Re: DRAFT: v7.3 Release Announcement

Marc,

> IMHO, its the non-tech press that needs to be "informed/targetted"
> ... its
> alot easier on the techs if their CTO comes to them and mentioned
> 'this
> RDBMS PostgreSQL that they just read abou that we should
> investigate',
> then for the tech to convince the CTO ... eaiser to implement
> something
> when the higher-ups are pushing for it :)

By "general tech press" I mean, for example, News.com and the
Washingtion Post Business/Tech page. As opposed to "open source
press", such as NewsForge and The Register, who would probably cover us
even if we just forwarded them a mailing list message.

As nice as it might be to get ourselves on the front page of the WST,
it ain't gonna happen until we get a major world government to switch
their operations over to PostgreSQL. And maybe not even then, if
OpenOffice.org is anything to go by (Germany adopted OOo/StarOffice,
and we didn't even get a page 3 blurb in the WST. They are *not*
friendly to Open Source).

My questions are:
1) Who is this press release for?
a) The general tech press
b) the Open Source press
c) PostgreSQL users and customers
d) PostgreSQL Inc. customers
e) all or some of the above

2) Do we want to prepare 2 or more press releases for different target
audiences?

3) Should the PostgreSQL.org press release overlap with PostgreSQL
Inc.'s press release? If so, how?

4) Will we provide advance copies of the press release to other
companies that support PostgreSQL development for them to release to
their customers?

5) Who are our "official press contacts?" Each needs name, phone,
address, e-mail.

6) What should the balance of emphasis between new release features and
general PostgreSQL promotion be in the press release?

7) How much testimonial material should be in this press release, and
how much on the Advocacy web page?

8) Should we include a technical rundown of the new features, or just a
general-audience one? (by my evaluation, Geoff's list falls in the 60%
technical, 40% general audience level)

9) Can we get a programmer quote about the new release? Please?

Of the above, I have strong opinions about a few things:

1) Whether it is this release or not, we should compose a 7.3 press
release targeted to the general tech press.

5) I should not be an official press contact for at least 6 months, as
my name is still strongly associated with OpenOffice.org. Whether
Geoff can be the official press contact depends on the answer to
question 2.

6) As news agencies are interested in *news*, not in products, we
should lead with the new features (and what they mean to the layman)
and trail with general PostgreSQL laudatory stuff. For this release,
we have 3 peices of news-as-new:
a) The 7.3 release
b) We now have a PR group and a PR web page
c) *All* of the applicants for the .ORG registry use either PostgreSQL
or Oracle, de facto making us a direct alternative to Oracle.

7) We should find the 3 best, most relevant quotes and include them,
and put the rest on the web page.

8) General audience only.

As I said before, all of the above is my *personal* opinion; I don't
speak for anyone else.

-Josh Berkus