[Python-uk] Promoting Python in the UK

[Andy Robinson]

On Wed, 13 Oct 1999 09:28:46 +0000, you wrote:

>Andy Robinson wrote:
>
>> I am sounding out magazines to see if any are interested in Python
>> stories; if any bite, I'll post the group
>
>I'm just wondering if anything has come of this yet. Personally, I'm =
very
>interested in writing an article or two for magazines but I do know that
>magazines can be intermittently slow and then overbearingly fast, so I =
guess
>it might take a while?
I chased up PC Pro and PC Plus on the phone, got the right names and
emailed them some questions earlier this week about what aspects would
interest them.  Give it another week.  Josette is sounding out another
three or four magazines where she has contacts (any news yet?).

Phil Hunt and I spoke at length on Friday about mounting a PR campaign
and he has volunteered to be a Press Officer and commit 2-3 hours per
week for a while  (there you are, Phil, you're stitched now!)

I was planning to turn over any leads to him to manage, although I
could probably have my arm twisted to write stories.  This should not
stop anyone else approaching a publication where they have contacts,
but we need one contact point for the press to keep in their
databases.

We also discussed the idea of him building up a PR mailing list and
doing two initial press releases (after agreeing the text in this
forum):
(1) "The Python UK User Group exists"
(2)  Matthew Dunn's case study at CIS

I had quite a bit of experience at generating press coverage in a
previous business, and the rules are simple.  Journalists have
deadlines and pages to fill; you just crank out stories that are as
close to ready-written for them as you can.  Some will get printed,
and you'll go on file anyway so they will get back next time they have
a few pages to fill.

>[Targeting other communities]
I'm down to speak to the Visual Basic User Group at Microsoft in
Reading from 7:30 on Thursday 15th November, on using Python as a
"macro language" for VB applications.  Anyone fancy coming along?
If-you-hate-Microsoft-then-stay-away.

>One thing that we haven't yet done is get an idea of what people on this
>list are actively involved in, Python wise. This could make a big =
difference
>to which communities we can reasonably target as it'll give us an idea =
of
>where our collective expertise lies. For example, I currently maintain =
the
>RISC OS port of Python (and working on GUI libraries for it), a few =
other
>tiny little modules (bzip2, csv etc), and I'm making a start on an
>experimental javadoc/pythondoc sort of beast; Andy's created a PDF =
creation
>module (I think); Phil Hunt's creating the Parrot GUI builder. I'm sure
>there are many others creating fairly substantial pieces of software as =
well
>as the common glue-bits-together stuff which everyone seems to enjoy :)
>
>If we've got a record of who does what, it might well help tell us some
>suitable directions to channel our energies into; and as people change =
what
>they're up to (and new people join) we can revise our targets.
Quick solution:  bung up an email questionnaire, and everyone fill it
in and post it back - they are all archived on mailman.

Longer term: I now have a Starship account and Zope access.  I am
desperately overworked for the next 2 weeks so do not expect much this
month, but plan to arrange it so people can all sign in to the
Python-UK pages, maintain them, and build up databases for this kind
of thing.  In Zope, the manager of a folder can create new users below
it; so we can have sections for internal group information and for
public consumption, and build databases for members' info as
discussed, or have members' pages.  If it works, we can probably
arrange a snappy URL like http://starship.python.net/python-uk/.  Who
wants to learn Zope and help build this stuff?  Who's already done it?
Any better ideas how we can manage databases?

Cheers,

Andy