Re: openbsd awareness group

[louis@signalpath.on.ca (Louis Bertrand)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

> Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 14:20:26 -0500 (EST)
> From: happy emory <emory@hellyeah.com>

> i suggested we stir up some openbsd bumper stickers in our kitchens.
> if there is some sort of "oepnbsd awareness" group or something or people
> that would like to be doing this, please let me know.

Hmmm, marketing...  M$ does that real well, free *nix people don't.

Not a flame, Emory, but bumper stickers are only effective where a lot
of potential users will see it, like a university campus.

A better way of getting public attention is to use leverage: you and
I can talk to dozens of people and get their attention. A magazine 
can reach thousands of subscribers. It works for other OS's -- look
at all the good press (and printed flame wars) Linux is getting, or
Macintosh for that matter.

The idea of a awareness group is great (and, judging from some web
pages, greatly overdue!). We could use the awareness group to
collect positive spin on OpenBSD, trade press contacts and re-print
articles. Maybe a mailing list would help (openbsd-advocacy?).

This is where less technically adept users like me could help out.
(That's a hint to all you back seat drivers out there!)

I don't have a lot of experience writing for magazines, but I'm 
willing to give it a try -- let's say I start with a local
Toronto give-away rag. Eventually we can do topical articles 
about security concerns that hit the mainstream press (e.g. the
Ping-of-Death or SPAM) -- you work in little gems like "for instance
the ultra-secure free OpenBSD system uses...".

We could also set up public demos (ask local friendly computer shops 
to set up a demo machine with a small display of CD-ROMs). 
Follow-up with a dangerous idea: a hack-this-system challenge!

Pardon this overlong essay on media relations, but it bothers me
that good work is being ignored (or even peed on) because everyone
is too busy putting the system together.

Ciao!
 --Louis

Louis Bertrand <louis@signalpath.on.ca>
Bowmanville, ON, Canada



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2i

iQCVAwUBNbSYrw2KSSwa6+gRAQHSNQP/QcxdN4WkIYzZ+0hePiEcoZrHQgPdZC9z
0jRboW6ja2ZWMESubImwZhxosBoKLxwTKzHeQ5QQpwI38WHXSu6gYNNDXDByvMy2
pDHKOAWJoE/++C1thp4QVT9CKQQpNKxNqWp/w5f2t/TVsW2DeCLbLhLtbcRFXjXD
H/MTtjkwo9Q=
=mfLZ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----