items so I have arranged for the two longest url to be 
gioven subdomains on enlightenedperl.org as you suggested (it isn't the 
best solution - we must aim to that).

 "How about some simple text on the front:


I like the idea of using text, but I want to mix it with the images, I 
think simple text on the back with simple text on the front will not 
make them striking enough. I am afraid that like the fantastic displays 
of a Peacock you also have to be gaudy to be noticed (and Stevan's Moose 
logo/design is at least that). So I have decided to combine. We get the 
attraction and the message. I have made the message bold enough to be 
seen. I know that subtlety and simplicity are also the hallmarks of a 
great approach btw, but in the first instance I want it to be seen.

 Suggestions for text:

 The web framework with 17,356 reasons to use it

 Catalyst: The elegant MVC framework.  Powered by the CPAN providing

 over 17 thousand open source extensions to Perl.

 Still writing SQL?

 DBIx::Class.  Build an object model from your database automatically

 in seconds and use the full power of Perl to control your database

 Not Your Father's Perl

 Moose: The postmodern object system for Perl 5. Experience the joy of

 Perl's new slick object handling."


Used this text as it is well thought out - btw, this sort of message 
works better on a t-shirt as opposed to a beermat - talk to me about 
using spreadshirt/cafepress to make some t-shirt designs up using these.

"It might be late, but let me also add my 2c to the discussion.

I'd include a link to www.perl.org  and probably ask for subdomains on perl.org

and setup redirection just as http://moose.perl.org has."


I have added a link to perl.org, but I have to state that it is upto the 
authors of the projects to get subdomains on perl.org itself. We support 
their projects but don't control them I am afraid. So making those 
decisions is out of our scope IMHO - that is why I have used the 
subdomains to enlightenedperl.org - the mats are sponsored by EPO and 
there is no formality/attempt to control if we redirect for promotion 
purposes from that name. Though we should make a push to get them to use 
(name).perl.org if they don't get a "vanity" name as that is a cool idea.

"For DBIx::Class I'd probably talk to the http://dbi.perl.org/ folks to

make it more prominent on that web site and include the http://dbi.perl.org/ on the beer mat.

Especially as I think we are trying to promote general solutions to people who

are probably not Perl developers."


This is true, but again out of the scope of the EPO. The organisation 
promotes the use of what we consider Corporate Perl, hence the projects 
page. We should stick to promoting the projects on there and the general 
use of Perl. There are far too many projects under the DBI namespace 
that do not fall into "modern", "enlightened" or "corporate" Perl.

"Also http://kensho.perl.org

BTW I think the Catalyst picture is way better than the other two. So

if someone

could improve those two..."


The Moose picture is out of my control I am afraid, I used the design 
from the Moose website and the image that the author(s) of that project 
wish to convey. You should take up your issues with them :) (God knows I 
have - looks like someone was sick all over a Jackson Pollock). The 
Catalyst image is an old design that we came up with some years ago. As 
for DBIx::Class they like the simplicity (for now) and the author of 
that project had no objections.

"Oh and the last note, maybe you could also create a batch for Padre? you know, the Perl IDE?"


You really need to try and get Padre onto the EPO projects list. I 
mentioned this in Lisbon. I do not take the decisions as to what 
projects are added. Make a short case for Padre and post it to the list 
and we can all vote on it (the democracy of the membership). If it is 
accepted then hooray we start to promote it along with the other 
projects and maybe start the way of getting it into the Enlightened Core.

I know there is a push to promote all aspects of Perl, and I am 
thoroughly behind this. I speak about it and blog about it, but the 
decisions made for the beermats are connected to the fact that the 
organisation is paying for them and so they should reflect the 
ideas/values of the organisation.

If people want a general promote -All- Perl activities push then we 
should discuss this.

Thanks once again for the informed and thoughtful feedback guys. We 
should discuss more getting t-shirts available on spreadshirt.net - I 
like the idea of getting simple messages up. We will promote the 
projects more if we walk around blaring out the message as well I think.

Regards

Mark

-- 
Mark Keating BA (Hons)          |  Writer, Photographer, Cat-Herder
Managing Director               |  Shadowcat Systems Limited
Director/Secretary              |  Enlightened Perl Organisation
co-Leader                       |  North West England Perl Mongers
http://www.shadowcat.co.uk      |  http://www.enlightenedperl.org
http://northwestengland.pm.org  |  http://linkedin.com/in/markkeating