Re: Birthday blog post

Thanks to all who have commented in this thread. While it is lamentable
that we did not formulate and execute a press strategy for the birthday
announcement, such a strategy is quite separate from the considerations for
reporting the business of WPD in the blog. Also, the risk of "blowing" a
wider publicity opportunity by celebrating our anniversary in the blog is
not significant.

Following the communication on the subject (that has been in circulation on
this e-mail list for the last month), here is what we have planned to do:

1. The first post on the subject was the post announcing the doc sprint
[1], it effectively invites the community to the birthday party.

2. A birthday celebration post (the subject of this thread) that recognizes
and celebrates the efforts of the whole community over the last year.

3. A birthday celebration post that chronicles the actual
birthday-party-slash-doc-sprint anticipated in the earlier blog
post [1] announcing the doc sprint.

We are using the blog to celebrate the first anniversary with and for the
community through several perspectives, with a post for each. (You will
note that these posts have a common motif: the altered and repurposed
images of paintings by Dutch masters. Indeed, doing this is not only legal,
but it is actively encouraged and facilitated by the Rijksmuseum - but that
may be the subject of yet another blog post and certainly beyond the scope
of this discussion.)

The first post was designed to pique interest and generate anticipation of
the birthday across the community.

The second post celebrates the birthday for the community generally, and
those in the community specifically who made outstanding contributions to
WPD during the year. We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge their
contributions within the context of a birthday celebration. We may not be
able to serve them a piece of cake, but we can, and should, include them in
the celebration.

The third post will report the results of the
birthday-party-slash-doc-sprint. It, too will say "Happy Birthday!" and
acknowledge the contributions of doc sprint participants. This one will
have the pictures of the cake, as well as the doctored images of paintings
by Dutch masters, and the compulsory shots of happy, productive doc sprint
participants.

Note that the blog is largely us speaking to ourselves. It is not a press
release. Furthermore, with none of this communication are we in danger of
mis-communicating what is happening on WPD currently. Rather, we are
responsibly reporting the business of WPD, as the blog intends.

If the stewards want to generate a public relations announcement, replete
with a communication strategy like that implemented last year at launch,
those interested in doing so should get busy now. There are only a few
weeks left in the month.

To those of you who have responded with specific comments on the substance
of this post - credit where credit is due, clarifications, etc. - I thank
you and I will incorporate your comments.

[1]
http://blog.webplatform.org/2013/09/web-platform-doc-sprint-amsterdam-october-12/

Thanks!
~Scott




On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Eliot Graff <Eliot.Graff@microsoft.com>wrote:

>  I understand Alex’s concern about wasting our press engagement; however,
> I think that a blog post here is a good idea (with a few edits). ****
>
> ** **
>
> We blog (somewhat) regularly about events and milestones. And the press
> does not glom onto them as official press releases. If we do, indeed, lower
> the fanfare a tad and keep this long one of two things will happen. The
> press will either ignore it (most likely, given past behavior), or they
> will notice it and fill copy with it. This is not a big announcement, nor
> is there anything press worthy in it, with one exception: “Webplatform has
> been live for a year. What have they done?” Not a big story. If they *do*want to run the story, though, this provides the background. We should
> really make sure that at the end we say, “We will reach a milestone in the
> next 60 days, one that we are proud of and one which we will announce on
> the blog. Stay tuned….”****
>
> ** **
>
> Overall, I like the post. The litany of accomplishments is good, accurate,
> and not overblown. The section headers could be toned down, but the
> structure and flow are really nice. Great job, Scott!****
>
> ** **
>
> Consistency in the voice would be good, and switching to third person
> would be best, IMHO. From:****
>
> We’ve also developed a comprehensive CSS properties reference<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/css/properties>
> .****
>
> To****
>
> The team developed a comprehensive CSS properties reference<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/css/properties>
> .****
>
> Etc.****
>
> ** **
>
> I’d love to be able to edit this, but I am really tied up today and
> tomorrow with the release of IE11 and Windows 8.1.****
>
> ** **
>
> My 2 cents****
>
> Eliot****
>
> ** **
>
> PS. One specific passage I had a question about was this one:****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks to the invaluable efforts of Dave Gash<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/User:Dgash>,
> Mike Sierra <http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/User:Sierra>, Lance Leonard<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/User:Lleonard>,
> and many others, we reorganized the API Reference<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/apis>,
> updating 9 imported documents and adding 13 new documents, in over 730
> pages. ****
>
> ** **
>
> I’m not quite sure how to parse that.****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Alex Komoroske [mailto:komoroske@google.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 16, 2013 9:28 AM
> *To:* Julee
> *Cc:* Eliot Graff; Andre Jay Meissner; Scott Rowe;
> public-webplatform@w3.org; PhistucK
>
> *Subject:* Re: Birthday blog post****
>
>  ** **
>
> I realize my earlier comments may not have been clear.****
>
> ** **
>
> My basic point boils down to: we get one free chance to engage tech press
> for an announcement around our birthday. We're close to having something
> meaty (CSS Properties), but we aren't there yet to have a big announcement.
> A "year in review" that is not positioned to grab press attention (like
> this post) is a *great * idea (and it's extremely well executed and
> exhaustively researched by Scott--many props). I just want to be careful
> about making this a "happy birthday" post that could *accidentally *engage
> the press and blow our one-free-announcement card.  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Luckily, in my personal opinion it's easy to avoid accidental press pickup
> by softening the "birthday" language, and by keeping it long and in depth
> (so scratch that point in my earlier comments).****
>
> ** **
>
> --Alex (the guy who apparently loves parentheticals) Komoroske****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 9:15 AM, Julee <julee@adobe.com> wrote:****
>
>   Eliot:****
>
> ** **
>
> As the keeper of the blog, what do you think? We talked last Friday about
> having a birthday post sooner rather than later, but I also see Alex's
> point. Would you please weigh in?****
>
> ** **
>
> J****
>
> ----------------------------****
>
> julee@adobe.com****
>
> @adobejulee****
>
> ** **
>
> *From: *Alex Komoroske <komoroske@google.com>
> *Date: *Wednesday, October 16, 2013 8:44 AM
> *To: *PhistucK <phistuck@gmail.com>
> *Cc: *Andre Jay Meissner <ameissne@adobe.com>, Scott Rowe <
> scottrowe@google.com>, WebPlatform Public List <public-webplatform@w3.org>
> *Subject: *Re: Birthday blog post****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks for writing this up, Scott! Overall it's well written and gives a
> lot of great shoutouts.****
>
> ** **
>
> A few high-level comments:****
>
>    - The post uses first person a few times, which seems a bit informal
>    for an Official Announcement on the Official Blog. (Although it's possible
>    I just have weird preferences--what do others think?)****
>    - It's *looooooooong*. It's a great, in-depth overview of progress in
>    the past year, but it might be too much for a general audience to read
>    through.****
>    - We had talked in the past about using the birthday timing for a more
>    concerted marketing push. That implies to me that we might want to
>    de-emphasize the one year birthday angle in this post so we can "save it"
>    for a bigger push. One way to do that is to keep this post comprehensive
>    (which is pretty inside baseball and won't be particularly interesting to
>    press), and play down the "OMG it's our birthday" angle just slightly in
>    the intro and title. Does that make sense? Is it a silly idea?****
>
>  I haven't had a chance to leave specific, low-level comments.****
>
> ** **
>
> --Alex****
>
> ** **
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 2:12 AM, PhistucK <phistuck@gmail.com> wrote:****
>
>  Oh, now I see there are two mentions - please, remove both of them (one
> is "Phistuk").****
>
> ** **
>
> Thank you for trying. ;)****
>
>
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> ☆*PhistucK*****
>
> ** **
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 12:07 PM, PhistucK <phistuck@gmail.com> wrote:****
>
>  Please, remove my name from the post, I do not need any credit.****
>
> (It was pointing to the wrong link anyway)****
>
>
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> ☆*PhistucK*****
>
> ** **
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Andre Jay Meissner <ameissne@adobe.com>
> wrote:****
>
>   Great work Scott! Minor spelling fix (good old "Doc Sprint" FTW!),
> already in. Wondered if we could add 2-3 more images, could just be a pic
> of the great Amsterdam cake and maybe the Doc Sprint logo or so. Also
> thanks for giving me good reason to finally pimp my user profile a bit! :))
> *Jay****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *Von: *Scott Rowe <scottrowe@google.com>
> *Datum: *KW 42 | Mittwoch, 16. Oktober 2013 01:29
> *An: *"public-webplatform@w3.org" <public-webplatform@w3.org>
> *Betreff: *Birthday blog post
> *Neu gesendet von: *"public-webplatform@w3.org" <public-webplatform@w3.org
> >
> *Neu gesendet am: *KW 42 | Mittwoch, 16. Oktober 2013 01:30****
>
> ** **
>
>   Blog reviewers, please take a look at this draft: ****
>
> ** **
>
> http://blog.webplatform.org/?p=729&preview=1&_ppp=9c032ed7ef****
>
> ** **
>
> Append your comments and suggestions to this thread.****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks!****
>
> ~Scott****
>
> ** **
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