>From the very start of my advocacy four years ago, it has always been about marketing. It has always been about reaching out to as many people as possible to raise public awareness. I cannot be sure, but I believe I've reached out to more than 100,000 people around the world who did not previously know about Smalltalk, or who thought Smalltalk was dead. Whether or not this is a positive outcome remains to be seen.
The high school competition is another marketing tool, and probably the most powerful one at my disposal. From my perspective, it is not a waste of money. Seeding thousands of young minds across the country with knowledge of Smalltalk may have profound consequences in the years to come, just as seeding thousands of college students with experience in Linux helped to lift Linux into the mainstream during the 1990s and 2000s. Advocacy begins with our younger generation – that's the only way to ensure the future. >From what I can tell, the above message resonated with the Smalltalks 2018 conference. Everybody seemed pumped. This suggests to me that my strategy is sound. It all boils down to this: Either you agree with my marketing strategy, or you don't. If you don't, then I am not sanguine about Smalltalk's future. Its community will always remain very small. If that's acceptable, then my advocacy is no longer needed. Allow me to make one final comment: There's seems to be a perception that my effort over the past four years has been insignificant and without monetary value. I've worked on this for thousands of man-hours. Even at minimum wage, it would amount to $60,000+. I have never asked for a dollar, nor even any recognition. I've done all this for the good of the Smalltalk community. It has been pure altruism all the way. So it is disingenuous to imply that I'm offloading too much on others in the Smalltalk community. I'm not asking for much, certainly much less than I've already given these past four years. You are correct, the competition plan is still a work-in-progress. That's why I'm asking for collaboration. If I could do it all alone, I would. Esteban A. Maringolo wrote > It feels to me that the money came unexpectedly and your plan was just > a loosely defined idea. > > Appealing to money or competition to youngsters in a pop culture is a > waste of money, > Go to "pop tech" conferences and see what people value and praise. > It's never money. > > And yes, there are hackatons that pay money to winners, but IMO what > participants value more is the recognition. > > Regards, > > Esteban A. Maringolo > El mar., 20 nov. 2018 a las 19:37, Richard Kenneth Eng > (< > horrido.hobbies@ > >) escribió: >> >> Not even a single nibble? Doesn't anyone care about promoting Pharo? >> >> What a colossal lost opportunity! >> >> >> On Sun, 18 Nov 2018 at 09:29, Richard Kenneth Eng < > horrido.hobbies@ > > wrote: >>> >>> Some of you may already be aware of my presentation at Smalltalks 2018, >>> the outcome of which was full funding for my Smalltalk programming >>> competition. See My Keynote at the Salta Conference. >>> >>> Three years ago, David Buck provided an outline for the competition. See >>> attached. >>> >>> I would like to use that as a starting point, though I am open to >>> alternative suggestions. >>> >>> The reason for this post is the following... >>> >>> I need volunteers to code the competition. I am nowhere near qualified >>> to do so, as my knowledge of Pharo is limited. >>> >>> Without help from Pharoers (or, at least, Smalltalkers), the competition >>> is in jeopardy. This is a great opportunity to promote Pharo. (The >>> original competition three years ago was going to use VisualWorks, but >>> since Cincom did not see fit to support my competition this year, I >>> decided to go with Pharo.) >>> >>> Please contact me if anyone is interested. It would be a terrible shame >>> to waste this opportunity. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Richard -- Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
