>>> Again, I am not convinced that advocacy is something mere money can
solve.
>>> It might help but people who use it, have a good experience and then
talk
>>> about it or write about are is worth more than an ad in the Standard.
>>I think you need both. Money won't solve any problems, but sadly, I think
>>that without money all the advocacy in the world may not get perl much
>>further than it already is. Money allows you to build critical mass. The
>>building though, is done through 'real' things like proving yourself,
>>projects, eferences,articles, and everything else.
> Elaine said:
> Well, what can money really do here. Everyone is saying pretty much the
> same thing only slightly differently and, for the most part, agreeing yet
> it's not really clear what it is. What could money buy for Perl that it
> doesn't have now and, at the same time, not sell its soul?
>
> So, a whole lot of people use Perl but it's not as well known as Java.
> This happens with people too where the people who do the work go unnoticed
> while the flashy talking head takes all the credit. Perl is just there
> like running water...you only notice it when it's gone. Why is this seen
> as a failure in advocacy?
Hmmm, I didn't mean to suggest that there has been a failure of perl
advocacy....I gues my feeling is that the advocacy could have greater punch
if backed by some money.
What could money do? Money could add legitimacy and recognition. But as you
say, there is delicate balance between money in support of a good project
and money as a corrupting influence.
I guess I feel that there is still room to bring more money into the
movement before there is a real, lasting corrupting effect.
You know, as I write this, I wonder if there is some good existing
literature on the funding of non profit movements like greenpeace or NAACP
that we could learn from? I also suspect that the EFF could give us some
useful thoughts. If I have the chance, I will try to talk to someone over
at EFF and see if they have thoughts.
> If you had $500,000 what would you do with it? Be specific.
I would start a guerilla marketing campaign similar to what Stas has
suggested. Our Open Source evangelist, Josh, suggested taking out page ads
in various magazines like Red Hering and Buisness 2.0 (Okay, not very
guerilla but you said I had 500K) that are just a white page with....
"Perl - used every day at Barclays Capital"
or
"Perl - used every day at Intel"
or
"Perl - used every day at NASA"
I would also put about 100K into developing a perl for business site (maybe
perl.com) that served the CIO audience better.
>>> I recommend reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" since it reminded me a
>>> lot of the Perl pantheon and open source mythology :)
>>
>>Will look out for it. This is his non-graphic book right?
> No, it's not porn, it's fiction. :)
Will read...I meant like it was not a Sandman issue or something. :)
