On 1/7/07 3:19 PM, "Brad Fuller" <brad at bradfuller.com> wrote:

> well... the squeaky wheel.... The front page of the website has been
> updated from comments here.
> 
> (What I think we need is a PR team to come up with great evangelistic
> ideas and coordinate messages with the web team, news team and doc team.)


Dear Squeak Committee and Community,

I have been reading the comments about the composition of the Squeak.org
home page this weekend with great interest. As I have started a web host for
Smalltalk (SeasideParasol.com), I am confronted by the same problems you are
about getting the word out about what I offer. I am working actively to
generate publicity for my project -- and Squeak should be actively working
to generate publicity for Squeak.

I was fired up enough about it to call Brad Fuller in Palo Alto (I'm in
Toronto). I just got off the phone with him. I liked the things he had to
say on the message board, and felt I'd ask him about how to volunteer to
assist the Squeak.org project, and to ask how a public relations committee
could be formed for Squeak. He told me that he made mention of a similar
proposal some time ago and it was met with indifference.

That is simply not acceptable. It is imperative that a committee of Squeak
Committee people (or hey, I'll join) convene on a regular basis to do the
bare minimum to promote Squeak. If you think that public relations is not
important, well, see if you disagree with either of the techniques that I
tried last week. They failed for me, but they could work for Squeak.

1. I posted to Slashdot and was rejected. I think that's because saying
"World's First Commercial Smalltalk Web Host" says I'm a business, and not a
non-profit. Squeak is a non-profit project. It's a no-brainer that every
time a new version of Squeak is launched that somebody take 30-seconds to
post to Slashdot. I would point out that recently there was a post
announcing the release of the Amiga 4.0 operating system. Amiga. But that's
not the best part. The kicker is that there is no hardware yet built on
planet Earth that can run this OS. It's expected sometime this year.

2. I posted to Digg.com. I had no success with that. Digg raises the profile
with votes. It would be no problem to announce on this list that people
should go to Digg, register and vote up the news item about a Squeak
project. Mark Guzdial sits on 200 undergrads that he could announce to at
Georgia Tech, and ask them to visit the site to vote an item up. I would
point out that Avi Bryant did this for Dabble DB, and he asked on the
Seaside message board for people to vote his item up.

These are simple things to do. But hey! If you have a better idea, great!
The important thing is to have four or so Squeak people in a committee
thinking about this on a regular basis. The "how" is debatable; the need for
such a body is not. I am moving from journalism (dynamicword.com) to web
hosting for Smalltalk. This stuff, from where I come from, is a no-brainer.
If you don't respect public relations, because you are above it or
something, then I say two things to you: 1. You have no concept of how the
world works; and 2. If you ever complain that Squeak is underappreciated,
and you let this call to action go without the immediate and determined
formation of a Squeak public relations committee, then you have no right to
complain. 

There is a reason why Tide and Coke-a-Cola are the top of mind when people
are asked -- suddenly! -- to name a laundry detergent or a soda pop. It's
mere, simple repetition. That's marketing, that's public relations. Squeak
is better than both. It's practically divine.

I get so incensed about this issue I could bite a rock. The bare minimum
public relations awareness must come to the Squeak community. A committee
doing the obvious must be formed immediately.

If Karl Rove worked for Squeak our problems would be over with very, very
quickly. ;)

Chris Cunnington
Toronto