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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.'"
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.