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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] news.news.com.com
From:       Darian Lanx <bio () gmx ! net>
Date:       2002-02-17 2:04:12
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Waldo Bastian wrote:
> On Saturday 16 February 2002 02:15 pm, Tink wrote:
> 
> > I discussed this with Waldo, sometimes there are advantages being
> > married to a KDE developer ;-), he will work things out and will make
> > a proposition for a mainstream press release.
> > 
> 
> Well, yes. The idea is that the mainstream press isn't interested in whether 
> we are using Qt 3.0.1 or Qt 3.0.2 so in order to get some attention there I 
> think we should have a press release from a more popular angle that has some 
> human interest appeal.
I happen to disagree. While the mainstream press might not be interested 
in the _details_ of using QT3 they are interested in the why and how to 
use QT3. It does make sense to stress, even for them, what pros and 
conns the use of QT3 introduces, how it enables KDE to become an even 
better platform for coders and how it ensures, that it remains a high 
quality product.
The "bug freeness" or stabillity of a product, not to mention how it 
scales and behaves based on its environment has become an increasingly 
popular factor in humans decisions when they ask themselves what to run 
on their PC. Recent internal usabillity studies of above.net here show 
that quite nicely.

> 
> Think of yourself as the editor of a newspaper or magazine, you have a 
> deadline at 10 and you are looking for something to fill up that last 2" x 2" 
> white spot.

If they are approaching KDE with that attitude, they are not interested 
in anything better than filler text and that is not really what I would 
think KDE to want. A press release is something that cannot be printed, 
at least not for most magazins, it has to be carefully read, the key 
points have to be narrowed down, summarized and then youmight end up 
writing a full article or just publishing your summary. filling a last 
"2 x 2" spot is most likely going to be something mroe towards what 
underware linus prefers.
> 
> Ok, if you have this mindset try to match that with something that is 
> newsworthy about KDE 3. I found that rather hard because KDE 3 is just like 
> KDE 2, just somewhat better.
This is exactkly the isssue we _need_ to focus on. _how_ is it better, 
_why_ is it better, even though it does not come with a million new 
features and _how_ will the changes that have been made now affect the 
coming versions of KDE. I think it is time to stop focusing on featuires 
and promoting KDE as a stable, high quality product with more than just 
nice gadgets to it. It is also time to simplfy the complicated 
background of KDE code and its code base and to explain _why_ itis good 
in laymans terms and terms every IT department head will choke down.

 > Anyway, one of the new things is that we are
> much better able to display languages from all over the world. (All that  
> taiwanese spam that you receive now actually looks as it should!) So I think 
> a good theme for the press release is something like i18n / global / 
> world-wide. (Of course we shouldn't use the term 'i18n' because hardly anyone 
> knows what that is.)
> 
Agreed. International exchange is important and having your own language 
properly displayed will always intruige you to run sucha product.

> Now for the content...  i tried to come up with three things related to this 
> theme. Three, because three is the magic number. (That's why politicians say 
> "no - new - taxes" or "We will not - can not - and must not do that" and of 
> course the famous "Veni-Vidi-Vici" ):
> 
> 1) Support from languages from all around the world.
> 2) Internet support allows you to communicate with people all around the 
> world. (mention much improved & faster webbrowser)
> 3) KDE is developed by people from all around the world.
I thinkt he thrid point is stale, because that is something everybody 
knows allready. There have been numerous articles about KDE, it`s 
community and the people behind it. No need to put any effort into this 
explaining it over and over again.

> 
> And this all should be headed with a catchy title so that people who see it 
> think "hey, what's that about?".
Is this a press release or a guide for an editor how to read it and 
write their article? Commonly a press release is rather plain and 
informative. It might stress certain points, but it is surely not 
catchy... at least ours aren`t. They are a trool to transport important 
information wrapped in an more appealing sheel than just dishing out 
changelogs.

> 
> So here are a few suggestions:
> 
> "KDE turns Desktop into Gateway to the World"
we do?

> "New Software puts the World on your Desktop"
I doubt KDE is able to do that, nor that it ever will.

> "New Desktop for Global World"
I like that one.

> "Global World gets Global Desktop"
even better.

> "Konquer the World with new Desktop"
no comment

> "New Desktop Konquers the World"
I think we are a bit from that point in time.

> "Global Software for a Global World."
like it a lot.

> 
> I think the use of "konquer" is very strong because it is catchy in the sense 
> that people might think it is a spelling-error and well.. those tend to stand 
> out. In the text itself we should of course explain that "Konqueror" is our 
> webbrowser.
There are people who do not know what Konqueror is? Still? <g> ;)

> 
> The secret to success is then to make sure that all this is folded into an 
> easy to read _short_ text.
Well, personally, I would think that there are two texts. A so called 
intial, introductory summarizing Press release, which offers editors a 
quick overview, what topics are covered and what might spark their 
interest. The full press release should of course be _very_ much about 
detail. That is important for an editor if he/she chooses to extract 
information from it for a longer article than a simple quick headliner 
statement.

<snip>
> 
> A link to the traditional verbose announcement should be included to give 
> people an easy way to learn more about KDE3.
Yes, as I mentioned above. Please do not forget printed issues. A 
certain Number of press releases should be mailed _directly_ to their 
offices 2 or 3 days _before_ the initial annoucement on the websites. 
That gives them ample time to react.

> 
> Cheers,
> Waldo
-d

PS: Some great points made and raised, thanks Waldo.




-- 
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
~ Albert Camus ~

 
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