Renan Yson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > 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.
Well, we can always rebrand or recycle it for other groups. Targeting an article for a specific audience is nice because it makes the target group feel warm and fuzzy, and it reassures them that their needs will be addressed. I'm all for making a primer specifically for journalists, even if it just means adding a couple of journalist-specific things such as people to ask if the journalist needs a good quote under time pressure. I'm also in favor of making primers for biophysicists and other people who might want to learn about open source. Sure, they can read the general "What is Open Source?" articles scattered all over the Internet, but they'd be more attracted to something written specifically for them. Think of it this way: there's an O'Reilly book on Perl for bioinformatics! How cool is that? =) > 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 We need something for local flavor. When it comes to press releases, the facts are not as important as the people behind them. A primer for journalists isn't a static, standalone document. It is an invitation to ask more questions. They need to be able to skim through things and get a clear idea of the issues (particularly common misconceptions like free software = open source = Linux!). Journalists need to feel comfortable enough to pick up the phone and ask questions, too, just in case they need more information about a particular aspect or they need a quote with local flavor. That's what you won't get by just throwing a Google search at them. Journalists may be trained on the art of research, but even they would appreciate having resources chosen for them by an expert who is willing to answer questions and guide them to more resources. Heck, I might know a bit about Linux but I _still_ find the wealth of information on the Internet bewildering. =) -- Sacha Chua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - open source, free software geekette http://sacha.free.net.ph/ - PGP Key ID: 0xE7FDF77C interests: emacs, gnu/linux, personal information management, public speaking sachac on irc.freenode.net#emacs . YM: sachachua83 _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
