Hi Chris,

First, I love your quote close to the bottom of your message:

> mere, simple repetition. That's marketing, that's public relations. Squeak
> is better than both (context: Tide and Coke-a-Cola). It's practically 
> divine. 

:)

Forming a Public Relations/Marketing team for Squeak is a great idea. If we 
(individuals in the Squeak community)  think we have a tool that is better or 
equal to than 95% of the other tools out there, we should not be afraid to 
shout it out and get more attention to it.  Squeak can be improved and 
morphed, but it is still great, so let us say it.

Squeak now has 2 teams (web and news) that are related to the PR area, and 
also every company and individual who uses Squeak, (on their website with 
Seaside, or Squeak browser plugin), every Squeak Blogger are part of the PR 
effort, but it would be great if in addition Squeak has a targetted planned 
campaing to promote it.

So thanks for making the leap, and go for it, Milan

On 2007 January 8 14:28, Chris Cunnington wrote:
> 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