Mike,
> I suggest throwing a trial balloon out there and see
> if some real marketing pro's (preferably
> International) grab it. Being able to say that
> PostgreSQL is a "success story" is much like
> PostgreSQL saying "XYZ (insert Monster company) is a
> happy user". Wouldn't surprise me to see users
> increase by 5x over the course of a full,
> implemented year.
This is a whole community of do-it-yourselfers.
Actually, a marketing firm volunteered to help us a couple years back;
unfortunately, the community wasn't ready to accept that kind of help
and, well, the relationship ended badly.
One of the big problems with that event was that there was no consensus
on what we wanted the marketing firm to do and what we wanted to do
ourselves. Also, they wanted to push us toward deciding on an "image"
for the project at a time when a substantial minority of the community
wasn't even in agreement that we needed organized PR at all. So before
we started a relationship with an outside agency, we'd need to get a
consensus on what we wanted them to do.
Further, I tend to think that most of our limitations in marketing/PR
are related to lack of manpower rather than lack of knowledge. For
something (case studies, advertising, contacting users, print materials)
outside marketeers could help; for other things (releases, web site,
corporate relations, oss relations, "image") they could only advise us
editorially; we'd still have to do the work. And professional
marketeers always want to talk about the "big picture", which leads off
into political debate.
Add to this that PostgreSQL is supported by several companies each of
whom has their own marketing and you find a project management task far
beyond the bandwidth of anyone on this list. Plus, if Sun and SRA and
CMD and PGInc and FJ etc. are marketing PostgreSQL, does the community
really need to put a lot of effort into it?
Now, some of us (mostly foundation organizers) have talked about having
a PostgreSQL trade association so that the supporting companies could
pour money into joint marketing of PostgreSQL. I think that would be a
lot more likely to be successful than trying to form a relationship with
outside marketing via this list.
--Josh