I like PerlBuzz alot. I think it is a good looking and exceedingly relevant site. I don't think, however, that it -- or building sites like it -- makes for a strong, centralized Perl advocacy initiative. I think PerlBuzz's strength is that it does what it says -- I get news and information about Perl that is current. Sites like Perlmonks similarly do something extremely well, but that thing is not actually advocacy although it is clearly a component.
No, I think advocacy starts right here ( http://www.perl.org/advocacy/whyperl.html): "...a responsible IT Manager should proceed to select a language or programming platform based on things that actually matter like the task at hand, the budget, the current skills of the target coders, the current environment, etc" This, I think, is at the very heart of programming language advocacy. The difference is mainly in the target audience. If I'm an IT manager I have a budget and higher-ups who watch how I am spending the company's money. I have to show them that I can and will make the right decisions when it comes to language and platform among (many) other things for projects. What do I have to show these higher ups to defend my position that their million dollar project should be principally developed in Perl? PerlBuzz? Perlmonks? No. I need something else -- something specifically built to help me achieve this goal. You've suggested that I build something, but I think that will be ultimately ineffective. I learned this little tidbit in a public communications class I took in college years ago: any (marketing) message not repeated is not worth saying. Advocacy, let's face it, shares a lot with marketing. When companies want to sell something they develop a marketing campaign and then everybody in the company -- from sales to customer service representatives -- learns the new lingo, adopts the new images, and gets the message out there. If advocacy is to be effective it must be centralized, like marketing, so that everyone in the community resounds its latest message(s). I'm posting this here to illicit responses and ideas. Take a look at this Google Apps for Business website ( http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html). Compare it to the whyperl.html page above. Which is more convincing to you if you are the IT manager? Why? On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Andy Lester <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Aug 13, 2010, at 12:21 PM, Joel Limardo wrote: > > > I think the difference here is significant. Is it enough that people and > companies are using Perl and not talking about it, or should they be clear > that they use it and rely upon it? Isn't it in the interests of Perl > advocacy to present evidence that Perl is not just used but that it is > relied upon and can handle more system administration tasks? > > If you think it's important, then do something about it. Make a blog post > about it. Start a website about it. Write an article for me to run on > Perlbuzz. > > We can talk about whether it's important or not on this list all day, but > until someone does something about it, it's just talk. > > xoxo, > Andy > > -- > Andy Lester => [email protected] => www.theworkinggeek.com => AIM:petdance > > > > >
