[Fsfe-ie] press releases

[Fergal Daly]

On Fri, May 07, 2004 at 07:24:32AM -0500, ?ibhear wrote:
> Yes, indeed. I saw all the press releases being drafted on the ICTE mailing
> list and it was always well done and serves as a good model.
> 
> The one thing I amn't clear on (and this may be a bit OT) was how someone on
> the list decided that a press release was appropriate. Have you any insight
> on that, Fergal? Were they mostly ad-hoc or mostly an off-list decision?

There were a couple of press releases that got started but died a death. It
came down to the fact that there were only 3 (2? 4?) people who had the
contact list and they made the call as to whether the press release was
ready based on the reactions on the list as to whether it was needed,
whether it was finished and on how urgent it was.

Also, someone had to feel strongly enough about the need that they got off
their backside and volunteered to write the first draft.

There were several releases that had several days of drafting and some that
had only a couple of hours and I think one that was presented to the list as
a fait acompli. There was occasional off-list discussion but usually
everything was on-list.

It was actually decided at the one face to face meeting that we had that an
"inner cabal" who discussed and decided things privately would be
counter-productive. Such a cabal did develop a little bit but it's members
made an effort not to discuss stuff in private unless it really needed to
be kept under wraps.

F