Re: Marketing PostgreSQL (was Re: Democracy and organisation : let's make a revolution)

Dear Mark,

This is a simple and efficient battle plan, so count on my help.

We need clear ideas and marketing goals. Personnaly, I believe indiviuals can
take care of PostgreSQL marketing without the need of being supported by a
company.

Did you join PostgreSQL WWW Mailing List <pgsql-www(at)postgresql(dot)org>?
This private list is where PostgreSQL web site will be designed.

Cheers,
Jean-Michel POURE

> I've been following these mailing lists for over two years, and I guess now
> is the time to chime in. I agree with Tom that an organized effort is
> necessary. As such, I'd recommend the following:
>
> 1 - Revamp the website. It's not bad, but it should be better designed to
> highlight things for new users as well as all of the documentation that is
> on it (I usually go to google instead of clicking around the website). I
> think the basic site should have four key sections - Application
> Developers, Database Admins, PG Core Developers, News & Downloads.
>
> 2 - Get a list of people who can help with benchmarking efforts. This
> should be for magazines/websites that want to benchmark PG against the
> competition, as well as benchmarking PG on various hardware with various
> options. This could even start out as a simple "Benchmarking PG FAQ"
>
> 3 - Revamp the "Developer's Corner". I'm a web developer, not a PG
> developer, but I still went here looking for info on building apps in Java,
> PHP, Perl, etc that need to connect to PG on the backend. This is probably
> a simple rename, but application developers need a more prominent area.
>
> 4 - Reach out and talk to authors & developers. We have a great database
> here - let's tell the world. This can be simple - identify the major
> magazines & web sites, rank order them by relevant audience. Then, make
> sure we contact someone at each site once a month, and that they get press
> releases via email. (email is essentially free, so why not send them out to
> all the magazines/web sites?)
>
> 5 - Show off PGAdmin!!! You'd think it was just an afterthought when
> looking around the web site. We should promote that as a great tool to
> manage PG, so that MS users can get the courage to try it out. We can't
> market it like MS can (unless someone around here dhas $40 billion lying
> around), but we can sure make PGAdmin more prominent on the site.
>
> 6 - Improve the Windows port. I am convinced that mySQL is popular because
> a windows user can download Apache, PHP, and mySQL onto his machine and
> learn how it works. When he's ready, he can move to *nix. PG doesn't have
> that advantage (no newbie is going to mess with cygwin setup on his Windows
> 98 machine). Also, just because Windows is not an optimal database platform
> doesn't mean we shouldn't serve it better - a lot of people (myself
> included) cut their teeth on Windows computers, simply because they cannot
> afford the time or money to learn another OS just to be able to use a
> database.
>
> 7 - A simple thing, really. Can someone change the order of the months on
> the mailing list archive home page? Scrolling down for 66 months, just to
> click on the "by date" or "by thread" link for the current month just bugs
> me. Whether this is possible or not, I don't know - I just wanted to
> comment about it because I'm sure there are others with the same complaint.
>
>
> Anyway, these are just a couple of ideas I have. I have used PG since 7.0,
> and have been incredibly happy with it. As for any competition with MySQL,
> so what? Let's learn from what they do better than us, and use that to
> increase our visibility.
>
>
> On a side note, I'd like to thank *all* of the people that have contributed
> to PG. I started out in the open source database world with MySQL, but have
> grown to love the reliability of PG. For the last several years, I have
> been responsible for several MS SQL Server 2000 (and 7.0) servers. They
> have an easy to use database, in that Enterprise Manager is almost as
> simple as Access (no flames, please!). They also market the heck out of it.
> I never knew that PG would ever be as easy to use - until I used PGAdmin. I
> can only say one thing - WOW! (although I still use the command line - old
> habits die hard...) Anyway, thanks to all of you for allowing me to play
> (and work!) with such a great database.
>
> Regards,
> Mark Radulovich
>
> PS - I'm willing to donate time to the website and the other items listed
> above.
>
> ======================
> Tom Lane wrote:
>
> Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> writes:
> Frankly, my feeling is, as a "geek-to-geek" product, PostgreSQL is already
> adequately marketed through our huge network of DBA users and code
> contributors.
>
> Well, mumble ... it seems to me that we are definitely suffering from
> a "buzz gap" (cf missile gap, Dr Strangelove, etc) compared to MySQL.
> That doesn't bother me in itself, but the long-term implications are
> scary. If MySQL manages to attract a larger development community as
> a consequence of more usage or better marketing, then eventually they
> will be ahead of us on features and every other measure that counts.
> Once we're number two with no prayer of catching up, how long will our
> project remain viable? So, no matter how silly you might think
> "MySQL is better" is today, you've got to consider the prospect that
> it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
>
> So far I have not worried about that scenario too much, because Monty
> has always treated the MySQL sources as his personal preserve; if he
> hadn't written it or closely reviewed it, it didn't get in, and if it
> didn't hew closely to his opinion of what's important, it didn't get in.
> But I get the impression that he's loosened up of late. If MySQL stops
> being limited by what one guy can do or review, their rate of progress
> could improve dramatically.
>
> In short: we could use an organized marketing effort. I really
> feel the lack of Great Bridge these days; there isn't anyone with
> comparable willingness to expend marketing talent and dollars on
> promoting Postgres as such. Not sure what to do about it. We've
> sort of dismissed Jean-Michel's comments (and those of others in
> the past) with "sure, step right up and do the marketing" responses.
> But the truth of the matter is that a few amateurs with no budget
> won't make much of an impression. We really need some professionals
> with actual dollars to spend, and I don't know where to find 'em.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
>
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