[school-core] [Fwd: Re: Regular media contact]

[Douglas Loss <drloss@suscom.net>]

I received this from William Abernathy (as far as I know, he's the 
most media-savvy person associated with us) in response to my last 
message about having someone else do the media contacting who might be 
better at it than me.  William raises some valid points here that I 
hadn't thought of.  I'm forwarding this with his permission.  Please 
read it over, give it some thought, and let's talk about how we want 
to approach this in the future.

From: William Abernathy <william@inch.com>


I was looking through my college's graduate propaganda magazine the 
other day and saw something quite disturbing. One of my classmates, a 
twiggy quiet gal on the rugby team, is now the National President of 
the Sierra Club. I'm sitting in a cul-de-sac duplex in a California 
tract suburb, thanking my stars that I have a one-month writing 
contract, while memory-lite entities from my past are rising up and 
becoming titans of the nonprofit world. So, I see this as an 
opportunity that may be knocking, and am loath to pass it up.

On the other hand...I have a lot of problems with the task at hand, 
first and foremost due to my personal situation. Up until two weeks 
ago, I hadn't worked a day in eight months. I'm trying to work hard 
and not drop the ball professionally, because if I screw up this gig, 
odds are I'll have to go back to pulling phone cable for a living.

Let's imagine, though, that I take on the job. There are quite a few 
problems here, starting with the nature and character of Schoolforge. 
I recognize the value and importance of the coalition approach, and 
the necessity of the consensus style of governance that this imposes. 
As has been evident from the past press release cycles, however, this 
style makes our decisionmaking cumbersome and slow. A spokesman has to 
have the authority to speak for the organization, and must be given 
the freedom to be quick on his feet. Would the Schoolforge coalition 
be at all comfortable with a single person becoming the voice of the 
organization? What would happen if that spokesman said something
that a third of the organization, or even *most* of the organization, 
did not agree with?

Bear in mind also that what you're asking for is someone who A) "gets" 
open source, B) is media-savvy, and C) has something credible to say 
about the business of education. The last classroom I was in was one I 
was pulling phone cable through, and as you pointed out recently, this 
group is long on nerds and short on teachers. Would having a spokesman 
with scant clue about the problems of teachers be a help or a 
hindrance to the 'forge?

Let's also look at the time and money commitment. Doing good media 
costs bucks.  Emailed press releases don't cut the mustard.  People 
need a piece of paper on their desk or a caller on their phone. That 
means that there's a lot of long-distance calling (during peak hours, 
no less!), faxing, and postage involved in the job (which is one of 
the reasons for the overdesign I asked Les for wrt the mediabase). 
Right now, I can't even afford my health insurance. Would Schoolforge 
member organizations pool their assets and pony up for the expenses? 
If so, it would make more sense to quit calling ourselves a coalition
and start calling ourselves a nonprofit organization, and structure 
and bill our membership accordingly.

As for the last media release, it didn't make a mainstream splash for 
a lot of reasons. First, by the time it went out, it was old news (see 
above). Second, it wasn't news in the first place -- "Linux Geeks Hate 
Microsoft," or for that matter "Microsoft Caught Lying," are not 
compelling stories. If you really want media, you have to lay down 
groundwork at the local level. Schoolforge member organizations need 
to work their local media at the grass roots, and make stories happen 
there. That's the only non-Slashdot/OSDN/Newsforge/preaching-to-the-
choir media you'll get at first. The sorry fact is that national media
seldom break news. Usually, local papers do the hard work, and once 
the story is out there and "proven," (i.e., is shown to be a good 
story) the nationals pile on and take all the credit. What we're doing 
(and why we're doing it) is obscure enough that most media aren't 
going to pick up on it as an issue in and of itself.

Given this, the only way I see us as really getting media is to 
coordinate as best we can to support local efforts. If we do a good, 
solid defenestration at a local school district level, we can get 
media there. Then maybe a national will pick it up. Maybe not. It may 
take three or four successful rollouts before they start to get it.

Finally, there is the question of why we want media at all. 
Schoolforge is a coalition designed to help member organizations do 
their jobs more effectively.  Given this presumed mandate, I have to 
wonder why there should be centralized media in the first place. As I 
see it, the best role for the organization would be to help member 
organizations create their own media databases along a Schoolforge 
standard, with the understanding that they will share this
information and help out the larger membership when issues of state, 
national, or international interest arise. Centralized media makes 
sense for a centralized organization. If Schoolforge were an 
incorporated nonprofit, and if Schoolforge were involved in 
grant-collecting and revenue-generation sufficient to cover expenses 
(and even salaries) it would make sense for the organization to have
this sort of presence.

But unless and until such a mandate arises, I think Schoolforge's best 
efforts would be spend on assisting its constituent members in their 
service at the local school level, including what support we can 
provide in the media department, rather than trying to draw attention 
to ourselves in the national and international media arenas.

Anyway, that's what I think...

--William



Doug Loss wrote:

 > Now that our press release has gone out I'd like to bring up a
 > point.  In talking with some folks on the #seul IRC channel, I
 > mentioned that in all the things we've sent out thus far I haven't
 > noticed much response from the mainstream or educational press.
 > None, actually.  They asked two immediate questions.  First, did I
 > individually recontact each of the people I sent the press release
 > to and ask them for a response or comment?  No, I didn't.  Second,
 > did I mail the release to them all in such a way that they could see
 > a large list of recipient addresses?  Yes, I did.  In retrospect,
 > both of these things should have been done oppositely.  I can only
 > plead inexperience with the care and handling of press contacts.
 >
 > For that reason I'd like to ask for someone with more experience and
 > finesse in talking to the press to take over the dissemination of
 > our various press releases and other material for public
 > consumption.  It can clearly be done better than I've been doing
 > it.  The only reason I've been doing it at all is to keep things
 > moving along and not to let them get mired in endless
 > re-discussion.  But I think it's time for someone more capable to
 > take over this role.  Of course, I'll still push to keep things
 > moving!





-- 
Doug Loss          As long as I have you there is just
drloss@suscom.net  one other thing I'll always need--
(570) 326-3987     tremendous self control.
                           Ashleigh Brilliant