Re: User oriented release notes

[Max Jonas Werner <gnome-marketing maxwerner de>]

Hi,

let me dive into the discussion from a journalist's perspective:

On 11.09.2006 18:44, Murray Cumming wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-09-11 at 18:23 +0200, Claus Schwarm wrote:
> 
>>But the main point is: 99.9% of the release notes readers know what
>>GNOME is, I'm sure.
> 
> I'm not sure about that. I'd say it's maybe 50%. New sites post "GNOME
> 2.16 is out" stories, and people follow the link. They know it's
> something new, and they know it's important (otherwise it wouldn't be on
> the new sites), but they don't know what it is.

I agree with Claus even if 99,99% is probably a bit high. Let's just say
90% as a tradeoff.

There must be a very clear difference between Gnome release notes and
Gnome press coverage. The release notes provide first-hand information
about Gnome. They of course must be well presented but first of all they
have to reflect the first-hand impression: They must be informative!
People who read the release notes already know a bit about Gnome. Just
as Claus says: People who read car magazines know what Ferrari is.
Problem is: We can't write release notes for all the different target
groups there are, so we have to focus on one single group, which must be
the biggest of all available, of course.

Gnome press coverage is a totally different aspect. With articles in
magazines around the world Gnome has the opportunity to get into Linux
magazines, computer magazines, weekly newspapers, daily newspapers,
business magazines/papers. Each media has a different target group. With
press coverage we can target every group we think is of interest for us
without writing ten versions of the release notes.

So what we have to do is to strengthen the communication between press
and the Gnome project. Public relations must be an integral part of the
Gnome marketing activities. Journalists want to know what Gnome is and
what it provides for the target group they're writing for. They form the
proxy between Gnome and its users. It's not the only form of
communication between Gnome and its users but a very important one.

Max