Hi all,
We held a BoF at DebConf6 about "Representing Debian". We discussed
many topics and this mail is not intended as an exhaustive summary (you
will have to wait for the video recording to watch the discussion).
Instead it's just a notice that things are changing and that you're
invited to help us improve Debian's image.
To a certain extent, we do not communicate enough to outside which brings
us in the situation where sometimes people just pick some blog entries
and talk about them as if it was something official for Debian.
On the other side, we have very good announcements on debian-devel-announce
which should probably be relayed to a wider audience (for example the
recent Dzongkha related news of Christian Perrier), but they aren't because
people don't know how to deal with the press team or don't have enough time for
that. [1]
So we came with the idea to create a debian-publicity team which should:
- help press@debian.org by preparing and suggesting announcements and news
Examples:
- rework some d-d-a announcements for a broader coverage
- draft "success stories": pick some of our users and let them
explain how Debian helps them
- browse the (international) press and make a summary of
Debian-related articles.
Revive http://www.debian.org/News/press/ at the same time.
- speak of Debian derivatives and how they achieve great things with
Debian technologies
- help DD in drafting announces suitable for debian-news if they
have something interesting to share to our community (and not only to
our development community, in which case d-d-a would be suited)
- do whatever you think of that can be useful to promote Debian
I would like to note that this is an area where non-DD can effectively help
(without any sponsor!). Of course, everyone interested is invited to
subscribe to debian-publicity@lists.debian.org (reply-to set on that
list) and to start working in that direction.
http://lists.debian.org/debian-publicity/
Martin Schulze and Alexander Schmehl (our press@debian.org team) will
follow the list closely.
Let me suggest some initial topics of discussion for debian-publicity:
1/ During the BoF, we agreed to request a debian-publicity-private@l.d.o
mailing list for handling announcements that can't be discussed in public
(mainly because the other partners involved in the announcement require that).
This list has not yet been created even if it has been requested at the
same time (see http://bugs.debian.org/369018) because the requested
subscription policy is uncommon and non-trivial to implement (open to all
DD and non-DD can be added on request of the press team).
It's not clear if that list could (in the long term) replace the
press@debian.org alias or not, and if it is desirable to do so. Feel free
to discuss that topic.
2/ I mentioned some examples of material suited for debian-{announce,news}
above. You may have more ideas, please give them! We should also define a
policy of what is acceptable on each list. We want to hear your opinions
on that subject.
Last, I would like to mention that the BoF also discussed the possibility of
creating a "booth kit": such a kit is material useful to organize a Debian
booth. It would be bought by Debian and could be shared by all Debian
members organizing a Debian booth (for practical reasons like shipping
costs, a kit would be dedicated to a continent). It has been suggested to
first try out the idea for Europe. People interested are welcome to
discuss this project in debian-events-eu@lists.debian.org. We also really
need to revive the parts of the website dedicated to organizing Debian
booths.
http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/
http://www.debian.org/events/
Volunteers are welcome to take the lead here!
Cheers,
[1] From now on, when you're about to send a news to
debian-devel-announce, take a breath and think if it wouldn't be suited
for debian-news. If that's the case, get in touch with
debian-publicity@lists.debian.org instead and work with the press team to
send your announce to the proper channel.
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Premier livre français sur Debian GNU/Linux :
http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/
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