Making an Open Source Project Press-Friendly

blackbearnh writes "Corporations know that part of launching a successful project is projecting the right image to the media. But a lot of open source projects seem to treat the press as an annoyance, if they think about it at all. For a reporter, even finding someone on a project who's willing to talk about it can be a challenge. Esther Schindler over at IT World has a summary of a roundtable discussion that was held at OSCON with pointers about how open source projects can be more reporter-accessible. 'Recognize that we are on deadline, which for most news journalists means posting the article within a couple of hours and for feature authors within a couple of days. If we ask for input, or a quote, or anything to which your project spokesperson (you do have one? yes? please say yes) might want to respond, it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now." If the journalist doesn't give you a deadline ("I need to know by 2pm"), it's okay to ask how long you can take to reach the right developer in Poland, but err on the side of "emergency response." It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our deadlines.'"

Comments

Gentoo??

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Gentoo; how does this affect me?

Re:Gentoo??

[drseuk]

Can I get back to you in a few days when I've finished building?

Re:Gentoo??

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you may have been shipped a copy of Snow Leopard by mistake...

Re:Gentoo??

[roguetrick]

Front page news if you get a girlfriend.

Re:Gentoo??

[Chris Mattern]

No, no, that's backwards. You get a girlfriend if it's front page news. That's why you should return the reporter's calls.

Re:Gentoo??

[uninformedLuddite]

You need to recompile the kernel

Re:Gentoo??

[Shamenaught]

It's like having root access to reality and running

emerge popularity
emerge girlfriend
emerge --update --deep secks

For one thing

[Anonymous Coward]

don't do it on Linux. Open source windows 7 will work.

Reporters Need A Story

[curmudgeon99]

The reason most open-source projects get no press is they have neither a story to tell nor a storyteller to tell it. Linux is a good example. There was a story to tell--the story of Linus Torvalds. Windows--always meant telling a story of Bill Gates. Likewise, the Mac story always equates to a Steve Jobs story. Then you have the case of a Gaving King, who never misses a chance to be rude on the forums, who is always irascible--he does his cause no good. If you want good press, you need a story and a messenger.

Re:Reporters Need A Story

[seifried]

I completely disagree. Linux is the archetype David vs. Goliath (aka "challenge") story. What makes it even better is Microsoft itself was once a David playing with Goliath (IBM). Empire creation and decline make for fascinating tales.

On a more recent note there are tons of stories about Linux (hint: there's about a half dozen English language Linux magazines publishing monthly). You have to remember, reporters usually look for stories, stories looking for reporters often mean someone has an axe to grind, which can make for good press sometimes but not always (whistle blower stories being one huge exception, must of us looooove muck raking and outing naughty people). I never have a shortage of stuff to write (my emergency list for Linux related story ideas in case I get writers block or something is about 20 entries, and that took about half an hour to jot down).

I think the real reason the mainstream press doesn't cover Open Source much is they flat out aren't that familiar with it. You tell a reporter that Apple runs on Open Source, or that their favorite website is largely Open Source powered and they'll probably grunt. Remember: these people generally took journalism in college/university, not a tech related degree.

Re:Reporters Need A Story

[yuna49]

I'd guess another reason is that there is no "there" there when it comes to open source. Business writers cover companies and industries in large part because investors are concerned about events that might affect their portfolios. Hardly anyone has a financial interest in the GIMP, but many investors and financial analysts care about Adobe's performance.

Take, for instance, a typical story about a new software release. You'll see a rewrite of the press release, with perhaps some comments from competitors. What you probably won't see is a comment from a developer of an open-sourced competitor because they "don't count." It's just the journalistic equivalent of the "if it's free, it can't be good" refrain that many of us have heard from business people when trying to convince them to adopt open technologies.

If business writers made a systematic attempt to include representatives of open source products whenever they write about commercial competitors, it would go a long way toward legitimizing open technologies.

module

[gmermnstinsmermwords]

Could we get some code to output answers about this project project automatically, in dumb reporter idiom.

Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[dark_requiem]

Simply put, FOSS developers usually fall into one of two categories: hackers coding in their spare time and those who work on FOSS projects as part of their job. Those in the former category likely have day jobs, and are already short on time. They do this as a hobby, and if their spare time is spent coding, they don't necessarily have spare time to devote to commenting for reporters. The latter category is contributing code as part of their job. They likely don't have the authority to comment on the record regarding their work, or they have to get permission from the marketing trolls to do so. Either way, if you're getting a response, it's not likely to be quick.

The lesson here is plan ahead. As soon as you know you're going to be working on a story, start asking for comments. If you wait until the last second, you're likely to not get a reply. Yes, reporters can get short deadlines, but you can't expect volunteers contributing their spare time to jump at your say-so, and you have to allow time to get the corporate wheels rolling in the latter case.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[2muchcoffeeman]

The lesson here is plan ahead. As soon as you know you're going to be working on a story, start asking for comments. If you wait until the last second, you're likely to not get a reply. Yes, reporters can get short deadlines, but you can't expect volunteers contributing their spare time to jump at your say-so, and you have to allow time to get the corporate wheels rolling in the latter case.

A lot of reporters aren't given the luxury of oodles of extra time by their assigning editors and those editors expect results, not requests for more time because "they have to get the corporate wheels rolling over there." The reporter might have hours from the time it's assigned to the deadline for turning it in ... and to some people outside of and ignorant of the writing/editing/publishing process, that short amount of time can be misinterpreted as "waiting until the last second." It's not. It's the nature of the beast.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[turbidostato]

"A lot of reporters aren't given the luxury of oodles of extra time by their assigning editors and those editors expect results, not requests for more time because "they have to get the corporate wheels rolling over there." "

Then it is the reporter the one with a problem, not the happy hacker or the professional developer paid to do different things than attend the press. When somebody has a problem is both good education and proper path to resolve it to take himself the path to its solution, not trying to pass the problem to other that neither ask for them nor will feel the result one way or the other.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[2muchcoffeeman]

In that case, I have no option but to finish the assigned article as best I can within the deadline given by my editor. That may mean that somebody's getting left out of the article. That is also the nature of the beast.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Timothy Brownawell]

The lesson here is plan ahead.

Yes. Put up a page with lots of clear descriptions of what you are, where you're going, what you're currently doing, who's involved, etc. Try to minimize the amount of personal interaction needed to quickly get a vague understanding of the project. Have a clear place to go to see your collective reactions to recent events, and keep it updated in absurd (but clear and easily searchable/accessible) detail.

Or if that's too hard, just find a way to edit the "news" industry to be more about in-depth content and less about "First Post!" so that by the time you do attract media attention the reporters will have longer deadlines and be able to be more respectful of your time.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[maharb]

If you want information fast then ask the people that stand to benefit from the article, you will be much more likely to get a quick response. If you think you can contact a random developer or coder and get a response fast you are batshit crazy. Developers have enough to do and the last thing they are worried about is making sure some reporter is going to meet a insanely short deadline when they don't get any direct benefit. The reality is that reporters should not expect anyone to bend over for them. Warn the parties you want information from in advance or suffer the consequences. If you aren't given warning then that is still your problem, don't try and push it on someone else other than those who gave the short deadline. The article is a reflection of the reporter and thus it is no one else is responsible to ensure its quality.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[turbidostato]

"In that case, I have no option but to finish the assigned article as best I can within the deadline given by my editor."

Your choice, of course.

"That may mean that somebody's getting left out of the article. That is also the nature of the beast."

That may mean the due to both your ignorance and your hurryness your article will be an utter nonsense. On one hand, I may prefer not being relationed with such abhorrence; in the other me and a lot of others may take some fun laughing at a slower pace at your ignorance and inconsistences as you yourself can guest in places like, right here, Slashdot, when put on your place. That is also the nature of the beast.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[mr_walrus]

the beast needs to be "put down"
it is obviously in deep pain

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[2muchcoffeeman]

There'll be a graf that says "Representatives of (ORGANIZATION NAME) did not return a request for comment" or a phrase to that effect. The effort to make contact was made; for reasons out of my control, it was not successful. My editor gave me a set amount of time; the sand in the hourglass ran out. There's nothing I can do about that. And there's a lot less of that time in the 24/7 online news cycle than there was in the printed media news cycle when the presses rolled at midnight.

If you want me to have fuller information, please answer my phone call or e-mail. Or, as suggested elsewhere, if you don't have time then designate somebody as your press representative and tell him/her to return my phone call when it comes ... and also tell him/her to register with Peter Shankman's Help A Reporter Out initiative. Or, as suggested in Ms. Schindler's IT World article, create a /press page or section on your Web site like the big companies do. There you should have information about what your project is about, why you think it matters, its current status, who to contact for more information, screen shots (please remember that print media require high-resolution versions of screen shots or other images for the printing press), press releases and other mentions in the media. (That's not the same as an FAQ and I won't quote an FAQ. I want to hear from the people behind the project what they're doing and why they're doing it. People make news stories interesting. There's a human angle to everything.)

Use plain language, not jargon. If you translate that page into a foreign language, have someone fluent in the language (preferably it's his/her native language) double-check your work. If it's a bad translation, it reflects badly on you. I've lost count of how many foreign businesses have an English press kit that reads as though a fourth-grader wrote it up and I have no doubt that many businesses from English-speaking countries have non-English press material that is equally poorly translated.

Ms. Schindler's Care and Feeding of the Press is excellent. Everyone trying to get press coverage should read it -- hell, I've dealt with public/media relations professionals who could learn a lot about doing their jobs from reading that -- and a lot of people who don't currently think they need press coverage might want to take a look at that, too. In many cases, the information that reporters are looking for is precisely the same information developers and end users are looking for.

Ms. Schindler makes a solid point on the second page: "(Y)ou've gone deep with your project, and I haven't. I may not be familiar with the problem that it aims to solve. So tell me about it."

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[tech10171968]

I have another theory why devs sometimes don't "drop everything" for an interview; if developers are anything like electronic engineering technicians (my specialty) then, when they're in the middle of an issue, they are on this creative and/or logical train of thought. I can tell you from personal experience that the last thing a tech wants is to have that train of thought disturbed; I tend to become rather curt if I'm disturbed in the middle of, say, dealing with some inverse Fourier transform or (especially!!!) troubleshooting a critical system. It's almost like bugging a brain surgeon in the middle of an operation; sometimes you'll stand a good chance of throwing him off track, even if only temporarily. It's not that I'm naturally rude (I usually end up feeling like a real jackass for being rude and wind up apologizing anyway); it's just that the interruption can be annoying if you're in the middle of an intensive task. Don't get me wrong, I'm not justifying the lack of communication. I'm simply stating what I believe (in my experience) to be part of the reason for that lack of communication.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Anonymous Coward]

And there's a lot less of that time in the 24/7 online news cycle than there was in the printed media news cycle when the presses rolled at midnight.

When the presses roll at midnight, the story is written and you can't change it before everyone reads it. If the developer responds two hours after you post the story online, update the story.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[2muchcoffeeman]

And in the meantime, it's still sitting out there for two hours without your input. And I will probably be working on something else with an equally-tight deadline at that point, too.

Of course, if it's past the end of my workday and my co-workers can't reach me, I may not be able to get back to you until tomorrow morning.

Believe me, I'll move heaven and earth to get in touch with you before the story's due but if I'm doing that, please appreciate what I'm trying to do and what constraints I may be under.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[grcumb]

"A lot of reporters aren't given the luxury of oodles of extra time by their assigning editors and those editors expect results, not requests for more time because "they have to get the corporate wheels rolling over there." "

Then it is the reporter the one with a problem, not the happy hacker or the professional developer paid to do different things than attend the press.

I couldn't agree more. Half the skill of actual reporting is knowing who you can talk to in order to get a quick reply, and in some cases, knowing how to get any reply at all. That means maintaining a long list of contacts, being a total gossip-monger (having something to interesting to tell others is a great way to get them to open up) and always always always having enough information before you ask for comment to write about the topic anyway.

That last one is incredibly important. I produce about 2000 words a week for publication, and even with people I've dealt with dozens of times in the past, only a few of them are prepared to offer a relevant statement at the drop of a hat. If you can't ask the right question, you'll never get a useful answer. That usually means not asking questions that will take days or weeks to answer. (If you're really good, you'll have already had the necessary conversation with the right people, so you can just call them up and ask for a quote on the subject for attribution.)

And while I'm venting: I find spokesmen the most difficult to deal with. Their job is to protect their organisation's reputation, and that often makes them more defensive and less willing to be candid than their bosses might actually want. It's not really their fault, but they rarely have anything interesting - let alone newsworthy - to say, and they're often not qualified to talk at a level of detail that's useful. Nowhere is this more true than geek topics.

To make things worse, their role makes them almost completely incapable of speaking spontaneously. Every question results in a 'Let me check and get back to you on that.' That's the last thing anyone wants to hear when the deadline is looming.

Nope, I think the panel should have been about how reporters could integrate better into the geek community rather than a round of admonitions to play the game 'the right way'.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[gd2shoe]

And people wonder why the "traditional media" is failing?

Unless there is sudden news to report on, you must take enough time to gather good information (or at least due diligence). By "sudden" I mean: something unexpected has come up today, and absolutely must be in the news/paper tonight/tomorrow or it will be stale. Most open source related news won't qualify as sudden (from my layman's perspective). If you don't have enough time, then your boss is killing your company. (It's called "foresight". It's important, really.) It's only "the nature of the beast" if said beast has been lobotomized.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of reporters aren't given the luxury of oodles of extra time

I want a story researched for MONTHS before it gets written, unless it's about something that just happened, such as "Ted Kennedy died." If you or your editor are not willing to do that, I'd rather the story didn't get written than see a story in print that you took a day to get a bunch of quotes, try to understand it and put it context, then write something hurriedly.

So you're just going to write something hurriedly anyway? Well, that's why I don't give a shit if the newspaper business dies. No information > wildly inaccurate information.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Thinboy00]

Case in point: Articles on the SCO appeal are often ill-informed about the viability of SCO's claims, since they spend no time talking to open-source dev's and all time listening to SCO upper-management bitch.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, if it's past the end of my workday and my co-workers can't reach me, I may not be able to get back to you until tomorrow morning.

When you wrote this, did it sound somehow strangely familiar?

Another point about your previous reply: Often when a reporter writes "Representatives of (ORGANIZATION NAME) did not return a request for comment" it sounds like weaseling, trying to push the blame of a bad article to someone else. Not always but especially in daily papers that is fishy...

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Anonymous Coward]

When somebody has a problem is both good education and proper path to resolve it to take himself the path to its solution, not trying to pass the problem to other that neither ask for them nor will feel the result one way or the other.

You mentioned in an earlier post how professional developers have above-average communication skills, then you post a run-on, non-parsable sentence like this?!? I take it you aren't one of the myriad "professional developers" to which you referred.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Esther Schindler]

Exactly.

Which is why I (and apparently you) are frustrated when we know someone could have something useful to add to this article, but there's no time to wait for the answer.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Esther Schindler]

That's why I made the point about understanding whether a reporter is working on a news article (Quick! Oracle bought Sun, let's get MySQL developer responses to the news) or a feature story, or a how-to story, or whatever. It makes a difference in the time frame, and also in the answer you give me.

Believe me, we do want to gather good information. That's one of the reasons I wrote that post -- because it helps everybody to know how the system works. If you weren't aware that "time is of the essence" for me to do my job effectively, then, well, now you know. Maybe that can help us work together better.

The amount of research necessary for an article varies considerably. A news-response story (e.g. what do FOSS developers think of this acquisition?) is anecdotal, and its readiness is primarily an issue of "How many people can I get to tell me what they think, how soon?" (As I said, I rarely write news.)

A feature story is longer and takes longer; for me, these start with a question to which I want to know the answer ("What are the important open source projects with major releases expected Real Soon Now?" or "What do developers need to know to do a code review right?" or "What are the essential things that the CIO ought to understand about software development requirements, but doesn't?") In these cases, it's rarely a question of me reaching One Right Person (though if I need to ask Mark Shuttleworth his opinion, I know how to contact his PR guy). Rather, I ask in likely places for input from those who have the expertise to share. If you (or someone from your project) answers in time with information that helps answer my question, you'll be included. If you don't, you don't.

My time is limited. Whether I'm on staff or a freelancer, I have a finite amount of time in which to do an article. (I'm good at my job to the degree that I can deliver accurately, well-written, and on-time.) If you want your project to be mentioned, then you have to respond in the time I have to work with.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[turbidostato]

"If you want me to have fuller information, please answer my phone call or e-mail."

And I think that's the whole story. It was you wanting my information, not me wanting you to publish it, remember?

"Use plain language, not jargon."

What you think to be "jargon" *is* "plain language". "Jargon" is the plainest, most concise and precise way to say something. That's known from the days of Euclides: there's no royal paths even for kings, remember?

Again, you are the one with the problem: an article asked by your boss, and again you are trying to pass your burden to something else. You want others to stay by *your* deadlines and you want others to cover *your* ignorance in the issues you are about to comment. You even ask others to write *your* article for you (I won't go through the FAQs; I won't take the time to read the "about" page or wander a bit through your web site: I want a copy-and-paste "for press" resource").

"Everyone trying to get press coverage should read it"

I understand what you mean, and I take you as right... provided that sentence. But we were not talking here about someone wanting "to get press coverage" but about someone wanting to make an unasked for press release. If *I* want something, it's my burden to do what it takes to have it done (like having fast reponse and doing sensible efforts to make things easy for the press guys). But if *you* want something, then it's your problem, not mine.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[turbidostato]

"You mentioned in an earlier post how professional developers have above-average communication skills"

Yes.

"then you post a run-on, non-parsable sentence like this?!?"

What's the non-parseable part? My question is twofold:
1) Since I'm not native English, I can certainly had it wrong on syntax.
2) It might be the case that even if its construction is correct you find it too complex. If the same can be said more clearly and succintly, then it's my fault. But if the problem is just that your mind blows at a fifty words sentence, then the problem is yours. Writing to adults as if they were fourth graders is not good communication skills but just dumbing down the message.

"I take it you aren't one of the myriad "professional developers" to which you referred."

Anyway, you are true: I'm not a professional developer.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[centuren]

If you want me to have fuller information, please answer my phone call or e-mail.

E-mail is by far a better option, I think.

Or, as suggested elsewhere, if you don't have time then designate somebody as your press representative and tell him/her to return my phone call when it comes ... and also tell him/her to register with Peter Shankman's Help A Reporter Out [helpareporter.com] initiative.

This isn't a question of helping a company or organization deal be better with the press, it's about making open source projects press-friendly. It's a valid topic because the same rules (and the same advice such as this) don't necessarily apply. Consider the project contributors may all be volunteers contributing coding time as a hobby. If the project is still worth writing something about, that isn't changed by the situation where none of the programmers have decided the limited time they contribute will also include PR tasks.

Or, as suggested in Ms. Schindler's IT World article, create a /press page or section on your Web site like the big companies do.

If functionality comes before user documentation, user documentation will come before press releases. If it's all volunteer time, people will prioritize, and those people will be coders.

There you should have information about what your project is about, why you think it matters, its current status, who to contact for more information, screen shots (please remember that print media require high-resolution versions of screen shots or other images for the printing press), press releases and other mentions in the media.

If you (the reporter) has decided the open source project is news worthy, you should have a basic idea on what it is about and why it matters already. Include questions don't have the answer to in your initial email. Make your own screenshots while you're playing around with the software. To put it bluntly, quoting from a press page and including screenshots from the site hardly seems like the methods of a competent tech reporter.

(That's not the same as an FAQ and I won't quote an FAQ. I want to hear from the people behind the project what they're doing and why they're doing it. People make news stories interesting. There's a human angle to everything.)

FAQs are FAQs. As you say, a reporter should be looking for more. Send your own questions in.

Use plain language, not jargon.

Technical projects require technical descriptions. Good technical reporters won't be phased, since anything new to them should be researched anyway. Don't try to do a report on the project for the masses if you don't understand the basics.

If you translate that page into a foreign language, have someone fluent in the language (preferably it's his/her native language) double-check your work. If it's a bad translation, it reflects badly on you. I've lost count of how many foreign businesses have an English press kit that reads as though a fourth-grader wrote it up and I have no doubt that many businesses from English-speaking countries have non-English press material that is equally poorly translated.

Again, this isn't about businesses. It's about open source projects specifically because they can be fundamentally different than businesses. As a projects is successful purely by merit, translations will come as people who use the software volunteer them (and they may well be translations of the application ages before they are translations of text on the site).

From the first line in the summary: "Corporations know that part of launching a successful project is projecting the right image to the media. But a lot of open source projects seem to treat the press as an annoyance, if they think about it at all."

If your answer is "open source projects should just do what press-friendly corporations do", you're failing to address the differences between the two. It seems a reporter can much more easily cater better to open source projects than the other way around.

Re: Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Roblimo]

Being quoted in an article about software gives you "expert cred" that makes more people likely to try your project, more developers likely to want to work with you on it, and is a nice thing to attach to your resume if and when you want to get a contract, a job or raise capital to start your own company.

And FYI, smart reporters have already read the FAQs and other material before they interview you. The interview is, ideally, an exploration of your motives and thoughts. And, yes, maybe a little clarification of some of the technology involved in your project so that people not intimately involved with it can figure out why it's worth your time and possibly theirs.

"...if *you* want something, then it's your problem, not mine."

Uh huh. And three years from now, when you're doing something for which you *want* and *need* publicity, and reporters you contact remember how arrogant you were to them the last time they spoke to you, don't be surprised if they say, "...if *you* want something, then it's your problem, not mine."

What goes around, comes around.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[2muchcoffeeman]

If you want me to have fuller information, please answer my phone call or e-mail.

E-mail is by far a better option, I think.

It's good for making initial contact, but a telephone interview produces a smoother and more conversational exchange which comes out a lot better in a news article. I can certainly do it that way if you absolutely insist but it's less pleasant to the reader's eye.

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[iwein]

The problem imo is not that developers are incapable or unwilling to help out reporters. I wrote the better part of an article on InfoQ about a project I'm committer on once, and I can't imagine that most developers would not want to take some credit for their work if the timing is right.

The problem is that the timing is usually not right. I work one day a week on OSS. If I'm into something, I usually just ignore the phone, and read my email only when I'm done. If you're lucky enough to get a hold of me on a Friday afternoon when I'm stuck on something you'll get two hours of my time and probably something with less spelling errors and more to the point than if you'd had written it yourself.

The reason that I'm ignoring my mail and phone is not because I don't want to be helpful, I simply can't without wreaking havoc to my productivity. There are a few interesting articles to explain why that is. An example: http://www.byte-vision.com/ProductivityArticle.aspx

The only thing I can think to do to help out reporters is to publish my personal schedule so they can see when it might be useful to bug me. If you're constantly on a 3 hour deadline with no heads up, you're shit out of luck, sorry.

In the end having a project but no story is better than having a story and no project

Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines

[Esther Schindler]

...Consider the project contributors may all be volunteers contributing coding time as a hobby. If the project is still worth writing something about, that isn't changed by the situation where none of the programmers have decided the limited time they contribute will also include PR tasks.

But sometimes it's not the project that's the focus of the article. I don't need to know everything about your software; but I expect that you do.

The article may be about something closely related to open source, such as my article, How to sponsor an open source sprint). In that case, I didn't particularly care which projects I quoted; I just wanted to represent several. People from Plone and Drupal stepped forward, when I asked (broadly) for input. Your project didn't. They got the visibility; yours didn't.

I like to think that (assuming your project has sprints and works with corporate sponsors) you might have had useful advice to share, too. We both missed out, because you were too busy.

And sometimes the article isn't about open source at all. Developer Tools You Don't Use, and Why You Don't Use Them was about programming tools in general. But one of the people who responded (via Help a Reporter Out) was a woman who had several worthwhile points to offer regarding her use of FOSS developer tools. (A few of the comments landed on the cutting room floor, because that feature was already twice as long as I promised, but I appreciated her input.) Her project is mentioned, in passing, because that was the relevant affiliation.

In other words: It's not always about whether I'm technically savvy enough to understand everything in your release notes. Often, I don't care what's in your release notes. But I might care what the community is doing and how it's participating in the larger universe.

If you (the reporter) has decided the open source project is news worthy, you should have a basic idea on what it is about and why it matters already. Include questions don't have the answer to in your initial email. Make your own screenshots while you're playing around with the software. To put it bluntly, quoting from a press page and including screenshots from the site hardly seems like the methods of a competent tech reporter.

If I can't figure out what the project is, then it won't be worthy.

That applies to users and developers just as much as it does to the press. Whether or not you care about press attention (and really, it's fine with me if you don't), please do take a step back and look at your site as though you've never seen it before. If you didn't know what this software did, how long would it take for you to learn?

And frankly -- yes, I need you to send me a screen shot of the app doing something that demonstrates its capabilities (or at least looks pretty). If all I'm going to do is give you two paragraphs of attention (which is what I did in that Computerworld article about upcoming apps), I am not necessarily going to download, install, and configure each one, as well as any underlying software they rely on. All to take a screen shot? You have it working; you know it; you, its proud momma and poppa, can give me something that'll show it off.

Again: sample screen shots that demonstrate functionality are useful to users and developers, too. Not everyone has the time to download and install everything that looks like it might be interesting. A quick glance can let me (as a user) determine if this is worth further inquiry.

It's all about the money

[elsJake]

>> Corporations know that part of launching a successful project is projecting the right image to the media. Large corporations pay to get media coverage , and if they don't , some journalists tend to write about certain corporations they have stocks in. I doubt they'd write much even if the developers did their job for them.

Re:It's all about the money

[PCM2]

some journalists tend to write about certain corporations they have stocks in.

I don't doubt that what you say is true, but I'd like to point out for the people who will inevitably take your statement as gospel that this practice is generally regarded as a breach of journalistic ethics. The New York Times company, for example specifically prohibits journalists who cover business stories from playing the market.

The trade press is less stringent about such things, but good journalists everywhere are well aware of financial conflicts in their reporting and take steps to mitigate such. Some tech reporters I know choose not to invest in any technology stocks. I myself own no individual stocks in any tech companies, though I do hold some mutual funds which may or may not contain such stocks. I invest based solely on the performance of the fund and make no particular effort to find out what specific companies may be represented.

As with any field, there are always a few bad apples.

Re:It's all about the money

[elsJake]

While what you say is true i don't trust people to be ethical outside what comforts them and money tends to comfort a lot of them. I applaud your efforts in staying neutral but at the same time feel that not so many of your brethren respect these rules. That might be because i grew up in an area where the media is either corrupt or owned by large corporations themselves or some political party. There's almost no expectation of objectivity in some places.

Re:It's all about the money

[Esther Schindler]

I'm not sure if it's reassuring, but in my experience your bad scene is not representative of the press in general, and the trade press in particular. Every journalist I know is very concerned about ethics. And I don't mean "don't be caught" but "do the right thing."

What if the speakerperson is a prick?

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

I know from experience that some of the voices on the open source movement can be really difficult to deal with (yes, RMS, I'm looking at you). So, what to do in this case? Hide them under a rock?

Re:What if the speakerperson is a prick?

[grcumb]

I know from experience that some of the voices on the open source movement can be really difficult to deal with (yes, RMS, I'm looking at you). So, what to do in this case? Hide them under a rock?

Look at the things they've said in the past. In most cases, you'll be able to dig up something relevant. The Internet is kind of cool that way. Call them and repeat the quote, then ask, "Does this [still] apply?" If the person says yes, you can ask them if they have anything to add. If they say no, ask them to explain what's changed. If they never reply, use the quote to indicate what they've said about the topic in the past.

Re:What if the speakerperson is a prick?

[techno-vampire]

use the quote to indicate what they've said about the topic in the past.

And of course, don't forget to say that they "declined to comment when asked if this still applied." Not only is it true, it's almost guaranteed to give everybody the wrong impression and generate letters to the editor (or blog comments, or whatever) and it's hard to see the downside to that.

Re:What if the speakerperson is a prick?

[Thinboy00]

That won't fly if you put a picture of RMS in the paper -- he's visibly not the lawyer type.

It's not an emergency

[harmonise]

It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our deadlines.

Then fix your deadlines. Use proper planning and communication. This "drop everything now and focus on me" attitude doesn't really work well inside of companies and certainly won't work well when you want something from some else outside of your company.

Re:It's not an emergency

[2muchcoffeeman]

No, it's not an emergency ... but I just got this assignment five minutes ago and I have to have it done in three hours because my boss said to have it done in three hours so he can put in on the web in three hours and 15 minutes and because he's planning to drop something else on my desk in three hours and five minutes. Man, I don't have an option here. Can you help me, please?

Re:It's not an emergency

[PCM2]

When a reporter is dealing with a company, there is generally an information gatekeeper: either an internal PR department or an outside agency hired for the purpose. Even if you know an employee at a given company personally, usually they are not empowered to talk to the press directly without first consulting with their PR team.

This can be a drag because it means reporters are typically subjected to the usual bland, spoon-fed sing-song about how great and wonderful everything at the company is. But on the plus side it means you have a contact to talk to.

If I shoot an email to Waggener-Edstrom asking about something Microsoft is doing, I will probably get a response back within 24 hours, and often more quickly than that. The PR people will ask me the basic questions: Why do you want to know what you are asking, where is it going to be published, what is your deadline? And from then on, it will be their job to ferret out the right person to answer my questions, and if they deem that the good press I stand to give Microsoft will be valuable enough, they will take it upon themselves to pester that person into answering my questions in a timely fashion.

Obviously, this type of thing is fairly infeasible with many open source projects, why is why it's valuable to have this discussion about how to make open source projects more accessible to the press.

As a member of the press, I certainly can't make you, an open source developer, "drop everything now and focus on me." It will never surprise me in the slightest if you choose to ignore me completely -- a lot of big companies do that, too. But on the other hand, there are a lot of small companies with products already shipping who would absolutely kill for the chance to talk to me, just to get their names in print -- and often, I just don't have time for them.

It's all a matter of perspectives. Does it make sense for your open source project to get some good press coverage? If no, then my press inquiries are no burden to you. If yes, then is it reasonable to complain about the way in which the opportunities to gain press coverage present themselves? It's not like I'm asking you if I can borrow twenty bucks; I'm offering you what you want. If you don't have time or can't be bothered to take me up on my offer, then maybe it's your process that needs to be modified somehow, not mine (or those of the various publications which I may represent).

Just a thought.

Re:It's not an emergency

[Anonymous Coward]

You appear to be searching for the word "parallelize". HTH

Re:It's not an emergency

[2muchcoffeeman]

Parellelize is what my boss will do to me if I blow deadline.

Re:It's not an emergency

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are getting assignments on that short of notice, you should know the field you are reporting well enough and be actively following it closely enough to have completed your research before getting the assignment. It is simply impossible to write a good article in that short of time, and by attempting to do so you are only going to misrepresent the issues at hand.

And if you're just going to be pumping out trash articles with no research, many of us would prefer to not be written about at all.

Re:It's not an emergency

[AmberBlackCat]

Then fix your deadlines. Use proper planning and communication. This "drop everything now and focus on me" attitude doesn't really work well inside of companies and certainly won't work well when you want something from some else outside of your company.

I would like to say the same thing to the makers of the open source projects.

Re:It's not an emergency

[2muchcoffeeman]

If you are getting assignments on that short of notice, you should know the field you are reporting well enough and be actively following it closely enough to have completed your research before getting the assignment.

Some reporters have that luxury. Others are more generalists and deal with a variety of topics. They don't have that luxury. For that matter, even the specialists can't be aware of everything.

Like Ms. Schindler said, "(Y)ou've gone deep with your project, and I haven't. I may not be familiar with the problem that it aims to solve. So tell me about it."

Re:It's not an emergency

[gd2shoe]

I think you meant "most".

(Why doesn't Slashdot support the "strike" tag?!?)

Re:It's not an emergency

[gd2shoe]

A vast majority of Open Source projects really need a tech oriented reporter. Others need time for the reporter to acclimate. It's that simple. Unless there is a sizable company behind the project, there is no way in the world a general reporter is going to be fair and accurate (emphasis on accurate). You might as well be writing about non-Euclidean geometry or M-theory.

Re:It's not an emergency

[gd2shoe]

An interesting perspective. It's wrong (my opinion), but valuable.

Open Source projects rarely have unforeseen newsworthy stories. A vast majority of the time, it can either wait a few days (filler material), or you should have started asking several days before the event. (An Open Source project released a new version? Oh, my! We didn't see that coming! They didn't even have a release candidate or two or three. What's a changelog?)

Programming is relatively slow, methodical work. Programmers rarely have a get-things-done-right-this-moment mindset. To make matters worse, interruptions cost time twice: once to deal with the interruption, and once to figure out exactly what they were doing before you interrupted them. A series of interruptions can quickly become a bad day. Can you see why a programmer might want to deal with a reporter when he gets around to it? (read: is no longer concentrating on code) (leads to unanswered calls and unchecked email.)

Unless there is a company behind the project (a monetary incentive), few projects are going to have a drop-whatever-you're-doing attitude favoring reporters (and most of those companies have designated PR people). If you want something that even approximates a timely response, you'll need to give your what/why/for-whom/deadline tuple right upfront. Consider asking your IT people what they know (you may be surprised, or horrified), but don't take their word for it. Ask them to point you to a good resource.

Re:It's not an emergency

[Thinboy00]

(Why doesn't Slashdot support the "strike" tag?!?)

Said tags (there are in fact two such tags) are deprecated. But apparently /. doesn't like CSS either. So you're screwed. Oh well.

Re:It's not an emergency

[Anonymous Coward]

So you have three hours to do a story on something you don't really understand and the people you've choosen to contact don't actually get paid to answer your questions at that exact moment?

I'm sorry but the open source project is not the one that has a problem. There is nothing they could realistically do to make you happy.

Re:It's not an emergency

[jmcghie]

Sadly, I suspect *you* haven't got it -- HE doesn't want anything from you, right? YOU want publicity from him. At least, that's the way its supposed to work if you want to create high-volume software.

As a former journalist, and currently in the IT field, I know both sides of the fence. If you don't want publicity, when he calls, just say so! If you do... well back in my day (1986-ish) the deadlines came up every hour. I was expected to do four to six stories a day.

I'm not going to get me fired by telling my Editor his deadlines don't suit your open-source project. I will just grab the latest Microsoft press release off the spike and top and tail it to fill the space available.

You can change this. I can't :-)

Re:It's not an emergency

[Esther Schindler]

Define "tech oriented."

I'm tech oriented. I can understand the reasons that a developer might get excited by a new compiler feature, and I can grok the problems caused by a misconfigured e-mail server (MX-record-talk does not make my eyes glaze over), and I can follow a debate between two people arguing the merits of an Agile practice. I know something about most areas of technology, and more-than-something about some of them. But I will not know everything about everything.

Unless I am personally involved in a narrow niche (such as "I write only about CMSs") I will not understand your software in as much depth as you do. That's fine. Because that's why I'm asking you about it.

Most of the time, I truly do not need to know your project in depth to understand what is important about it. But I rely on you to know -- and to express -- its importance.

Re:It's not an emergency

[gd2shoe]

Some reporters have that luxury. Others are more generalists and deal with a variety of topics...

A vast majority of Open Source projects really need a tech oriented reporter...

I'm tech oriented... I know something about most areas of technology, and more-than-something about some of them.

Then the post you replied to doesn't apply to you ;)

By contrast, you will be much, much more likely to ask the right questions and receive useful answers (as opposed to those reporters who see computers as email machines). You still can't expect a non-PR person to drop everything and answer you "right now" (hobbyist or engineer). If they understand that you're tech savvy, you'll be perceived as an interruption, but not a total waste of time.

Re:It's not an emergency

[centuren]

Unless there is a company behind the project (a monetary incentive), few projects are going to have a drop-whatever-you're-doing attitude favoring reporters (and most of those companies have designated PR people). If you want something that even approximates a timely response, you'll need to give your what/why/for-whom/deadline tuple right upfront. Consider asking your IT people what they know (you may be surprised, or horrified), but don't take their word for it. Ask them to point you to a good resource.

In addition to your what/why/for-whome/deadline information, include your list of questions in the email. If you get a response, you have your interview. Don't expect programmers and engineers to be technical writers; it's your job to take any highly technical content and make it layman friendly.

Does it make sense for your open source project to get some good press coverage? If no, then my press inquiries are no burden to you. If yes, then is it reasonable to complain about the way in which the opportunities to gain press coverage present themselves?

This is faulty logic, because the vast majority of volunteer, not-for-profit open source projects can easily not fit. Yes it makes sense for the project to get some good press coverage. Yes, press inquiries can easily be a burden to those contributing their time. Good press making sense for a project doesn't mean it's required for it, important for it, or that your potential article is the only way to go about getting it. Good projects will usually end up spreading by their own merit, anyway.

An article about a project might give it a boost, one indeed wanted by those that are working on the project. If the offer to write such an article comes clueless to the situation (by using the same methods described for dealing with a corporation like Microsoft, etc), then there easily can be the case where good press makes sense AND your press inquiries are a burden. That is precisely a reasonable time to complain about the way the opportunity presented itself.

Re:It's not an emergency

[SL Baur]

No, it's not an emergency ... but I just got this assignment five minutes ago and I have to have it done in three hours because my boss said to have it done in three hours so he can put in on the web in three hours and 15 minutes and because he's planning to drop something else on my desk in three hours and five minutes. Man, I don't have an option here. Can you help me, please?

(Writing as someone who has run an Open Source project before)

If said reporter had never heard of my project before, I cannot think of any use case where I would want to be mentioned under those circumstances. As a comparison, when my work or my group's work has been covered on TV for the evening news (KSBY-6 and NHK-1 respectively) we were given more lead time than that to get ready for the cameras.

Now, if you were looking for my reaction to the latest diarrhea of the mouth from Richard Stallman, I'm not likely to have something written up in advance. I tried to ignore him as best as I could. I'd certainly spend some time and answer questions. I'm not sure what intelligent questions one could ask if the reporter had never heard of XEmacs before getting the article assignment as he wouldn't know why he should be talking to someone like me for balance.

If you don't know about the Great Digital Divide in the open source world with Richard Stallman's name written all over it, you shouldn't be in the business. He most certainly is NOT a universal spokesman.

Now, to warp things around a bit, assume that the Oracle takeover of Sun had taken place in my watch. We have plenty of documentation on our website that details our relationship with Sun and thus why someone should be talking to me. If the reporter had never heard of XEmacs before, I'm don't think I'd want to be in said article. Anything I might have to say is going to get lost in confusion.

What I'm mainly getting out of this is that you seem to not only want to use our code for free, you are expecting us to write your "news" articles for you too and slap your byline on our writing.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Under the scenario you have described, I don't want to be mentioned in the article if you haven't done enough research to know why you should be talking to me. But if you had, I'd certainly be willing to give you a quote or two.

Re:It's not an emergency

[SL Baur]

Most of the time, I truly do not need to know your project in depth to understand what is important about it. But I rely on you to know -- and to express -- its importance.

Hmm, a tech writer with a 5 digit id lower than mine. See a message earlier in this thread that lays out my thinking.

If you wrote about any of those examples, why weren't you asking me questions? I most certainly would have taken the time and answered them.

Actually, a 16k /. id is going to open a lot of doors for you. I hope you get paid well.

Re:It's not an emergency

[SL Baur]

As a member of the press, I certainly can't make you, an open source developer, "drop everything now and focus on me." It will never surprise me in the slightest if you choose to ignore me completely -- a lot of big companies do that, too.

Hmmm. A tech writer with a 4k /. id ... That's a huge amount of street cred. Do you use it? Now, I'm totally confused ...

I've certainly been willing to respond to the media, though most of the time, the silence is deafening[1]. Then again, if you're talking about a 3 hour deadline and if you've never heard of my project before, I'm not sure what good it will do getting mentioned in an article like that.

[1] On the one occasion where I desperately needed mention of the company I worked for, they used the material I emailed them, but omitted the name of the company.

Re:It's not an emergency

[SL Baur]

Sadly, I suspect *you* haven't got it -- HE doesn't want anything from you, right? YOU want publicity from him. At least, that's the way its supposed to work if you want to create high-volume software.

Um, you're the one who doesn't get it. Linus' "world domination" quotes aside, most, if not all of us are not doing open source software with the goal of creating "high-volume software".

We all have our own reasons. Mine is that I want a system in source code, so I can fix things when bugs are found and that can NEVER be taken away from me.

(I'm surprised a member of the press misspelled "it's")

Re:It's not an emergency

[Esther Schindler]

I ask lots of people questions, Steve. I ask in lots of places, too. But we aren't always at the same place at the same time. :-)

Re:It's not an emergency

[SL Baur]

we aren't always at the same place at the same time.

Yeah.

I know from experience that the vast majority of open source developers are not in the same time zone. We're spread out and diverse. That is an issue that many people do not seem to deal with well. Especially employers ...

Actually I found it rather cool that even a relatively small project like XEmacs had developers in just about every time zone in the world.

Re:It's not an emergency

[Esther Schindler]

It had never occurred to me that my ID had street cred. Would this give me anything valuable? Like, say, free dark chocolate? (I have my priorities.)

It's one of the things I didn't go into in the blog post but yes, sometimes your prose doesn't make it into the article. Or an attribution ("...who is senior developer at FooBaz Inc") is streamlined. Or -- well, any number of other things that mean, "I did not copy and paste your entire email message to me into my article."

The reasons are long and detailed and I'm not sure that most people care... though I'd be happy to share them if I thought others share your interest. If they do, cool; I'll do a follow-up. If not, I'll be happy to respond privately.

In my case, the most likely scenario is that I had too many people expressing the same sentiment, and I didn't want to be repetitive. I often have 30+ people giving me input for a 2000 word article. (This is called "over reporting," a longtime weakness of mine.) And while it's good to have consensus among the responses, nobody wants to read a whole article that says, "Me too."

I usually do find a way to include the quotes that are funny, though. :-)

Re:It's not an emergency

[SL Baur]

It had never occurred to me that my ID had street cred. Would this give me anything valuable? Like, say, free dark chocolate? (I have my priorities.)

You must be new here. :-)

A low numbered /. id means you've been around for awhile - that you're not just some hack who is jumping on a tech band wagon.

Um, sorry, no dark chocolate from me, but if it's important to you, I'm sure other /.ers would bury you in it ...

(I've read some of your other articles now. You're a very good writer. I can see why I only have rejection slips ...)

Re:It's not an emergency

[jmcghie]

(I'm surprised a member of the press misspelled "it's")

So am I -- I must have been out of the game too long :-)

OK, all of those who are coding purely for their own entertainment and who do not want anyone to actually "use" their software are hereby excluded from any need to respond to press calls.

The rest of you: Get back to the journalist with a definitive comment in half an hour, or your competitor will get the mention you could have had :-)

Re:It's not an emergency

[PCM2]

Hmmm. A tech writer with a 4k /. id ... That's a huge amount of street cred. Do you use it?

Hmmm. In a nutshell? No. Quite frankly, I feel a little strange about it...

annoyance

[backwardMechanic]

it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now."

...and reporters wonder why we're not delighted to hear from them. One of the nice features of the open-source world is that projects become popular because they're good at what they do, rather than by shouting louder than anyone else. In such a world, press attention is less important. Which is fortunate, given the low quality of so much IT reporting (just because you can copy-paste the press release, doesn't mean you should).

Re:annoyance

[osadmin]

One of the nice features of the open-source world is that projects become popular because they're good at what they do

Most Open Source projects aren't around to make the authors money or fame. They're there to get the job done. If they do that job well, like you stated they will gain popularity. That's one of the best features of open source; the best product wins, not the most marketed one.

Re:annoyance

[Anonymous Coward]

"just because you can copy-paste the press release, doesn't mean you should"

If you don't talk to them, what the fuck else are they supposed to do? Make shit up? You'd bitch about that. Ask someone who doesn't know anything? You'd bitch about that. Research something they don't understand, then report it incorrectly? You'd bitch about that.

What the fuck do you nerds want?

Re:annoyance

[greenbird]

If you don't talk to them, what the fuck else are they supposed to do?

I would think they would actually do some research to get their story. You know, reporting. I know that no longer exists in this day and age but one can reminisce about the days when reporters actually did their job.

Make shit up? You'd bitch about that. Ask someone who doesn't know anything? You'd bitch about that.

This is the primary methodology used by the modern reporter. Look it up on Wikipedia, call a few random people and then either make something up based on misinformation or even print the press release almost verbatim.

Research something they don't understand, then report it incorrectly? You'd bitch about that.

Damn. I thought researching something that wasn't well understood was the whole point of reporting. To get the facts about something and then print those facts as a coherent story. I guess in your world reporters only report on things they and everyone else fully understands already?

What the fuck do you nerds want?

Yeah, imagine the nerve of those nerds expecting reporters to actually have to do a little work to get their story. The story should be provided in a clear coherent easily understood format by subject of the story. You know, like a press release. That way the reporter can just change a few words and then print it.

And main stream news organizations wonder why they're failing. They quit doing reporting years ago. I gave up getting on reliable information from them even longer ago.

Re:annoyance

[celle]

How about reporting the truth that you couldn't get anything. Damn reporters are getting as bad as advertisers. Tell the public the truth and face you couldn't get anything. This isn't a give and take deal. If you weren't requested to report by the project or aren't willing to placate to those you are getting free info from to better your career then buzz off!

Re:annoyance

[2muchcoffeeman]

I would think they would actually do some research to get their story. You know, reporting. I know that no longer exists in this day and age but one can reminisce about the days when reporters actually did their job.

The single most important tool a reporter has for that job is the telephone. If you've already put that information out in a clear, concise format, that's a good starting point. But I still want to talk to you, or to somebody like you. Without that interview, there's no story to be told.

Re:annoyance

[grcumb]

What the fuck do you nerds want?

To talk to someone clueful enough that they don't make crass generalisations like that one.

Re:annoyance

[CodeBuster]

what the fuck else are they supposed to do? Make shit up?

How about they write about things they know or else save their damn ink and write nothing at all. It is not my problem that they cannot be bothered to learn the sort of expert knowledge required to write intelligently about IT. Besides, who wants to read their bullshit trade-rag packed to the gills with advertising and PR "press hits" (i.e. article length stealth ads) masquerading as articles? Not me, thanks.

Re:annoyance

[Thinboy00]

The bug report should be provided in a clear coherent easily understood format by the reporter [despite the fact that the "nerds" are the ones who fucked up, assuming the report is real].

There, fixed that for you.

Re:annoyance

[ShaunC]

...and reporters wonder why we're not delighted to hear from them.

A salient point.

Some years ago, I wrote a peer-to-peer IM client that used Blowfish. I didn't want anything for it, but I wanted to put it out there. At the time, in order to comply with federal BXA guidelines regarding encryption, I felt that my easiest choice was to open-source it (and notify the government that it existed, and where they could get it, and make an attempt to prevent anyone from the Big7 from downloading it, and...).

It wasn't long before I was contacted by someone from a Well Respected Computing Magazine. I was thrilled: my little side project was about to be reviewed in a big magazine, and get a lot of publicity! But they kept pestering me for screenshots in some specific DPI and some specific resolution. I'm not a graphics person, I didn't know how to supply whatever they wanted, I sent over some screenshots but they weren't print-worthy. So I wound up signing a release for them to take their own screenshots so long as I received a proof prior to printing.

I got a proof, and then a big bundle of 50 copies of the finished product, cool. My app got a mention in that Notorious Computing Magazine, alongside some competing apps which, coincidentally, were all payware. Theirs all had pretty screenshots, mine didn't. I was just a lone developer who'd written something to communicate securely long before the days of Pidgin and OTR. And while the for-profit folks got lots of flashy pics in the magazine, I got a (flattering, admittedly) paragraph with no pics.

I've dealt with technology journalists several times since then. What I've found is that they tend to be very interested, and very motivated, but extremely susceptible to buzzwords and fluff and flashy screenshots. Believe it or not (heh), a lot of the folks who write for tech magazines aren't techies. They're writers who happen to have landed at a tech magazine.

They're also generally beholden to industry contacts and their publishers' marketing departments, through a surprisingly transparent payola system which infects the entire gamut of publications. If you're fortunate enough to be on the comp list for eWeek, ComputerWorld, NetworkWorld, Baseline, etc. you see the same bias week after week. To me, Gartner and its "analysts" aren't worth much, but looking through the various trade rags I get every week, you'd think they're industry gods.

Three words to that: Maureen. O'Gara. SCO.

I've long since declined to respond to press inquiries for anything I do. If I ever again create anything worthy of press, I'll hire my own PR person to spin it my way.

Single page link for article

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a single page link for the article since it's spread across a bunch of pages.

Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[Futurepower(R)]

Another reason most open-source projects get no press is that they are very poorly communicated in every way. An example is LaTeX. It requires two paragraphs in the Wikipedia article to explain just the name.

Another example is GIMP. One of the meanings of gimp is "cripple".

Another example is UltraVNC. UltraVNC is excellent. The UltraVNC web site is a mess.

The open source experience is often "It's free, but you must spend a very frustrating week learning how to use it." Those who write for publication don't have a week to understand a project, and they don't want to write about something that would frustrate their readers.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[curmudgeon99]

Excellent points all. It pertains to a larger geek problem: poor communication skills. How many brilliant developers have you met who send emails that sound like they were written by a 4th grader? Too many...

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[turbidostato]

"How many brilliant developers have you met who send emails that sound like they were written by a 4th grader? Too many..."

Not a single one. It's true I found a number of bozos that out of their ignorance think they are ununderstood prima donnas that write like 4th graders. But really good professional developers? They all have above-average comunication skills. What of extrange do you find in people able to express difficult concepts in computer languages being able to express simpler concepts in natural languages too?

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[Trepidity]

That's true of a lot of tech stuff in general. What the hell is going on at the Oracle website, for example? About 40 links to some random downloads, middleware, etc.; impossible to find anything if you didn't already know exactly what you wanted.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[Anonymous Coward]

What of extrange do you find in people able to express difficult concepts in computer languages being able to express simpler concepts in natural languages too?

Good question. Fourty-two I think.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[jgrahn]

Another reason most open-source projects get no press is that they are very poorly communicated in every way. An example is LaTeX. It requires two paragraphs in the Wikipedia article to explain just the name.

It's a word-play on TeX, on which it is based, and it also inherits its purposely silly pronounciation and typography. Surely, that's all that needs to be said? I don't mind that the Wikipedia article provides more background, though.

[...] The open source experience is often "It's free, but you must spend a very frustrating week learning how to use it." Those who write for publication don't have a week to understand a project, and they don't want to write about something that would frustrate their readers

Isn't that the case for every piece of software except maybe Microsoft Word? And should people stop working on advanced software so that the people who read the glossies don't have to be frustrated by articles which don't get written anyway, because the frustrated journalists don't have a week to spare to understand it?

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[Anonymous Coward]

Which brings up another question. If a good developer is able to fluently switch between a multitude of programming languages, how come so few of them have put any effort into learning to speak and write English well (or other native tongue)?

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[Esther Schindler]

Because English is not a compiled language.

People do not throw exceptions when English is used incorrectly. They throw other people.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[curmudgeon99]

Because the API for the English language is a mess. I learned Russian in college (along with a few computer languages) and the API for Russian makes a lot more sense than English does.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[SL Baur]

People do not throw exceptions when English is used incorrectly. They throw other people.

Or maybe chairs.

Steve to developer: OK, you're leaving XEmacs. Fine. Just tell me you're not going to FSF Emacs.

Developer: I'm going to FSF Emacs.
(Throws chair)

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[pearl298]

I am a long time Windows app. developer (think EDIF and Anadigm Inc.) recently converted to Linux.

As such I am often looking for an app. that will do some specific task, if it is really useful and interesting then I might even join the development effort.

I am amazed at the number of projects that describe their goals in gobblydygook or even have no description at all apart from "its the greatest thing since sliced bread".

Yeah great. :-(

Actually it seems that the root cause is often that the project leaders really have no idea what it is that they are developing either! The result is yet another arcane abandonware project which does no one any good and just wastes the developers efforts.

Like it or not a one paragraph summary is essential - that fact that it is really hard to write is only an indication of how much confusion exists.

A standard I used when starting out was to describe what I was doing to a non-techie such as my mother. If THEY could understand what I was up to then anyone with some technical knowledge would catch on instantly. It really does help!

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[iwein]

None. Being a good developer is all about language. Being a brilliant developer is all about the art of making hard problems easy to understand.

How many programs have you ever seen in business that require more than the most basic mathematics? 3?

How many programs have you ever encountered that were hard to read?

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[curmudgeon99]

I always used as a benchmark this idea: the quality of the design is inversely proportional to the size of the manual. Larger manual = shitty design. If it's intuitive, you don't need a manual.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[Anonymous Coward]

"They all have above-average communication skills."

yeah but they're probably all like my Dad's former workmate, Frank:
"~yeah that email is fine but not obsessively compulsively fine"

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[curmudgeon99]

If English were a compiled--instead of an interpreted--language, writers like Jack Kerouac would fill the logs with language-exception puke, yet, we revere "On The Road". English is much too wild a tongue to be compiled. Russian maybe could make it through the compiler but not English.

Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way

[badkarmadayaccount]

Russian is like the bastard child of Befunge, Perl and COBOL. I'd love to see a compiler for it.

Journalism

[oldhack]

Just as suspected, good part of journalism is ADD hack jobs. And they wonder why papers are dying.

CORRECTION: uvnc.com

[Futurepower(R)]

CORRECTION: Should have been UltraVNC.

Choose a decent name...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be a sheep and call it KWhatever or GSomething if it's for KDE or Gnome. That's the biggest lamer thing you could do. Choose a real name.

Pick a cool name

[sir_eccles]

With a recursive acronym that spells something that sounds like a euphemism or is impossible to pronounce.

Really, no.

[symbolset]

Rephrase your changelist as a press release that's buzzword compliant. Include some developer quotes and some user praise. Most of the IT press will submit it as is, some with a minor rewrite to file the serial numbers off and pass it off as their own work.

If they WANT the attention...

[TheModelEskimo]

...open source SABDFLs can definitely take a lesson from other industries where vying for media attention is pretty competitive. You put a big link on your website that says "Trade and Media" or "Press Kits" and then you put Screenshots, Videos, High-res photos of those contributing to the project (not 1"x1" blurry crop from a team photo taken at your workplace). Put together a list of websites you'll be updating every time you release a new version. Ask your community members to make PDF flyers and other materials available for volunteers to print and hand out.

Looking from the other POV, I doubt most open source developers will care about this stuff. It's like eating glass for them, and a huge number of open source projects are pure hobby. A magazine picks up your software and says, "WHOA, this could be really cool," but maybe the last thing you want is more pressure in your life. If that's the case, I recommend being VERY open about your standpoint. If you want to do it your way or the highway, be even MORE open about it. People tend to get really pissed when they contribute many, many lines of code to your project and never see their work merged in. Likewise with people creating icons, splash screens, documentation, project website mockups, videos, etc. There are some very prominent open source projects that are embarrassingly backward in this regard.

Annoyances...

[giminy]

The summarizer says:

But a lot of open source projects seem to treat the press as an annoyance...

And the press-person says:

'...it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now." If the journalist doesn't give you a deadline ("I need to know by 2pm"), it's okay to ask how long you can take to reach the right developer in Poland, but err on the side of "emergency response." It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our deadlines.'

Wow, I can't imagine why volunteer developers consider the press an annoyance. Maybe the press should cut back on the 30-second deadline and take some time to actually get facts, instead of getting something out the door now, even if it isn't right. I think that journalists with this attitude are probably in the wrong business -- you should be doing research and finding the story, not demanding that a non-storyteller drops what they're doing to give you the story on a silver platter. Software only appears to move quickly...in reality, businesses are slow to adopt new software these days. Taking the time to do thorough research on an open source project will not kill the press, just like waiting a few weeks for a story on a software project will not kill the software project.

Me, I would prefer to read the right story than the first story. I wish that the press' job to make sure that the right story is the first story...but that shall continue to be my wish.

Re:Annoyances...

[centuren]

The summarizer says:

But a lot of open source projects seem to treat the press as an annoyance...

And the press-person says:

'...it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now." If the journalist doesn't give you a deadline ("I need to know by 2pm"), it's okay to ask how long you can take to reach the right developer in Poland, but err on the side of "emergency response." It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our deadlines.'

Wow, I can't imagine why volunteer developers consider the press an annoyance. Maybe the press should cut back on the 30-second deadline and take some time to actually get facts, instead of getting something out the door now, even if it isn't right. I think that journalists with this attitude are probably in the wrong business -- you should be doing research and finding the story, not demanding that a non-storyteller drops what they're doing to give you the story on a silver platter. Software only appears to move quickly...in reality, businesses are slow to adopt new software these days. Taking the time to do thorough research on an open source project will not kill the press, just like waiting a few weeks for a story on a software project will not kill the software project.

Not to mention the reporter is likely to be totally unknown in terms of expertise. I imagine many programmers can identify with the annoyance of being asked to explain an intrinsically technical project to a non-technical manager at work (resulting in a manager who can recite some form of car analogy but is no closer to being able to make informed decisions about the project). If I'm contributing code to an open source project as a hobby, the last thing I might want to do is repeat that scenario with a reporter who, by nature of the technical area, should be able to receive the technical explanation (in the same way sports writers understand the sports they cover).

Me, I would prefer to read the right story than the first story. I wish that the press' job to make sure that the right story is the first story...but that shall continue to be my wish.

Well put. I'd rather not have an article written than have one written that's full of errors. I certainly see it as the reporter's job to make sure they get the story right, not the programmer's job to walk the reporter through everything.

Pick a reasonable name, for fuck's sake!

[Anonymous Coward]

Names like "the gimp" are decidedly press UNFRIENDLY.

Re:Pick a reasonable name, for fuck's sake!

[4D6963]

I wish I would have heard this advice before I named my FOSS project ARSE.

Re:Pick a reasonable name, for fuck's sake!

[PCM2]

This is a recurring theme and everybody likes to bitch about the names of open source projects. However, as a member of the press, I'd like to chime in -- just this once -- and say that if an open source project made enough of a difference to anybody, I wouldn't care if it was called the GIMP or KBoner, and neither would my editors.

If Megan Fox walked up to you and said, "Hi, my name is Yakspit Cox-Feces," would it make much of a difference to you? If anything, I figure it would make it an even better story...

Re:Pick a reasonable name, for fuck's sake!

[SteveFoerster]

If Megan Fox walked up to you and said, "Hi, my name is Yakspit Cox-Feces," would it make much of a difference to you? If anything, I figure it would make it an even better story...

But that's not her name. In fact, of all the pretty girls out there, she's the one we're talking about, and her name is "Fox".

Just sayin'.

Re:Pick a reasonable name, for fuck's sake!

[CrashNBrn]

Do you have any affiliation with FART?

Other press friendly methods

[improfane]

Is anyone else struggling to find the actual article? My CPU and fans went crazy on the actual article.

If you ask me, open source projects need to do these to appeal to the outside world:

• Treat the project like an actual marketable product, look at UltraVNC homepage It's delicious, you'd almost expect that you would have to purchase it. The author is obviously passionate about all these features. The download page even has videos for parts of the product!
• Naturally, put lots of beautiful screenshots and videos
• Advertize open developer chats to get user feedback. Maybe a moderated IRC channel which could then be turned into an interview on the website.
• Create narrated videos with Wink. Take a look at some o
• Using Mozilla's Press Center as a guide, I found the following:
• • A dedicated press email address. You could set up an email address that autosubmits to your bug or issue tracker I reckon.
  • Links to all closely related communities, like Mozillazine, Foxiewire and For the Record. Anything that expresses 'community support' to a journalist will be juicy!
  • There's a list of rewards and awards down the right side. This kind of thing is quoted by magazines, stuff like 'worlds most secure browser', of course you need reviews first.
• User testimonials. Look at OpenVPN.
• Have a section called 'Community' and link to the IRC channel, mailing list and web forums.
• KDE has a section called 'KDE for your business'. It is explicitly trying to sell KDE to users by suggesting success stories of real people
• Impress businessy types makes me go cool.

If you want support from everyday people, you have to sell them the idea.

Re:Other press friendly methods

[Sir_Lewk]

Believe it or not, some of us are in it purely for fun and have little interest wasting time that could be spent coding (having fun) doing things like making "snappy" websites or accomidating pushy reporters.

People seem to think that open source developers are obligated to dedicate their resources doing things to make their projects more "commercial-ish" when they really are not and oftentimes have absolutely no desire to do so.

Re:Other press friendly methods

[Sir_Lewk]

Also, IMHO UltraVNC's website is an absolute horror-show.

Re:Other press friendly methods

[Tubal-Cain]

Treat the project like an actual marketable product, look at UltraVNC homepage [uvnc.com] It's delicious, you'd almost expect that you would have to purchase it.

Almost? It triggered that same revulsion I get at malware sites.

No silver platters either

[xzvf]

I think most "journalist" are so busy and have such tight deadlines, that they over rely on people that are paid to speak to the press. Open source, by its nature is a low-cost, high quality grass-roots effort. Even the most successful FOSS companies are tiny and have tighter margins than the for profits. Free software is customer driven (requested not sold) and doesn't have the money or staff to generate press releases or provide a pretty marketing type to spoon feed a story.

You know what?

[PieSquared]

"Drop everything and answer us now." - As others have pointed out, this is not a great attitude if you're concerned that you're being treated as an annoyance. Your average open-source coder enjoys coding, and probably doesn't really enjoy talking to you, especially if you're taking this attitude.

"If the journalist doesn't give you a deadline ('I need to know by 2pm'), it's okay to ask how long you can take to reach the right developer in Poland, but err on the side of 'emergency response.' It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our deadlines." - Don't do this. Err on the side of the truth, as any real journalist ought to be asking you to. Getting an accurate story is more important then getting a prompt story - the total story output will in the end average the same amount but higher quality. This "err on the side of speed over truth" attitude is exactly what's wrong with the media today, and any thinking person should do everything in their power to discourage it. If you're going to miss your deadline because it takes too long to get the truth, then the deadline is wrong.

Of course if you're really desperate for the media attention you may have to do undesirable things to get it, but think carefully before you do.

Re:You know what?

[celle]

"total story output will in the end average the same amount but higher quality. This "err on the side of speed over truth" attitude is exactly what's wrong with the media today, and any thinking person should do everything in their power to discourage it. If you're going to miss your deadline because it takes too long to get the truth, then the deadline is wrong."

Here, here, author, author!!

Re:You know what?

[drinkypoo]

Of course if you're really desperate for the media attention you may have to do undesirable things to get it, but think carefully before you do.

It's called quid pro quo and it's the way of the world. These people are writing on a deadline, and if they're going to make sense of your project they're going to need some help. It doesn't take you long to explain it to them. Before they put this Hispanic reporter with my name on the web you could find me quoted all over the place because I answer my email. You still can, if you look around...

FOSS

[jesset77]

Most open source projects get no press because most open source developers do not want arbitrary people to use their software.

Arbitrary people using your software means you will get demands for support from people who "Just Don't Get It".

Re:FOSS

[Anonymous Coward]

lol most open source developers would be happy to have any users at all!

Re:FOSS

[Thinboy00]

Wield the banhammer judiciously and direct banned people to Ubuntu.

Re:FOSS

[Directrix1]

Nobody said they had to answer anything. And you assuming the knowledge that "most open source developers do not want arbitrary people to use their software." is absolutely ludicrous. Open source developers are just developers who are wanting to share their project and its source. Just normal human developers with completely distinct normal human intentions.

Re:FOSS

[jesset77]

Nobody said they had to answer anything.

You are of course correct, even I never said that.

What I said was "you will get demands for support". I did not say "obligations".

Or.. are you suggesting that open source projects in the wild do not attract arbitrary expectations of support from the public?

And you assuming the knowledge that "most open source developers do not want arbitrary people to use their software." is absolutely ludicrous.

Understand also, I am not magically inferring to know how every FOSS developer thinks. I can however follow trends.

For example, between the release of Windows Vista in 2006 and the public betas of Windows 7 in 2009, precisely which distribution of Linux or flavor of BSD stepped up to receive the millions of users so generously disenfranchised by Microsoft?

Or, will you claim that Vista was too successfully marketed to compete against, or will you infer that every linux distribution and bsd fork combined fail to make up a large enough slice of the FOSS pie to represent a fair statistical sample of Open Source project behavioral trends? There has to be some justification for your calling my claim "ludicrous".

Open source developers are just developers who are wanting to share their project and its source. Just normal human developers with completely distinct normal human intentions.

I agree with this statement completely, but don't make me quote Agent K about the difference between "a developer" and "developers". If we simply abandoned discerning patterns in how large groups of people behave solely because of how diverse the individuals are, we'd never have developed disciplines like Economics.

My point is that "wanting to share their project and its source" does not imply "with everyone, in a manner 'everyone' will be able to use". A vast majority of open source projects are not accessible to the layman, and I contend this is because most FOSS developers do not want the responsibility of bridging the informational gap to allow users incapable of submitting patches to grok how to utilize the software. The developers instead tend to target themselves as the end-audience.

I am not inferring that such developers are thus selfish or skimping on any sort of socialist obligations. The behavior does lead to the projects having little penetration into mainstream markets, but as you've mentioned the developers are already acting with as much goodwill as we can really ask of them.

I surmise that the true failure here is the lack of incentive to deliver the product in a form non-technical users can consume. What we need is some clever economical carrots here to take the developer beyond their simple motivation to use the software themselves.

Some of the best examples of open source projects enjoying success in the mainstream of their industries include Firefox (funding from agreements with Google provide financial incentives for developers to keep the end-user base strong) and other projects with funding from enterprise versions driving project goals for community versions (Red Hat/Fedora, MySQL, Open Office, etc).

These are also the projects who have surmounted the press challenges cited in TFA.

Re:FOSS

[Directrix1]

Most open source projects are just components of a whole system. If we are generalizing here, the distros and other dependent software makers package everything up, and make it accessible if it is not already targeted at end users. I honestly don't think there is a problem with not marketing to end users, but a problem with end users wanting it to be marketed to them to begin with. Anybody wanting to find these projects can, if they look for it.

Who cares?

[biot]

Why would the people in an open source project waste their time talking to the press to begin with? It's about the code, and scratching an itch, etc. If a journalist wants to know something about the project, he can just look at the website like everybody else.

An open source project is NOT a corporation, and PR is irrelevant.

Missing the point...

[da cog]

Many of you here seem to be missing the point. The assumption here is that you WANT to have your project be publicized positively via some media outlet, in which case it is important to understand the conditions under which reporters are operating. If you really don't care whether the press writes about your project or what they say about it, then the advice in this story is not for you and you should feel free to ignore it.

In short, if you don't feel like doing the press any favors, then fine, you are certainly under no obligation to do so, and I doubt that they will think personally less of you for it; just don't expect them to bother about you in return.

Re:Missing the point...

[Anonymous Coward]

Glad someone said it.

It's amazing how many people here seem to talk about the "Year of the Linux Desktop" and then, when someone gives tips on how to get the press (and by extension the rest of the world) interested and able to talk about your open source project, everyone goes off about how it's all about the code, or about how reporters should change the way that they do business, just to make themselves happy.

If I walked up to a Linux developer and said, "I know how Windows works. Windows is awesome. Make Linux work like Windows." you'd probably tell me that's not how things work, and that I should leave you alone (in varying degrees of politeness...)

Now, the developers are going to the press and in effect saying, "I don't like how you guys do things. Change the way that you do business to fit the way that I want to talk to you." The press system works like it does; you can either ignore it or deal with it; but it won't change just because your open source project refuses to play by their rules.

Re:Missing the point...

[visible.frylock]

Just wanted to say great sig.

I'll be reminded of it every time I see one of those "The more you tighten your grip...." one-liner posts.

maybe this is why the newsmedia is going bankrupt

[Attila Dimedici]

'Recognize that we are on deadline, which for most news journalists means posting the article within a couple of hours and for feature authors within a couple of days. If we ask for input, or a quote, or anything to which your project spokesperson (you do have one? yes? please say yes) might want to respond, it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now." If the journalist doesn't give you a deadline ("I need to know by 2pm"), it's okay to ask how long you can take to reach the right developer in Poland, but err on the side of "emergency response." It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our deadlines.'"

And people in the news media wonder why they are losing their audience. Maybe it is because they are more concerned with getting a "story" (any story) out by deadline then they are with getting the facts right.

?define: extrange

[symbolset]

Because other than that, the post works for me, but this one odd word messes with the flow.

Re:?define: extrange

[turbidostato]

"this one odd word messes with the flow."

Rare, curious, surprinsing.

The Beast and His nature

[symbolset]

Is this why you guys tend to just regurgitate the top hit on google? If so you are missing a lot because that stuff is dynamically generated by quote engines like Enderle. They quote themselves and syndicate the article with a permuter to give discrete but similar results in seconds. This gives them high visibility because the google engine doesn't recognize synonyms as the same text and so the permutations seem to be discrete articles. This raises an article to the top spot for long enough to pwn you.

seriously, are you guys pets?

I wonder...

[PrimaryConsult]

What possible open source developments could be so amazing that getting the story out "first" or "with up to the minute coverage" would have any benefit (to either the project or the news outlet) that is greater than the benefit of getting a well rounded response after waiting a day or two...

As a tech writer here's what we want:

[seifried]

1) Have a sane contact us page. Seriously. Not some web form with a pull down menu to select what this inquiry is related to. But an actual list of functions and associated contact data (email minimally, phone is more corporate and I wouldn't expect that of an open source project). Why email? So I have a record of what I sent, otherwise I have random emails showing up from half remembered projects/vendors. If you make it hard for me to contact you I won't. For many projects that are small having the head guys email address listed works well too.

2) Have a press@ email address, much like abuse@, security@, etc. this is a pretty sane default and leaves very little question as to whom to send email when you're looking for a press contact. It can be a redirect, I don't mind emailing press@ and getting a response from someguy@, if he quotes the subject line I won't have any trouble figuring it out. If you make it hard for me to contact you I won't. It bears repeating.

3) (to the mental image of a sweaty Steve Ballmer acting like a deranged gorilla) "Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines!". If it's a press article for a newspaper the author is lucky if they have 2-3 hours to research this time and get it in. You may want to consider having press@ be an alias to multiple people in different timezones. The quicker you respond the less likely I am to write you out of my article or downplay your role.

4) Don't treat me like a sales prospect or try to sell me stuff I'm not buying, I've got a deadline to meet. Be upfront and honest, most reporters/writers can smell bullshit a mile away (or at least they should be able to, I would say bullshit detection is a core competency for writers/reporters). Perfect example: interesting network traffic analysis product, I contact the vendor, they say it's Windows only I say thanks and move on (article is for Linux Magazine Pro). They don't get any press coverage, but they do get remembered for not wasting my time. The next time I'm writing about network traffic analysis on Windows I'll contact them first since I know they play well with others. Reporters/writers have long memories (we keep notes); if you jerk us around we will never, ever, ever write anything positive about you. Ever.

5) Don't be afraid to go beyond answering our questions a bit, if I was a complete expert in the topic I'm asking you about I wouldnâ(TM)t be emailing you now would I? Interesting back stories, info, related data, this is all golden ("What do you mean you're the only vendor that has a syscall proxy? What the heck is a syscall proxy? Oh.. Oh wow.").

6) I love love love covering projects that make cool/useful/nifty/clever software, especially if "staffed" (for lack of a better term to cover commercial and Open Source) by helpful people who are willing to spend 10 minutes helping me and educating me. You make my life easier, I will appreciate it for a very long time. Social capital is valuable, earning it isn't hard.

Re:As a tech writer here's what we want:

[uninformedLuddite]

tech writers sound like utter utter utter bastards

Re:As a tech writer here's what we want:

[seifried]

Dare I ask what you find so offensive?

Re:As a tech writer here's what we want:

[uninformedLuddite]

Well just for one you think it would be good if the press@ address went to multiple people spread over several time zones. You could always PS it with 'would you like some VIAGRA with that?'

Re:As a tech writer here's what we want:

[Anonymous Coward]

thank you so much

you can find more open source applications here :

aramnet.blogspot.com

Re:As a tech writer here's what we want:

[seifried]

If they want to be accessible quickly. If they don't want to be they can make that's ok too. Here's a hint: my post was titled "As a tech writer here's what we want:". Not demand, not expect, but "want". I also want a pony (I just don't want to have to clean up after it), doesn't mean I'm getting one.

The FAQ comment.

[Restil]

His comment about sending people to the FAQ strikes home a bit. I'm sure I'm guilty of doing exactly this, and I try to be more personal with those who might be showing an interest for journalistic purposes, when several hundred people a day ask the exact same question, I'm going to redirect their page directly to the FAQ. Occasionally people do get hacked off about that, and for much the same reasons the author just described. They want a "personal" answer instead of one I decided to write for a general audience. But if you ask me the same exact question as everyone else, how is my response going to be any more or less personal if I type it out verbatim each and every time it's asked?

To be fair, I only do that when I have a pre-canned direct answer to a direct question. I also send them directly to the exact FAQ entry that answers their question, and not to the top level of the FAQ itself. And if they do happen to ask a question that calls for a deeper, more meaningful answer than the FAQ can provide, I will happily spell it out. This applies to everyone, not just reporters. Of course, anyone identifying themselves as a reporter will get the personal treatment anyway, and it's silly to do otherwise unless you suspect a malicious intent on their part, but that's USUALLY not the case.

Another tip when dealing with reporters: True, don't treat them like they're stupid or completely devoid of any knowledge of the subject they're trying to cover (even if they are). However, there's still a good chance that all of their subject matter about you and your project will be confined to the interview itself. You might gloss over or completely ignore a topic that is obvious to you, and the end result could be misinterpreted by the reporter. To use open source as an example, imagine if you think the reporter understands the basic concepts behind open source software, but he has no clue that you require a computer to run it. Of course, you don't want to make that assumption, but it's helpful to at least slip in any helpful information that might get overlooked. Even tech support people will still ask if the computer is plugged in.

One last bit, if the focus of an article is about a website, and your website is family friendly, make sure you check the family-friendly nature of all sites you link to. Newspaper editors, at the last minute, with no warning, like to put in huge bold CYA warnings about the "inappropriate" nature of sites that yours links to. This could cause others to misjudge the nature of YOUR site as a result.

-Restil

Re:The FAQ comment.

[seifried]

Honestly though if the FAQ answers my question (and I somehow missed it, didn't find it, or whatever) then I'd be generally quite happy with an RTFM answer (although that's usually the first thing I try, I write so that people will read my stuff, I assume others write documentation for similar reasons =). One thing to note: they may be looking for an updated answer (some FAQs are atrociously out of date and wrong).I think this can all be summed up by a great quote I just saw:

People that can be discouraged from writing SHOULD be discouraged from writing

Which I actually think is true of any craft that requires a high degree of skill to do right.

Touché

[gd2shoe]

Touché.

Do your own damn work

[name*censored*]

Why do reporters think they're better than everyone else? No-one else has access to a high-ranking developer just to hold their hands and walk them through a project when that information is already out there (the other users seem to get along fine, or you wouldn't have heard of the project). Just because you're the modern equivalent of the loud-mouthed town gossip, doesn't make you special. Regardless of what journalist screed (the number of articles I've seen of journalists portraying themselves as fantastic heroes and the amount of journalistic fraternity/nepotism makes me sick) and corporate PR departments (they're using you, duh) say, you're not special. No-one gives a flying fuck about your "deadline". Deadlines are your problem and you should take it up with your boss if it's unworkable. There are millions of bored schoolkids with blogs chomping at the bit to take your place. If you're to stand a chance of staying afloat you have to offer something they won't - quality research (which takes time and effort). Remember that you're here to serve us, and you have more to gain than us*, not the other way around. [/rant]

* You may think that reporters are vital for "The Year Of The Linux Desktop", but I'm not buying it. Firstly, large F/OSS projects like mainstream distros do have many, many press avenues, and yet 2009 still isn't YOTLD. Secondly, YOTLD is an utopia us *nixers want where we get all of the good stuff associated with popularity (better hardware vendor support, mainstream acceptance of F/OSS principles, increased interoperability, richer software library, more developers/code contributors/bug fixers) without any of the bad stuff (malware, brainless users, bigger stakes on the developer Ego Wars, more hardware/software support nightmares, more pressure, more "boring bits" and less coding fun, etc). If YOTLD is delivered by reporters (instead of by technical merit and word-of-mouth), it will be because they dumbed it down, and we'd get mostly disadvantage and only a few of the advantages. Basically, YOTLD is a wet dream where society changes to be more computer literate, and most/all of our current IT nightmares die because everyone's using their brain. This is not as unlikely as you think - nowadays everyone's kid is a techno-wiz. Even if "techno-wiz" only means "I can work the myspace and the msn", the perception of ability alone might be enough to overcome their trepidation of computing, and allow them to try new things (ie, Linux).

Re:Do your own damn work

[seifried]

Uhmm I don't (and I'm not technically a reporter, more of a writer). I'm not looking for hand holding, I typically do my homework (download software, play with it, read change logs, documentation/etc. But sometimes I have question or want to know things that aren't covered in the documentation (like "what motivated you to make this?" or "where do you see technology X heading in the future"). I would also note that most developers, like pretty much anyone has the option of ignoring requests (for interviews, bug fixes, whatever) or just hitting the delete key, it's not like a reporter will stalk them (in most cases anyways).

Not sure where you get the year of the Linux desktop thing, but I may as well respond. Personally I don't believe in the year of the Linux desktop and think it's a waste of time. I've been running Linux since Slackware 1.0 (floppies... lots of floppies, 53 which you could cram into a 50 box without much damage), and I'm not even using it on my desktop (and I've tried). In other words I've seen "year of the linux desktop" for about a decade now and somehow I don't think this year will be much different. On the server though, heck yeah. I suspect with the way things are going the desktop will become largely irrelevant (smart phones and other appliance type devices, web based apps, computer mediated reality, etc.) and that a lot of servers and "embedded" devices will be running Linux.

Re:Do your own damn work

[pearl298]

I think the point is to have say 90% the information IN ONE PLACE!

Not spread over 20,000 source code comments and 60 wiki pages.

If YOU don't know what you are developing why expect anyone else to?

Of course if you are really in the business of developing abandonware then ignore all of this.

Re:Do your own damn work

[extrasolar]

Secondly, YOTLD is an utopia us *nixers want where we get all of the good stuff associated with popularity (better hardware vendor support, mainstream acceptance of F/OSS principles, increased interoperability, richer software library, more developers/code contributors/bug fixers) without any of the bad stuff (malware, brainless users, bigger stakes on the developer Ego Wars, more hardware/software support nightmares, more pressure, more "boring bits" and less coding fun, etc). If YOTLD is delivered by reporters (instead of by technical merit and word-of-mouth), it will be because they dumbed it down, and we'd get mostly disadvantage and only a few of the advantages. Basically, YOTLD is a wet dream where society changes to be more computer literate, and most/all of our current IT nightmares die because everyone's using their brain.

Hear hear! +1 :)

whatever you do

[Anonymous Coward]

for fucks sake shave and take a bath before you take any photos for your press release or web site.

there are too many filthy geeks in open source and it stinks the place up.

rms... i'm looking at you.

Of course...but

[improfane]

That's fine enough, especially for projects where the people with a vested interest in the project are geeks or developers already.

However if you really want your project to be accepted you have to make an effort to make it accessible to business. The real world runs on time, not love of coding.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a particularly interesting essay that is pertinent. Essentially, Linux could be argued more popular today because of its openness and sellability. Read Linus' Linux announcement, it's so full of energy and approachability and it's COMPLETELY newsworthy for any press. Like 'Student takes on Microsoft'.

I love open source because it lets me do things I am incapable of and if it were not for well designed project pages, they would still be dead to me.

Publicity + accessibility = more users + more contributions

Your project will garner support if you put some initial effort into it. I wonder how many OSS coders think they're god's gift to the earth and feel that any time besides coding is a waste of time...

Your problem not ours

[Secret Rabbit]

Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. But, as has been stated above, Open-source is largely done by volunteers. So, thinking that you can get a response, any response, within a couple hours is profoundly naive/stupid. It's likely that while you send your email to the spokesman while doing your day job, (s)he is at his/her day job working and won't get around to check his/her PERSONAL account for several hours. It's the nature of the beast and ignoring that is... well... naive/stupid.

Honestly, what you're attempting is to get "us" to bend over backwards to solve your problem. And I rather take offense to that. "We" are not your monkeys.

But, tell me, why can't you just say to your boss something like, "The guys that develop this are volunteers and won't be able to get back to us in time because they are at there day jobs right now. How about I figure out who to talk to and send off an email while you get me something else to work on for right now?"

Re:Your problem not ours

[gcobb]

But, tell me, why can't you just say to your boss something like, "The guys that develop this are volunteers and won't be able to get back to us in time because they are at there day jobs right now. How about I figure out who to talk to and send off an email while you get me something else to work on for right now?"

Sometimes they can and sometimes they can't. Sometimes they have the time to do research and other times they don't. They may have fired off requests to half a dozen people and they will use the first 2 or 3 to respond. That is the way of the world.

If they have sold their editor on a feature article on (say) Debian 5.0 then I would expect them to send off a few requests for info or interviews with a deadline of a few days and to be willing to spend some time doing some research on the web. On the other hand, if they have sold their editor on a feature article on trends in the netbook market then they have probably sent requests to Dell, Microsoft, Qualcom, ... as well as to Ubuntu, Debian, KDE, ... They may be intending to use the first couple of commercial companies who can respond and the first couple of open-source projects who can respond.

My day job is in marketing in the software industry. I often work with the press and other PR targets (e.g. analysts). Sometimes I can respond quickly and other times not. I understand their deadlines (which vary hugely) and they understand my issues. The reality is that sometimes I can help them and other times I can't. If I can't help them then I don't complain when they haven't covered my message.

In my view, more open-source projects should take a semi-professional approach to press coverage. Create good press releases. Have a press page on the website with useful resources for the press. Have a press@... email list for the press to contact, preferably with members in different timezones. Have agreed upon messages that all the people on that list are working towards getting out.

In the case where commercial companies choose to contribute engineering resources I would like them to consider also contributing some PR/marketing resource as well.

It's not hard, honest

[cheros]

You need three things:

1 - understanding what a reported needs for his/her story - ask if you're unsure (that's also honest, which will help)
2 - a reasonable character (a sense of humour helps) - rigid opinions can trip you up. That doesn't mean flexible ETHICS, but the world isn't black and white.
3 - decide what you want out of the discussion

Three things you must avoid:

1 - your ego - be normal (I personally detest people with star attitudes who have delusions of adequacy)
2 - jargon or complexity
3 - detail. If you can't summarise your project, discuss it with the journalist - if they are clued up they can actually help you with that and you'll end up with a win-win.

Three things you must NEVER, EVER even try:

1 - Assume. Stay with the facts or say you don't know (and get back to them before deadline - don't forget that part)
2 - Lie. You will be found out and suffer for it.
3 - Talk without expertise. Don't BS.

I'm frequently interviewed because of some things I do. Simply understanding what the other party needs is elementary to getting a good story in the press - even when you're busy managing a disaster. Being honest with the press or stating you don't yet know is always better than trying to spin a story. There are whole governments busy finding out that no longer works..

Oh, one more thing: the story will never look like you expect unless you have control over final print (rare but possible). "Publish and be damned" is true to some degree :-)

I follow a general rule: I deal with people, then with their role. Lawyers are people doing a (difficult) job, so are policemen and journalists. If you deal with any person like a normal human being regardless of what they do you'll discover the quantity of people with personality defects sinks (you will always have a few idiots, but it's not as common as people appear to think).

Getting a good connection with a journalist means they'll be back for more - worth your time.

Good luck.

Marketing does not believe docs are important.

[Futurepower(R)]

"What the hell is going on at the Oracle website, for example?"

Here is a guess: The technically knowledgeable people are paid to develop products. Management considers them too expensive to document what they do.

Instead, Oracle management hires marketing people to supervise the development of the web site and documentation. The marketing people have no interest in technology -- none. They are bored with their jobs. They secretly think that technically knowledgeable people are inferior. They do, however, learn some buzz-words so that they can pretend that they understand.

The marketing people don't believe technical communication is important. They have seen numerous examples of people being able to use Oracle products even though the documentation is poor. The web site and product manuals are either almost useless or written for people who already understand the products. Editing for clarity is very limited.

The writers are hired as consultants. When a writer doesn't understand something, he or she just doesn't document it, or gives a limited explanation.

Oracle web site page chosen completely at random: Oracle Database Management Packs.

Quote (Title): "Get Maximum Performance With ROI of 100%" Translation: Meaningless.

Quote (First sentence): "Oracle provides an integrated management solution for managing Oracle database with a unique top-down application management approach." Translation: Meaningless. A "management solution for managing a management approach"? But... It's "integrated"! And, notice the grammatical error. It should be "managing Oracle databases".

When I see trash like that I feel sad. I sometimes think I should contact the board of directors and ask to be CEO, so that the company will have adult supervision. I'm being sarcastic, but I really do feel genuinely sad about corporate self-defeat.

More sarcasm: Will the combination of Oracle and Sun be called "Snoracle"?

Seriously: Will PostgreSQL eventually be the world's most popular database software? To me, those two quotes from the Oracle web site are a very effective ad for PostgreSQL.

Re:Marketing does not believe docs are important.

[jbolden]

I think you are generally right except for "The web site and product manuals are either almost useless or written for people who already understand the products."

Oracle publishes about a 1/2 dozen "concept" manuals designed to teach concepts about various technologies. The technical people do write good materials. Also Oracle used to have excellent tutorial manuals and the database still ships with great learning databases standard.

And that isn't counting oracle press which has about a dozen very good books.

The marketing people suck at marketing. The education people do a nice job.

Examples?

[jotaeleemeese]

Examples that show RMS has been a prick with the press?

Re:Examples?

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

he's been a prick to ME. refusing an autograph on Suse install CD because "it contained proprietary software".

fanaticism like this is guaranteed to generate a bad impression on the mainstream press.

Re:Examples?

[jbolden]

The mainstream press loves fanatics. They make for great stories.

The poroblem with all this ....

[jotaeleemeese]

... is that there is an undertone of sense of entitlement.

I don't know if that is good or bad, but I certainly see how that would cross a lot of folks in the IT world, some of whom have overinflated egos.

When the press needs information from people with overinflated egos (sports, show business) they play a self defeating game of who wags the tail.

It feels like you want to bring the same dynamics when dealing with geeks, it may or may not work, but you just need to look at the tabloid and sports media to see the sorry state of such approach to journalism.

Re:The poroblem with all this ....

[seifried]

... is that there is an undertone of sense of entitlement.

I think you're reading that in yourself. Again, this was a posting describing what we "want", not necessarily what we're expecting or plan to get. Think of it thus: "if you really want to make A possible then doing B, C and D will help significantly. You don't have to do these things to make A possible, but it really helps". Just like putting up a public bug wiki helps if you want people to submit bugs against your software, or having a mailing list if you want people to participate.

Why are some reporters such babies?

[herojig]

Honestly, I write about software all day, open & closed source, and I have never taken what's being discussed as a problem. That's the job: to dig out the facts of the case. There is hardly a lack of facts about, but it does take a bit of work to find them and then write something coherent - a task that most mainstream tech journalists can't seem to complete these days. If you're a writer that can't deal with a stressed or overworked developer, or a lack of information or understanding of the subject, then perhaps tech writing is not for you. I was lucky, as I cut my teeth writing about software while working at old school IBM, with the most uptight and cranky developers on the face of the 1980s planet to deal with. That was great basic training, as the developers of today act like powder puffs when compared to those guys:+)

Local Newspapers

[centuren]

Talk to your local newspaper about a mention in their business/technology section. You may get lucky and have a non-incredible project get written about by nature of it being local; i.e. an overall unexciting twitter client covered through the angle of "twitter" + "local".

The point of this isn't to have subscribers exposed to your project, but gaining another source for greater exposure. I frequently see stories on Slashdot that link to articles on my local paper's online version that I had just read in the hard copy paper that same morning.

Re:Local Newspapers

[laffer1]

That's great except that newspapers are dying. The newspaper here went out of business just a few months ago. (Ann Arbor, MI)

"Press Contacts"

[Anonymous Coward]

The above mentioned corporate entities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year JUST to handle such press requests.

They do so primarily because they understand that publicity=shoppers=sales=$$$$$

This is not an exiting open source project financial model.

As has been pointed out, open source developers are most often unpaid volunteers, people whose specialties are in technical areas, not in PR, and who will get no reimbursement of any kind for their troubles...and for a techie, having to explain shit on a 4th grade level is excruciating.

Reporting is not asking a few questions and then writing up the answers (though reading the media today, one certainly sees little else, much 'reporting' today consists of rewriting (or not) press releases.) The prime consideration on most stories is not "it's important" but rather, "it's entertaining."

Reporting means digging through masses of data and finding things out for yourself, if you are very lucky, some of those will be gems, or lead to something of real interest, often they will be dead ends.

As a reporter, it is your job to find out things and interpret them for the public. You are asking other people to spoon feed you information, which many, many entities are perfectly willing to do. But that is NOT reporting. Any company is always happy to tell you how great their latest product/feature/"innovation" is, but they are also the least dependable source for reliable information--recognize that they DO have an agenda of their own--to get customers at the very least. Actually delivering information, which would include the not-so-hot bits is not part of their agenda.

For information on what it going on in an open source project, you need to monitor and scan the forums--which is were quite a large proportion of what is going on will be found, as it is a major internal development information channel---open source developers seldom are physically close enough to work by 'dropping by' each other's work spaces.

Are you working journalist? Or a spoon fed rewrite PR person? Up to you.

You want spoon-feeding about open source, you need to approach those entities which make their money by selling the stuff with 'value-added.'

Is that really her name, though?

[Rix]

Or is it just her stage name? Mayhaps she really was named Yakspit Cox-Feces.

(Very) low numbered /. ids

[SL Baur]

I feel a little strange about it...

It's more realistic than the articles I read in PC Journal when they were spinning off a sister magazine for the ill-fated PC Junior.

Every person with industry experience, including knowledgeable writers knew that the PC Junior was going to lose. Those that didn't jumped on board the PC Journal's PC Junior edition and wrote glowing articles about how HAPPY they were to be moving to the new publication and how much they liked the PC Junior. Maybe they got good severance benefits?

Trust me elder slashdotter, most of us can spot a tech writer fake a mile away and bad copy does not pay.

So where should I go to get input?

[Esther Schindler]

I think most "journalist" are so busy and have such tight deadlines, that they over rely on people that are paid to speak to the press. Open source, by its nature is a low-cost, high quality grass-roots effort. Even the most successful FOSS companies are tiny and have tighter margins than the for profits. Free software is customer driven (requested not sold) and doesn't have the money or staff to generate press releases or provide a pretty marketing type to spoon feed a story.

If we rely overmuch on PR people (including PR people for the larger FOSS projects and organizations), perhaps it's because the FOSS developers don't respond to our queries?

Often, we very much want input from Real Developers. But if you are all saying, "I'm too busy, someone else will have to respond" (even when your project wants more public attention, which is a tacit requirement for any of this conversation), then all the requests in this thread that journalists "take the time to research" are meaningless. I can't interview you if you won't talk to me.

Case in point. I'm working on a feature story about open source right now, about a process that goes on in FOSS communities -- not about the technology involved in any project in particular. I've posted a note on www.helpareporterout.com and I posted a Question on LinkedIn. Happily, I've gotten some great responses from FOSS projects (large and small, well known and just-emerging) so I'm not worried that I won't have enough input. However, if YOUR project would like to be mentioned as something cool to be involved with (and incidentally attract a few more developers to contribute), then you won't know I'm even asking.

When I'm writing an article about, say, open source database trends, or new scripting languages, I can make a list of FOSS projects, do a bunch of reading, and then maybe find the right communities to contact. (Half of which, I've learned from experience, will ignore my requests.) But I often ask questions (I like to think they're good questions) that apply to the FOSS development process or community. It's not easy to find a venue in which to ask these questions where I can be sure I'll get a good cross section of FOSS developers who do have time to answer.

--Esther (who's happy to share my current question-list by email)