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

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:Gentoo??

[drseuk]

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

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]

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

[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.

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.

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).

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

[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?

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.

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

[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.

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".

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.

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).

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?"

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.