[IAEP] Getting the message out - take2

[Walter Bender]

thanks for the thoughtful feedback.

-walter

On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 5:33 PM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> If I may offer two cents, I have worked in journalism and corporate
> communications.
>
> As I am not sure what the target audience is for this text (FOSDEM
> attendees? journalists? bloggers?), my suggestions may not be useful,
> but:
>
> I would dispense with the negativity at the beginning. Don't bother
> complaining about zero press coverage, that doesn't encourage anyone
> to write about Sugar, could even be construed as bitterness towards
> journalists. "OLPC ditched" is too negative; this last separation
> followed previous steps and should be spun as independence=opportunity
> rather than ditched=we're on the roadside. Some perspective: the
> general mood around the world is far more negative due to the
> financial situation than the Sugar situation; many NGOs are scaling
> back (or discussing it), etc. What *you* have is good news: despite
> the bad economy, despite the recent difficulties at OLPC which saw the
> birth of Sugar, Sugar Labs is focused more than ever on its mission --
> and that mission should be right in the all-important lead. I would
> venture that "Sugar Labs will support Sugar" doesn't qualify as
> newsworthy. May I suggest using the lead to remind anyone and everyone
> that the goal is education, and Sugar the vector; e.g.: "Sugar Labs,
> developer of the Sugar computer learning environment for children,
> announces new milestones following its recent separation from the One
> Laptop Per Child organization:"
>
>
> Acronyms: Many journalists who cover free software will know what
> OLPC, OSL, SFC are. But, some may not. As bytes are inexpensive,
> spelling these out will simplify any journo's work and aid search
> engine indexing.
>
>
> Development cycle: I believe it's vital to refer to the rapidity of
> development - it's a key differentiator compared to proprietary
> development. As it is also vital to insist on the number of Sugar
> machines out in dozens of countries, I would reword the second to last
> point (correcting any errors of fact):
>
> - The development cycle is proceeding steadily and 0.84 will be
> released as planned in March. This follows the successful deployment
> of 0.82 in October, preinstalled on XO machines currently shipping to
> Peru, Rwanda, Uruguay, Nepal, Mongolia, Haiti, and 17 other countries,
> with over half a million already deployed.
>
> As this is also a key milestone, and refutation to doubters, I would
> counsel moving it up in the list, right to the first position -- it
> answers the first question of anyone slightly informed. e.g. "What's
> up with Sugar after OLPC's last announcement?". It also informs the
> totally uninformed that Sugar is in front of half a million
> disadvantaged youngsters.
>
>
> Is this useful?
>
> Sean
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:09 PM, Bernie Innocenti <bernie at codewiz.org> wrote:
>> David Van Assche wrote:
>>> Actually, this is really important, I've been asked several times
>>> whether development on sugar has been stopped due to the olpc thing...
>>> so its definitly a good idea to spread this message....
>>
>> You seem to be good at blogging.  How about reorganizing this into
>> something more appealing and then publish it in various places?
>>
>> --
>>   // Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
>>  \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://www.sugarlabs.org/
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org