Frank Wiles wrote:
Hi Everyone,
Here are the notes I took during the advocacy BOF at OSCON: There was discussion about how it is difficult to get new users because it is difficult to find mod_perl friendly hosting providers. Except full hosted server or User Mode Linux which still means they have to maintain an entire server. Should we maybe have a "How to be a mod_perl web host provdier?" HOWTO?
It was suggested that we advertise via google ad words.
Sadly, our budget is quite close to zero ;-) Unless some company that loves and uses mod_perl and already runs ads thru google ad words could be interested in donating some $$$ to something like this.
Tie the majority of our PR campaign to the release of mp2
Yes, I think if we need focus around a PR campaign like this , the release of the "long awaited" 2.0 version is a _very_ good idea.
Randal said he would be willing to interview Ticketmaster employees for a Linux Journal article.
Ticketmaster would be a good place to interview people, but why stop there ? I am sure there are plenty of people we could find with all sorts of interesting interview possiblilties.
"I have been working here for n years, and we use mod_perl for x y and z,
yet our managers still believe we are running JSPs." is an example I remember
having heard once ;-)
News outlets to target: Economist CIOWell, we could just make sure that there is space reserved for _recent_
New York Times
News on perl.apache.org???? It would give outside news sites a way to easily find out what is happening with mod_perl, but always having stale news wouldn't be good either.
news on the top of perl.apache.org, and post stories about articles posted,
releases, important changes, bug fixes, etc. As long as we cleanup after
ourselves and make sure not to keep the same stale news up there forever,
I think it's a good idea. Sometimes no news, just the regular site, and sometimes
important news. RSS feed even ?
It was suggested that we have a better quickstart guide for new users with stub handlers, stub apache configs, etc. Maybe have a "run in place" installation for people to try mod_perl.
Need to go after the managers and sysadmins as well as the programmers. Because each has different concerns that need to be addressed.
Yes, and we also need to gather more information o nwhat those needs and concerns _really_ are. I mean, I am so biased, I think mod_perl is the solution to everything , lol. I am not quite sure what the SA where I work hate the most about it for instance. I'll ask them shortly ;-)
Need some PR related to sites that are switching from Java, PHP, etc to mod_perl. Overture was suggested as they are moving from Java to mod_perl.
Yes, an interesting field to open up is the process that some companies went thru when chosing a technology. Remember when yahoo picked php, the article about why they chose php was awesome. If we could get similar ideas from people who did spend a significant amount of time chosing their next platform and chosing mod_perl, it would be certainly interesting.
And even getting stories (at least for ourselves) as to why mod_perl was not chosen could help us focus development in different directions.
We should focus on getting users in the door by showing them the instant power of Apache::Registry as a stepping stone to the full power of mod_perl.Oh, that's for sure. More pretty graphs to look at is always good. Numbers
We need someone to lead the PR push. To head up and coordinate the campaign. Need more numbers to show people in the press releases such as number of sites, book sales,
and graphs. We also need to realize the quantity of mod_perl powered systems
out there that are just not seen by netcraft and the like (X-Powered-by: mod_perl anyone?)
Need to find and/or use our existing contacts to get in the door at certain news organizations.Yes, let's talk to the people we work with. Let's find out the kind of combined
resources we can gather. There is got be at least one press agency that runs
mod_perl somewhere isn't it ?
We should use the weight of the Perl Foundation and the Apache Foundation to help us in all of these areas.
Yes, and can we think of a point person for the Perl Foundation and another person for the ASF to act as the bridge ?
Get money from companies using mod_perl to help with the advocacy campaign such as Ticketmaster.
Money is always hard to get, but let's also ask for whatever resources are available.
Need to get more articles in trade magazines in general.
Need to get the string 'mod_perl' in the face of people more often.
Regular posting to slashdot, for instance. Is mod_perl on freshmeat.net at all ?
--------------------------------- Frank Wiles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://frank.wiles.org ---------------------------------
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