[Foundation-l] Re: Milestone : Third global press release

[Anthere]

Michael Snow a écrit:
> Pete/Pcb21 wrote:
> 
>> When we passed 100,000 , 200,000 , 300,000 etc articles there was a 
>> fair   bit of fanfare.
>>
>> I think it is only right therefore to announce that en passed the 
>> 100,000,000 word mark earlier this month.
>>
>> This is about the same size as Columbia, Encarta Deluxe and EB put 
>> together, and if printed would weigh about the same as George Bush.
>>
>> Across all languages we reached this milestone back in January, and 
>> are now up to 220,000,000 words.
>>
>> Qualitätsoffensive, anyone?
>>
>> Pete/Pcb21 
> 
> 
> Speaking of milestones, aren't we getting pretty close to one million 
> articles covering all languages? A nice handy round number probably 
> worthy of some fanfare. Are we planning a press release or other special 
> efforts to publicize it, either externally or internally? Sometime in 
> September looks like the target date, given our statistical direction.
> 
> --Michael Sno
> w

Well, I started mentionning it late july, but alas with no reaction :-(
Mav also mentionned it on another mailing list during this week and made 
a call for a coordinator. I second this wish he has for someone 
coordinating the press release.

Mav also suggested that we used the last one, update it accordingly and 
use this one for the third press release.

Though that would definitly be easier on us all, I am not sure I 
entirely support this.

After I sent to many many many places the first two press releases, and 
french press releases as well, and this without being in the press 
business at all (so I may be totally wrong here), I will however mention 
a point : I think the second press release was perhaps too long. People 
do not have time to read a lot. Either they want to just put 5 lines, 
and such a page will discourage them, or they want something even more 
fleshy.

The root of the current press releases : 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_press_release



In french, I started a page to gather most facts in short and clear 
paragraphes. Most informations already existed, but was dispersed in 
dozen of articles. It still needs to be improved. I would like very much 
that such a page exist in several languages, and be used as a reference 
for any interested journalist.

While there is such a page, the press release really do not need to be 
very long and detailed. We should focus on basics (free, many languages, 
  easy to edit etc...), shortly remind evolution (with a graph and some 
figures), mentions mediawiki and that is it AND link to a more fleshy 
wiki page, highly structured so that the journalist quickly goes to his 
question.


Examples of short (2 propositions - perhaps too short) for the 50000 
french. : 
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia%3ACommuniqu%C3%A9_de_presse_50000_articles

Press information : 
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia%3ADossier_de_presse

---------

It was suggested at some point that the third press release focuses on 
Slashdot and software/hardware issues. This is clearly outdated after 
the Jimbo's interview on Slashdot 3 weeks ago. Besides, there seems to 
be a consensus that focusing on technical issues is not a good idea as 
it would not "talk" to most readers. Finally, Slashdot is a site in 
english and this press release should be for all of us. It is especially 
an important moment for small wikipedias which can potentially make 
advertisement in big sites, relying on the whole project size.

However, I do think it might be good to mention mediawiki in a paragraph 
and remind that the software is free to be used by other projects as 
well. On a purely technical note, a graph showing the evolution of hits 
(or similar numbers) and figures on the evolution of the number of 
servers we need now may be a good sign of our progress.

--------

Michael, would you like to coordinate the 3rd ?

ant