Evan,
> > It occurs to me that we ought to have a "Press" section of our web site
> > with a link off the home page. This would be different from a
> > "News" section which would have news items about us and news about our
> > efforts. This section would *for* members of the news media.
>
> I agree -- only to a point. I would argue that, being an open organization
> that we are, the media shouldn't be especially priviledged to any
> information that isn't open to anyone.
I disagree. In order to get our message out, I want a great big clear
area that **SHOUTS** to the news media that they should go there to get
media-related info appropiate for them.
I respect the fact that most reporters, editors, PR agencies, etc, etc. are
working on extremely tight deadlines and I want to make it *extremely*
EASY for them to get the information they need in order to make their
deadlines and get the LPI side of stories.
Yes, it offers a "privilege" - but it makes it easy for the press.
That said - I suppose that calling the section "About LPI" might be okay -
I'd really prefer a distinct Press page, though.
> I disagree totally. For the net, there really is only one format -- HTML.
Yes, for the **NET**, there is only one format - but I'm not at all talking
about the net... I'm talking about providing documents that are
PRE-FORMATTED that can simply be downloaded and printed out by people
who need to print them out.
> At most we will support one other format for those who insist upon a
> print version and don't have their own styles.
How many documents are we talking about? Maybe six... I personally don't
see the big deal with creating those different docs - and will be glad
to personally take on the burden on maintaining multiple versions.
I want to make it EASY for people to download and print out our data
sheets.
> I feel *extremely* strongly about this, and oppose the burden of
> maintaining a pile of documents in multiple different formats. I am
> philosophically against PDF -- as much as Chuck is against GIF -- because
> of Adobe's explicit decision not to support the Linux community with
> (amongst other things) an Acrobat writer.
I'll agree with you on PDF... I've been against it since the early 90's
when Adobe was pushing it as the alternative to HTML when the web was
brand-new. No argument there. It is, however, one of the best formats right
now which preserves the *exact* image and fonts in use in a document, without
some of the quality problems associated with image formats. Still, I don't
object to NOT using it.
> RTF is generally unused.
Uhh... you're right in that RTF as a *storage* format is generally unused,
but as an *interchange* format, it is *the* choice for going to/from Microsoft
formats. Applixware, WP and most other Linux based programs convert files
from Microsoft formats first into RTF, and then into their own format.
It is also readable by pretty much most every word processor out there.
> ApplixWare is vendor-specific -- if we're doing that I'll put WordPerfect
> in there instead, as WP is far more commonly used than Applix, and more
> familiar to those outside the Linux world.
As mentioned elsewhere... I don't *really* have an issue with this...
> I really have no desire to impose formatting on those who would use our
> information; if a vendor wants to take our info and re-format it to suit
> the style of their existing presentation, fine by me.
Impose formatting? Or make it *easy* for our supporters to help us out?
As an example, Linuxcare's PR people were looking for LPI info that they
could print out to include in press packets going out in advance of
LinuxWorld. I made up and sent them an Applixware document. That's
what they needed. If all we had was an HTML page, I can tell you that
they did NOT have time to download that page and reformat it. They wanted
something they could just take, print out, and include in their materials.
I would also point out that preformatted pages allow us to make sure that
things such as our web site are definitely printed on the pages.
And... *if* the people want to modify it, they can.
> If we get Corel as a sponsor (I'm playing phone tag with them; they're it
> at this moment), I have no problem making "paper media" versions of our
> documents available as WordPerfect files (which may be imported into
> Applix or Word or Star). But we're not going to get into the game of a
> zillion different formats.
Not a zillion... but I think we need a *few* that will make the lives
of our supporters that much easier... I want to "take away their pain"
and help them get our message out.
> In the meantime, I agree that the resources need to be out there, and
> I'll start the wheels in motion to do it.
Thank you.
Regards,
Dan
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