A little 4.1 press coverage

>
> Bert,
>
> It is not particularly difficult to have more media coverage provided
> that one has the right recipe. You already have a press release with
> main features and a download link and you could update it to include a
> screenshot (you can use the one I made [1], click on the image to get
> full screen). A screenshot makes everything more exciting. Then write
> to journalists in online news websites that you read. Don't forget to
> provide an email to reach the board for any further media enquiries.
> They like when everything is prepared for them because it's easy. :)
>
> [1] http://mecenia.blogspot.com/2010/04/history-of-squeak-in-pictures.html
>
>
> I'd like to additionally suggest to keep a page on the main Squeak
> website listing press coverage, link to our logo (Tim's PDF is best),
> screenshots, email for PR, etc.
>
> Ian.
> --
> http://mecenia.blogspot.com/

> On 26 April 2010 22:25, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Right. Would be awesome if someone could join Michael Davies on the news
>> team to get broader coverage. As Ian wrote, it's not "particularly
>> difficult" :)
>>
>> - Bert -
>>
>
> If anybody is interested in helping out, please do step forward. I try to
> get one article published a week, but don't always succeed, so any help
> would be more than welcome, especially to ensure that we keep providing
> material for our regular slot in Industry Misinterpretations.
>
> There really isn't anything tricky involved. I aim to write the articles so
> that readers unfamiliar with Squeak can understand what's going on and why
> it's of interest, and include enough links for them to find out more without
> too much effort. If an attractive or explanatory screenshot or other
> relevant image is available, that helps make the article more appealing. If
> I'm the first to blog about an item of news that should be of wider
> interest, I also submit it to appropriate news sites to try to drum up more
> interest.
>
> Really, the activity that takes most time is finding the stories to write
> about, but if you're interested in Squeak development, that's the fun part!
>
> Cheers,
> Michael D.
>
>
>
>

>> Your premise is clear: one will find great news about Squeak __if they
>> are interested in Squeak development__. This may exclude other
>> Smalltalk communities and most likely entirely exclude the rest of the
>> world.
>>
> I think you have mis-read my post. I mentioned "interest in Squeak
> development" as being an important quality for the writer, not for the
> audience. I tried to be clear that "I aim to write the articles so that
> readers unfamiliar with Squeak can understand what's going on and why it's
> of interest".

> My opinion is that the audience that is easiest to bring to Squeak is the
> young enthusiastic CS students and developers that populate digg, Reddit,
> Hacker News, Slashdot, Stack Overflow and a plethora of other sites, and
> skim-read a hundred different RSS feeds. You don't gain their attention by
> issuing a press release, but by posting something "cool" that will get
> re-posted, linked and tweeted, and cause a horde of readers to visit your
> site. Admittedly most of them will go "huh", and carry on trying to finish
> reading the internet (though hopefully with a slightly better opinion of
> Squeak and Smalltalk), but maybe if they're bored and it's made a no-brainer
> process they'll download Squeak, and learn a bit more about it.

> The great thing about the one-click image is that it's such a powerful way
> to get people hooked. If you've got, say, a Mandelbrot generator that you
> want to show to people, it's great to be able to drop it into a one-click
> image, put it and an appealing image on your blog and say to the world "just
> download it and run it, it works identically on Windows, OS X and Linux, oh
> and if you want to understand how it works, the source code's included, oh
> and it's got a powerful development environment in there as well". People
> can then get a taste for the Squeak environment and perhaps explore the
> development tools without even caring that there's an "image" there. Once
> you've captured their interest and they start thinking about using Squeak
> themselves, they'll be more willing to put in that little bit of effort to
> understand what images and sources and changes and FFI and DLLs and VMs and
> changesets and mczs and packages all mean.
>
> I wouldn't make a one-click image the default download that you're pointed
> to on squeak.org, but you question did make me think; perhaps there should
> be a "Taste of Squeak" one-click image based on the 4.1 release, with a few
> of the more appealing packages pre-installed - a combination of 4.1's
> un-threatening UI and in-image help, with some of Edgar's FunSqueak ideas
> could be really attractive.

>> > If you want to promote the use of Squeak, you need to find people with a
>> > Squeak-shaped hole in their lives, help them recognise that the hole
>> > exists,
>> > convince them that Squeak can fill the hole, and make filling that hole
>> > as
>> > enjoyable as possible [note to self, never use this uncomfortable
>> > metaphor
>> > again].
>>
>>
>> Are you a golfer? :)
>
> No, golf was not what was disturbing me...

>  [snip, then "Developers"]
>>
>> I think it's a good target audience. What kind of efforts have been
>> deployed to reach them on the sites you have mentioned?
>
> Whenever I post an article on news.squeak.org, I write it thinking of that
> wider audience. I include images to help people engage with what's being
> discussed and the most useful links I can find. If I think it will be of
> particular interest, I post it to a few of the sites I mentioned. If I see a
> discussion in one of my RSS feeds that touches on Smalltalk or Squeak, I see
> if I can contribute to that discussion by adding information and correcting
> misunderstandings. I recognise a few other names of contributors on some of
> these sites also making similar efforts, so there's a few of us out there
> already doing this, but the more of us who do that, the clearer the
> understanding of Squeak will be.

>>> That caught my eye. How do people actually develop with "one-click
>>> images"? I mean, I came up with that concept in the first place, but it was
>>> meant for deploying applications, not for development. You can't even save
>>> the image under a different name. So while I see the appeal to people giving
>>> it a casual look, do you really think that should be the default download?
>>> - Bert -
>
> Bert, saving an image under a different name in the installed
> directory will result into opening a dialog box to select an image.
> There is something to be clear about the whole thing, having to
> download a VM, an image and source files separately is newcomers
> unfriendly.
>
> Imagine a newcomer saying to himself...
>
>        “Squeak, right... funny name... download page... (click)”
>        “What do I download again? So much text on this page...”
>        “Right, never mind that, I'll take the exe file!”
>        “Gee, there's no exe file! Win32, right, I'll take that. (click)”
>        “What do you mean no source file? (download source file or giving up)”
>        “What do you mean no image file? (download source file or giving up)”
>        ...etc...
>
> Early in my career I was working on eCommerce technologies. There were
> pretty much nothing alike during these days. Few years later, in 1999,
> Amazon came up with the 1-Click concept. This was brilliant! It
> reduced many hurdles people could have to buy products. It went even
> further because some people are bit compulsive when they buy and if
> it's easy, they buy it.
>
> Squeak is a product but it just happen to be free-of-charge. Having
> multiple downloads to get Squeak running and going is a major hurdle
> for newcomers. It will make the curious go away. Curiosity is often
> not strong enough to be persistent and go through the hurdles. Then it
> turns in a no sale.
>
> It may not be the most practical approach but it's a hell of a good
> thing to get newcomers.
>

>> The great thing about the one-click image is that it's such a powerful way
>> to get people hooked. If you've got, say, a Mandelbrot generator that you
>> want to show to people, it's great to be able to drop it into a one-click
>> image, put it and an appealing image on your blog and say to the world "just
>> download it and run it, it works identically on Windows, OS X and Linux, oh
>> and if you want to understand how it works, the source code's included, oh
>> and it's got a powerful development environment in there as well". People
>> can then get a taste for the Squeak environment and perhaps explore the
>> development tools without even caring that there's an "image" there. Once
>> you've captured their interest and they start thinking about using Squeak
>> themselves, they'll be more willing to put in that little bit of effort to
>> understand what images and sources and changes and FFI and DLLs and VMs and
>> changesets and mczs and packages all mean.
>>
>> I wouldn't make a one-click image the default download that you're pointed
>> to on squeak.org, but you question did make me think; perhaps there should
>> be a "Taste of Squeak" one-click image based on the 4.1 release, with a few
>> of the more appealing packages pre-installed - a combination of 4.1's
>> un-threatening UI and in-image help, with some of Edgar's FunSqueak ideas
>> could be really attractive.
>
> I like the idea. We need to make sure there is no hurdles to use
> appealing applications within Squeak; if packages don't cut it off at
> the moment, we could include few interesting apps (without bloating
> the image too much :P).
>
> However, it's important to put some thoughts in it. What would be the
> benefits from including a Mandelbrot generator? People will look at it
> for 5 minutes then what? It sounds directly out of some 90s demos.
> It's underwhelming and trivial even by 90s standard.
>
> One may argue the benefit from having a Mandelbrot generator is that
> people can then look into the code. They may or may not. Your guess is
> as good as mine. Or, for example, we could instead include some games
> (SameGame, Tetris, etc) along with the famous Laser Game tutorial (at
> least a link but preferably in HelpSystem).
>
>        “Play games, make games!”
>
>
> 2010/4/28 Michael Davies <[hidden email]>:
>
>>> > If you want to promote the use of Squeak, you need to find people with a
>>> > Squeak-shaped hole in their lives, help them recognise that the hole
>>> > exists,
>>> > convince them that Squeak can fill the hole, and make filling that hole
>>> > as
>>> > enjoyable as possible [note to self, never use this uncomfortable
>>> > metaphor
>>> > again].
>>>
>>>
>>> Are you a golfer? :)
>>
>> No, golf was not what was disturbing me...
>
>
> All right. I believe I understand what you initially meant. However,
> educating people in what their “real” needs are is costly, lengthy and
> difficult. We may not even be the ones who benefit from this
> education. People may end-up using something else.
>
> I remember reading about this in the book “The Knack : How
> Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn To Handle Whatever Comes Up” (I wrote
> a bit about it on my blog [1]) written by Norm Brodsky. Brodsky wrote
> that he'd much rather do business where there is a lot of competition
> because it costs too much to educate customers. My experience in my
> area of expertise correlates with his commentary.
>
> [1] http://mecenia.blogspot.com/2010/04/statement-analysis-on-books.html
>
>
>>> How about we have a great programming environment? It's called Squeak.
>>>
>>> Clear and simple. Squeak has its own features. Can't we show them off
>>> (screenshots, videos, etc)? Perhaps I don't understand anything you're
>>> writing. :)
>>>
>> No, that's where we're totally in agreement. If people are happy to produce
>> videos etc, go for it.
>
> Great. What would you show in a video? Perhaps, if we share our ideas,
> it might be easy enough that one of us (or someone else) will just do
> it. It's much easier when there is some kind of plan. :)
>
> As a side note, I made such a plan before taking screenshots shown in
> my article “The History of Squeak in Pictures”. I have determined in
> advance what I wanted to show and what should be present that were
> pertinent to my goal (convince graphic designers that we need their
> help).
>
>>  [snip, then "Developers"]
>>>
>>> I think it's a good target audience. What kind of efforts have been
>>> deployed to reach them on the sites you have mentioned?
>>
>> Whenever I post an article on news.squeak.org, I write it thinking of that
>> wider audience. I include images to help people engage with what's being
>> discussed and the most useful links I can find. If I think it will be of
>> particular interest, I post it to a few of the sites I mentioned. If I see a
>> discussion in one of my RSS feeds that touches on Smalltalk or Squeak, I see
>> if I can contribute to that discussion by adding information and correcting
>> misunderstandings. I recognise a few other names of contributors on some of
>> these sites also making similar efforts, so there's a few of us out there
>> already doing this, but the more of us who do that, the clearer the
>> understanding of Squeak will be.
>
> Once again, the articles you post on news.squeak.org are really good.
> I have noticed that you have spruced the original announcement for the
> 4.1 release and even included a partial screenshot. I like it better
> (than the original one). :)
>
> Still – sometimes doing a fine work is not enough. This website is
> mostly attractive to people already interested in Squeak. It is also
> equivalent to a blog. As I wrote, blogs have important shortcomings.
>
> For example, I have been writing in-depth articles on my blog for some
> 2 years (62 articles). Some of my articles are very popular
> (especially those related to RPG Maker) but I get very few comments
> (and pretty much from the same person under different names). I do see
> many other great blogs and they don't get any more active readership
> than I do. Me, personally, I have chosen to NOT be aggressive or even
> straightforward in promoting my blog. I however think our community
> should be a bit more straightforward and try to reach others (since
> they may not be coming on their own).
>
>>>
>>> Blogging about Squeak is a good idea but it may have its shortcomings.
>>> For example, Squeak related blogs are unlikely to attract newcomers.
>>> Anyway, I wrote a bit about Squeak on my blog and I certainly did my
>>> part in that respect. Others reading this should consider writing
>>> about Squeak on their blog as well; this is a form of contribution!
>>
>> Absolutely, I noticed your posts, and look forward to seeing more of them!
>
> I believe there will be more. I am trying to increase my contributions
> and Squeak-awareness. :)
>
>> Cheers, Michael
>
> Best regards,
> Ian.
> --
> http://mecenia.blogspot.com/
>
>

> On 29 April 2010 01:05, Ian Trudel<[hidden email]>  wrote:
>> Squeak is a product but it just happen to be free-of-charge. Having
>> multiple downloads to get Squeak running and going is a major hurdle
>> for newcomers. It will make the curious go away. Curiosity is often
>> not strong enough to be persistent and go through the hurdles. Then it
>> turns in a no sale.
>>
>> It may not be the most practical approach but it's a hell of a good
>> thing to get newcomers.
>>
>
> Indeed. Easy and fast acquaintance is what a one-click images should serve for.
> Everything else is secondary and can be explained/uncovered once you
> hooked in the user.

> On 4/28/2010 3:38 PM, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>>
>> On 29 April 2010 01:05, Ian Trudel<[hidden email]>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Squeak is a product but it just happen to be free-of-charge. Having
>>> multiple downloads to get Squeak running and going is a major hurdle
>>> for newcomers. It will make the curious go away. Curiosity is often
>>> not strong enough to be persistent and go through the hurdles. Then it
>>> turns in a no sale.
>>>
>>> It may not be the most practical approach but it's a hell of a good
>>> thing to get newcomers.
>>>
>>
>> Indeed. Easy and fast acquaintance is what a one-click images should serve
>> for.
>> Everything else is secondary and can be explained/uncovered once you
>> hooked in the user.
>
> Given that everyone seems to agree, can someone take a stab for providing
> such an installation for 4.1? It'd be easy enough to put up on Squeak.org
> for first-time users.
>

> On 29 April 2010 02:07, Andreas Raab<[hidden email]>  wrote:
>> On 4/28/2010 3:38 PM, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>>>
>>> On 29 April 2010 01:05, Ian Trudel<[hidden email]>    wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Squeak is a product but it just happen to be free-of-charge. Having
>>>> multiple downloads to get Squeak running and going is a major hurdle
>>>> for newcomers. It will make the curious go away. Curiosity is often
>>>> not strong enough to be persistent and go through the hurdles. Then it
>>>> turns in a no sale.
>>>>
>>>> It may not be the most practical approach but it's a hell of a good
>>>> thing to get newcomers.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Indeed. Easy and fast acquaintance is what a one-click images should serve
>>> for.
>>> Everything else is secondary and can be explained/uncovered once you
>>> hooked in the user.
>>
>> Given that everyone seems to agree, can someone take a stab for providing
>> such an installation for 4.1? It'd be easy enough to put up on Squeak.org
>> for first-time users.
>>
>
> But what's wrong with current download link?

> http://ftp.squeak.org/4.1/win/Squeak-4.1-9957-100417-installer.exe
>
> it installs squeak to specified dir and then just fires up the image.
> It may be not a one-click, but pretty usual install, which every
> win-user knows what to do.
>
>> Cheers,
>>   - Andreas
>>
>>
>
>
>