On 2/16/06, Dominique Cimafranca <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks all for the comments. I'm wrapping up the first version of the
<snip>
> A Linux and Open Source Software Primer for Philippine Journalists
<snip>
to me, this is starting to sound more and more like a press release.
not that there's anything wrong with that, and if i understand
correctly, the objective is to promote use of linux and foss software,
which i'm totally for.
however, a couple of issues:
1. what makes it a primer specifically for journalists? i don't see
anything specific to journalism that wouldn't apply to any other group
of users, like for example, housewives, or biologists, or the
uninitiated linux-challenged public. why not call it "Linux and Open
Source Software: A Primer" (for the unitiated, the general public, or
something to that effect). are there any issues in this primer that
address journalism specific issues? the reason for asking this is that
for people like me in a different field who see words in the title
like "for journalists" will not not even bother to look at the article
thinking its only for journalists, when in fact, i could also read it
and benefit as much as the next journalist out there.
2. what is the rationale for writing the article? if this will be
distributed online, doesn't it just make it redundant since there's
a lot of linux articles for beginners out there. I would guess that
any journalist is trained on the art of research, so he/she should be
able to find the information about linux and open source fairly easily
with a simple google search. the only things i really see different in
the article are the plug ang philippine specific ones. so why not
call this "PLUG, FOSS & Linux: A primer ..."?
3. if this is supposed to be used as a primary reference by
journalists, then i'd be wary about quoting wikipedia.org articles.
not that wikipedia.org is bad, but to me, wikipedia cannot be used as
a primary source, no matter how accurate a particular article was
written. when citing primary sources, especially for technical things,
you wanna be quoting experts, and a source where everybody can
contribute hardly qualifies as being written by experts. of course,
for all i know, experts wrote a particular wikipedia article. but
would you bet on it?
hope this helps.
cheers!
renan
--
House: ``But, as the philosopherJagger once said, 'You can't always
get what you want.'''
Cuddy (later in episode): ``Oh, I looked into that philosopher you
quoted-Jagger. And you're right, you can't always get what you want.
But as it turns out, If you try sometimes, you get what you need.''
- House, pilot episode
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