At 10:41 PM 4/27/01 -0400, barries wrote:
>On Fri, Apr 27, 2001 at 11:44:49PM +0800, Stas Bekman wrote:
> >
> > Since mod_perl is an open source, it's a tough quest. Basically what I
> > want is get some company that will benefit from me working on open source
> > project full time and pay me a salary. Of course it's probably hard to get
> > a full time open source position, so probably some compromising offer,
> > where we do some 50-75% of the time mod_perl development and the rest
> > doing something else, if it makes the company more happy.
>
>As you and others have mentioned here now and in the past, mod_perl
>needs PR and working apps (which are both good PR and good reasons for
>others to start using it as a means to an end: like the new Slash code,
>for instance).
I agree 100%. If I might throw my $.02 in, IMHO a part of this marketing
should be a more "brochureware" perl.apache.org. The content there is top
notch and I can't say enough good things about it. The amount of
documentation is simply amazing and there are many commercial products that
aren't as well documented. However, the current site looks like it was
designed by a programmer. And I mean no offense, because that is also how
my personal site currently looks. :-)
I think that perl.apache.org should present a more "professional" face to
corporate people who are looking at using perl/mod_perl. For an example,
look at the various java.apache.org sites. They have navigation and are
split into multiple sections and pages. Someone took the time to section
off the various topics and put together graphics and navigation. I'm sure
the amount of data/documentation is the same between say Tomcat and
mod_perl, but I prefer the packaging of the java sites.
If we are to get more corporate interest in mod_perl, the community should
work to present the information about mod_perl in such a way that the
managers/business people who make the decisions can reason that mod_perl is
a technology they should use. We already know mod_perl is great, we just
have to make the rest of the world realize it. Marketing is as much about
appearance as capabilities. Just look at the marketing depts that dotcoms
put together to hype a product that didn't yet exist!
I remember seeing some proofs done by Robin Berjon (I'm sure I'm not
spelling it right!) long ago that I really liked. But they were never used
AFAIK. I also registered modperlnews.(org|com) a while back with the
intention of doing something useful with them, but I have not yet done
anything. I also have some time on my hands while I'm searching for a new
job, so I am volunteering my time if it's needed or wanted. I'll bet that
Template Toolkit (thanks Andy!) would work wonderfully for putting a new
face on the site. If the powers that be are interested, I am available to
help.
And if I'm off track, then tell me and I'll go back to lurking. :-)
>Such an organization could do (aside from the feature development listed
>above):
>
>- general advocacy: press releases, reference cards, publish
> articles and sell a qr/this (article|research) funded by
> (ActiveState|VMWare|Covalent|IBM S/390 Marketing Division|.*)/ credit
Drew Taylor
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.drewtaylor.com/
