[openbeos] Re: The importance of good communications

Hi,

Wanted to make a couple of additional observations that I think my dispel some doubts about what I am proposing.

On the need to pursue accurate communications, let me make an analogy that will perhaps be easier for devs to relate to. It is a bit of a strech, but you will get the point. When you develop software, you make reasonable efforts to achieve a certain level of quality before release; you don't want your users to find bugs and be disappointed. You can draw an analogy in communications; every *official* announcement is like a release: you want it to be as good as possible, so that you do not have to release "services packs". :-) I think this is a goal that Haiku needs to strive for.

There are also people concerned that doing PR is still premature. The reasoning behind this is that Haiku is not ready for end-users. While it is true that Haiku is not ready for the average Joe end-user, I do not think this should be a concern.

To start, PR is not limited to end-users, and can be tuned to target any audience you want; so if Haiku needs to reach developers, then the message can be customized to reach such an audience.

Additionally, I doubt the average Joe user has the skills to go through the (fortunately?) unfriendly process required to get Haiku installed, but if you want to make crystal clear just in case, you could simple label the existing ISO images being released (officially or otherwise) as being a pre-release for development & testing purposes, by using, for example, a default background with the Haiku logo and a tag line that says "Pre-release for Development & Testing" or the like (feel free to change the wording as seen fit). Really, these concerns, although I understand them, they should not stop you from taking advantage of the power of PR.

Finally, I agree with Axel: you need the right people for the right job. In line with that statement, I think areas like communication and graphic design (just to name a couple) would be better served by people with a mind and skill set geared towards those specific disciplines, as opposed to devs as seems to the case now.

Koki


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